I was thinking today that if someone asked me to pick only one dessert that I could have the rest of my life, what would it be? Hands down I would say ice cream. I would have unlimited delicious choices of flavors and novelties! Just today I had a wonderful root beer float in downtown Annandale. It was my duty as this was a school fundraiser for the cheerleaders.
True confession: I actually had two root beer floats because I brought one home for my son but he was asleep and I didn’t want it to go to waste.
I think I have passed my love of ice cream on to my children as well. When the Schwan’s truck pulls up they can order by novelty numbers. As he is punching in our order, they often call out “013 [orange push-ups] and 044 [chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches].” Makes a mother proud, doesn’t it?
If we happen to miss our Schwan’s day there is often weeping and it’s not just the kids.
This food fetish I blame on my parents who often had ice cream as a bedtime snack. New York Vanilla with Nestlé’s Quik on top. If you let it get all melty and stir it up it’s like a malt in a bowl.
I was sharing this story with my son as we were parked at the Peppermint Twist in Delano this week. Whenever we go to Delano I feel it is my personal responsibility to support the Peppermint Twist. If I don’t I am afraid it will close and I don’t know of any other place where you can sit in your car, order over a speakerphone and have a waitress deliver it to the car window. Just like Happy Days!
It looks kind of goofy with pink painted bears dancing on the lawn, but hands down they serve the best malts in the area. When I was young there was an A&W Root Beer restaurant in Grand Marais that also served you at your car window. It was a really big deal to get root beer in a teeny tiny frosted mug. Something about a frosty mug adds to the root beer sensation.
Word of advice – do not drink root beer through a tiny straw – it will come out your nose. I speak from experience….
Some of my greatest memories are also tied to ice cream. Once on a trip to Maine I picked fresh raspberries then ate them with lemon custard ice cream. It tastes so good I also cried.
Eating Dove bars and orange popsicles sitting by a fan at my little house in South Minneapolis…no air conditioning so I had an excuse to eat as many as I wanted, guilt free!
How about Banana Foster? Flaming bananas over vanilla ice cream. Yum! I joked on Facebook the other day that I should have married a Schwan’s Man. One of my high school friends reminded me that she was married to a Schwan’s man once…they had the most beautiful ice cream babies but the relationship cooled off quickly. Ha! Seize the moment, eat ice cream. Remember all those women on the Titanic who waved off the dessert cart.
Erma Bombeck
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