This looks very similar to the refrigerator I grew up with. Notice the freezer section. There was room for two ice cube trays and a package or two of meat. So there was never any ice cream on hand. During the school year, we went to store selling ice cream after church on Sunday. My father always tried (and for the rest of his life) to get butterscotch ice cream. If they tried to persuade him on butter pecan or rum raisin he usually refused it. I remember walking the length of the boardwalk in Ocean City, N.J. looking for butterscotch.
My mother went for butter almond (not butter pecan) which seems to have disappeared in the fifties. My favorite was black raspberry. Only Jeff, my brother, varied but mostly he got vanilla fudge. So my parents were often frustrated by their substitutions as we stood outside (my father was obsessed with keeping the car clean) and licked our cones as quickly as we could. Nothing like being cold to make ice cream less desirable. This flipped in the summer when we stood outside in the heat after church, the ice cream sliding down the cone faster than we could lick. No one ever got in a cup. I am not sure why.
In the summer, three ice cream vendors came by: Mr. Softee, Jack and Jill and Good Humor. You never knew what order they would come in so waiting for your favorite could be a mistake. Jack and Jill had the plainest offerings, mostly popsicles and dixie cups. Mr. Softee was predictably soft serve ice cream. Good Humor was the best and the most expensive. There wasn't always money enough for the best or even any of them sometimes. But the waiting game was torturous when you were headed inside a row house at ten, with no air conditioning or even a fan for many years.
It took me a long time to realize that actually I often didn't feel that great after eating ice cream. I had been raised on goat's milk and apparently no one thought ice cream might not be a good thing for someone who had trouble with cow's milk.
When I met Phil (who always ordered vanilla!) there was a store next to his Dad's store that sold exotic flavors before other stores did.New Hope was a tourist town and this store was one of the reasons.
The line to buy ice cream from Gerenser's in New Hope, PA was a half an hour wait. They made their own ice cream and it was worth getting a stomach ache now and then. I remember taking my parents there and the delight on both of their faces when both butterscotch and butter almond were on the menu. Those were ordinary flavors to a store that offered Princeton Tiger Tail, Cherries for George, African Violet and Ukranian Rose Petal.
Oh for those simple pleasures.
What is your favorite ice cream and did you have a place you always went?
16 comments:
Favorite ice cream is almost as difficult as favorite soda. Peanut butter-swirl in chocolate is my favorite diabetic ice cream, these years.
We never had a Single Place in all my years save an occasional trip, when the TV GUIDE offices were still in Radnor, to an ice cream parlor of similar if not quite that much variety around the corner from used book store The Title Page, across the parking lot from the Borders before bankruptcy (last time I was there, the space had gone to a Mom's (a smaller chain taking on Whole Wallet and Trader No Masks). Glad you found a nirvana in, after all the wandering around (how much ice cream could you dribble on the interior of the car in winter weather?).
Baskin-Robbins chocolate chip was my fav. Next was the mint variety and, for some reason, the young Scott liked their bubble gum flavored ice cream. [Shrug]
A trip to the Baskin-Robbins store was usually my reward for attending my karate class (which I disliked). I'd get choc chip + mint choc chip in a cup and I'd eat them both from the center part when both scoops touched.
That was well before I developed lactose intolerance. Now, when we go to Baskin-Robbins (maybe once a year), I'll have the same...and take 2-3 lactaid pills.
When we were young, we'd go to a place in Westford called Rocky Farms, which served hamburgers and fries as well as a gazillion flavors (it seemed) of ice cream. I was adventurous and wanted to try every flavor but usually settled for strawberry. Skip's Ice Cream in Chelmsford was my go-to place when I got older; for some godforsaken reason, I was fond of their grapenut ice cream. Then there was Sully's which served good ice cream but seemed to use a miserly small ice cream scoop. Sully's is still around and is quite popular. There was a place in Carlisle I'd often go to (the girls behind the counter were cute) -- I wish I could remember its name. The ice cream was good but it was a little bit far afield for me. Kimball's in Westford was a special treat. There ice cream was good and their servings huge. Kimball's banana splits were legendary for their size. When it first opened many moons ago, Old Man Kimball would place three or four empty cars in the parking lot so passersby would think he had customers; now the place has grown with a petting zoo, restaurant, rides, gift shop, venues for corporate outings, and much more. Now there's Baskin-Robbins, Friendly's, and a few frozen yogurt places -- all franchises and all missing some of the flavor of the old independent ice cream stands and parlors.
My favorite today? Butter pecan (I've never had butter almond) or just plain old-fashioned chocolate.
So strange how popular ice cream is in Michigan even in winter. There is a place called Ray's Ice Cream-Steve might know it-that is especially favored. During Covid they almost went under because they are small and had to close. But local restaurants began carrying their product and kept them afloat. I rarely eat ice cream between the lactose thing and my ongoing dental work. My father (who turned out not to be my birth father) died with every tooth still in his head. Oh, for a birth father like that.
When it gets cold--like now at 27 degrees--Diane does doesn't want ice cream. She wants soup! I, on the other hand, can eat ice cream year round. I like just plain chocolate ice cream. I can eat it plain or with nuts on it. We have a ice cream/custard place called Andersons Frozen Custard which is very good. Diane's favorite custard place is Hibbard's Custard in Lewiston, NY (we took Jeff and Jackie Meyerson there). Diane's favorite custard is black raspberry. Her favorite ice cream is cookies-and-cream.
I think you took us to Hibbard's too.
Oh, those ice cream shops were great, weren't they, Patti? Thank you for the memory. I also remember the Good Humor ice cream truck coming around during the summer. You'd hear that sound and you'd drop everything to get your ice cream. A part of the summer culture where I grew up.
It was the first exotic ice cream to me with raspberry bars and coconut.
I donn't remember having that many choices when we were kids, but I almost always got vanilla then, like Phil. I like butter almond and butter pecan. The first butterscotch I remember was Bassett's, which, of course, is from Philadelphia - they started at Reading Terminal Market in 1893. When I worked at the MLA in the early '70s, I'd go out for lunch (we were on Fifth Avenue & 12th Street) and there was a small Bassett's Ice Cream place on 8th Street, near the late lamented Eighth Street Books.
I love ice cream but there is no one flavor I'd call my favorite. Jackie likes any combination of chocolate and coconut, maybe with nuts or chocolate chips. If I have any of those it has to be with a vanilla ice cream rather than a chocolate.
We had Carvel for soft ice cream (or Flying Saucers, which was a huge wedge of ice cream in between two chocolate crackers). The Good Huor truck came around (I loved toasted almond, also liked chocolate cake.) There was also Bungalow Bar occasionally. Also "Johnny," a guy with his own truck who mostly sold us Italian ices in a 6 or 8 ounce cup. Lemon was my flavor of choice.
Jackie loves custard, especially Hibbard's but also Rita's (when that is all that is available). We generally get a large chocolate & vanilla swirl to share. We're like George - we eat ice cram all year long, no matter how cold it is. New York is definitely an ice cream town. My cousin took us to UConn near her, where they sell fresh dairy made ice cream -The UConnDairyBar. Yum. We also had good ice cream with them in Mystic, Connecticut, down the street from Mystic Pizza. Checked - it is Mystic Drawbridge Ice Cream.
But if you look, you can find good ice cream all over.
So much fun to read your i scream stories.
https://www.starttv.com/my-start-story/jeni-britton-bauer-literally-walked-out-of-art-class-to-make-ice-cream-then-it-became-her-career
I am not familiar with Ray's. There is a place north of Clarkston in Ortonville called Cook's Farm Dairy which is very good. My kids always wanted to go there. The downside was the farm aroma which could be pretty strong.
My favorite flavor is probably chocolate followed by strawberry. I also have a liking for vanilla from Dairy Queen.
I think Ray's in on Coolidge around 13.
I like ice cream, but it absolutely kills my glucose number, so it’s a rare occurrence any more. Sigh.
No special ice cream place growing up. We didn’t have it often. Once or twice each Summer my Mom would make, and my Dad and brother and I would crank, homemade peach ice cream, using fruit from our trees. It was fabulous!!!
These days, I like Ben & Jerry’s Cherries Garcia, Half Baked and Hagen Daz chocolate. Don’t care for soft serve and have never eaten or even seen custard, which maybe is an eastern US thing?
Well, perhaps most common in the Midwest, apparently:
'A frozen custard stand at the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago introduced the dessert to a wider audience.[4] Following the fair, the dessert's popularity spread throughout the Midwest; Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in particular, became known as the "unofficial frozen custard capital of the world".[5][6][7]' (Wiki)
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