Summer and ice cream

Standing in line at Dairy Queen, I watched the machine closely as if I had never seen it before. It had always amazed me as a child and now apparently as an adult. With just the turn of a lever, the smooth, vanilla-flavored ice cream escaped the freezing machine and flowed effortlessly into a container forming a cool and refreshing mountain of goodness. As the lever was turned off, the server gave a gentle twist of the wrist and pulled the cup of ice cream away. A perfect curl was left on top as if to punctuate its flavor. Like a pristine sculpture, there it stood larger than life as an edible and refreshing monument to summer!

Our son, Blake, recently came home a couple of weekends ago bringing with him an insatiable craving for ice cream. There is just something about 100-degree temperatures that make one long for the cooling and soothing benefits of ice cream. With no relief in sight, I suspect our cravings for ice cream will only increase during the next couple of months.

When I think of summer, one of the first things that pops into my mind is ice cream, but actually summer and ice cream are an unlikely pairing. Just think about it for a second. A frozen 32-degree treat doesn’t last very long in 100-degree temperatures!

Maybe that is part of ice cream’s charm. You have to enjoy it quickly before it melts!

Growing up, my summers were filled with hand-cranked churns, musical ice cream trucks and, if we were good, occasional trips to our local Dairy Queen. I’m quite sure that is where my fascination with that famous frozen curl started. Much to my dismay, it couldn’t be duplicated with the store-bought version of the less expensive ice milk that we reluctantly bought most of the time. God knows I spent hours trying!

The other day when I was purchasing some ice cream at the grocery store, I realized at the check-out line that it was already succumbing to effects of our oppressive heat. Although I personally prefer to eat the ice cream that melts around the outer edge of the container, it is extremely hard to do in the actual check-out line. But, as I am unloading the groceries at home, nothing stops me from grabbing a spoon and scooping out the already melted portions directly from the carton. I know it is sneaky and very hard to disguise because it leaves an undeniable cavernous edge around the entire carton. But I still do it — sometimes — when company is not coming!

As I placed the partially melting carton on the conveyer belt, I remembered that years ago grocery stores provided their customers with a special thicker bag designed to hold a single carton of ice cream. It was like an inexpensive version of an insulated cooler but made from paper. It was supposed to allow you a few extra minutes on your trip home just in case you had to run an errand or two.

You know how one memory has a way of leading you right down the path to another one. Standing there in the line, right down that path I went! I remembered how my grandmother always purchased Neapolitan ice cream. Always, without fail! I suppose it was a cheaper way to offer us a choice of flavors while only purchasing one carton.

I realize this will probably sound very odd to most of you, but Granny would undo the end of the cardboard carton and slide the entire block of frozen cream out of one end. Then she would carefully “slice” a piece of ice cream about an inch thick, put it in a wooden bowl and hand you a spoon.

There it sat — a layered dessert of brown, white and pink! Granny expected you to eat all three. It mattered little to her which layer you didn’t like. Sometimes, I tried to whip mine together and add a curl to the top. Instead, what I ended up with was a blob that was a weird color and wouldn’t form a curl! If they were available, I would add a mashed up banana or some real strawberries. Now that I think about it, I should have passed my recipe along. Who knows? Maybe I could have invented what Dairy Queen calls “The Blizzard!”

As the summer months continue to cover us like a hot, wet rag, don’t forget to stop the sweating process for just a few minutes by partaking in some cold, refreshing ice cream. To me, it is like eating up memories one delicious spoonful at a time. After all, it just wouldn’t be summer without it!

This story was originally published August 6, 2016 at 9:00 PM with the headline "Summer and ice cream."