You did good. What is likely to bring the girls home as adults (though probably not as often as the bored empty nesters they left behind) is each other. No, not you and Lola; you will be considered old, irrelevant and outdated. The sisters. They may scatter to the four winds when each leaves home, but they will likely come home for Christmas and maybe some other special days, and the house they grew up in holds the memories they have in common. Also spare bedrooms they don’t have to reserve and pay for. And they WILL remember the ice cream store in walking distance where they could go together and spend “their own money”. My friends’ kids seem to come home to visit the aging family dog, too. Not mom, the dog. I don’t know if the same holds true for the family pig; you can let us know.
Oh and the thing about the kid leaving for college? For many families that is immediately preceded by the senior year/college application process, during which the former child becomes irrational, self centered and hypercritical, so leaving them at the dorm comes with relief as well as grief.
I can totally see the kids coming back for each other rather than for us. We're already pretty minor characters in their life. As for wanting her to leave at the end of the application process, that's entirely possible. A better outcome would be her picking an online school. Way cheaper, and we'd never have to go through the separation anxiety in the first place. She could walk for ice cream all through college.
You joke about online school, but it's keeping me from being an emotional mess, lol. While my son is only 17 , he did graduate from high school last June and his being able to enroll in online classes for his first year of college is wonderful. And since it's going so well, he applied to transfer to a school that he had looked at years ago, I had reservations since it's nearly a four hour drive away but since they now offer a totally online option I'm thrilled. I hadn't even thought about the costs at first, so it was eye opening to see that room and board was nearly the same price as tuition, so saving nearly 50% is amazing!
When we visited Boston 40 years ago, we were at a muffin shop before closing. They gave us SACKS full of muffins! I was about 12 and that is one of my best memories!!!
That was a great little excursion for the girls with a memorable ending. I can live without ice cream (gasp), but the one place I'll never forget is the little family place about a half hour from my g'parents home. We had to go passed it each trip and it was always a treat when Dad pulled the car into its parking lot. I swear it took over a half hour to get all 6 of us our ice cream sundaes or cones - and always a Dilly bar for Dad - and I suspect it wasn't any "special" ice cream, but none of us kids have ever forgotten that place. What's even cooler is it is still there, some 60 years later, with still no drive up, still those windows they slide up or down.
And Lola hopefully never had to hand crank the ice cream machine like I did before it was motorized. We kids took turns because oh geez was it tiring. But nothing beat the taste of it and especially with some of mom's home-frozen peach (from an orchard, never the store) slices and its juice on top.
Glad to hear the roadside ice cream place is still in business and still slowing family road trips to a dead stop six decades later. As for the hand crank, that's a good way to have your arm fall off.
I think I have you beat on the number of houses lived in by age 12-13. By the time I was 12 I had lived in 3 states, none next to each other, 6 cities and 8 houses. This is not counting the first few summers while my dad was working on his Masters and we drove from Fla to Mass and rented a furnished apt. each summer until he graduated.
I love ice cream. My grandfather was foreman of a dairy/milk processing plant and he made the best homemade ice cream. Growing up, my dad copied his dad's recipe's and made a batch at least once a summer. Back in the dark ages most dairy's made their own ice cream and usually had an ice cream parlor where you could sit and gorge. In all those cities that I lived in, Dad managed to find the best local ice cream. There was always good ice cream in our freezer. You are right about it tasting much better at the ice cream parlor than at home ;o) Saturday nights Dad would get restless until he got all of us in the car and drove either for ice cream or A&W which is ice cream and root beer! Very rarely it would be McDonalds with milkshakes and fries.
The last place we lived before I spread my wings, another state and another city, we had a frozen custard place, 2 blocks from our house. It was privately owned and operated and as far as I am concerned much better than DQ. The first time we went, before school had started, there was a family in line in front of us with a girl that seemed nice. Imagine my surprise to open my front door later that week to the very same girl! Her godfather had told her that I was coming and she made it her mission to get to know me and show me the sights. Such great memories! We became best friends and even roomed together when we went to boarding school.
Ice cream was/is a constant in my life. My husband took the lead and when we got into our first house we had a homemade ice cream feed in our front yard and invited all the neighbors. When we bought our first home we brought the ice cream feed with us. We had an ice cream feed every Labor Day for many years.
I'm thinking of making a batch of ice cream soon, it's the best way to meet new friends and enjoy old friends.
They are going to want to go at closing time every day now! My ice cream memory is the time I was picked up from summer camp about 75 miles away from where we lived. I was probably about 10 or 12 years old. My uncle (uncles are the best!) came along and decreed that we were (1) taking the backroads home instead of the highway, and (2) stopping at every Dairy Queen along the way. What a TREAT! Ice cream like 6 times in an afternoon?!?!?
Our ice cream place is "The Chief," located in Goshen, Indiana. It's been there as long as I can remember, and my brother brings his family from Avon, Indiana every summer to get ice cream there. Traditions run strong.
For me the family ice cream trips will always be remembered as a part of our sunday drives to the church. No matter if it was our parish or not, for many years during summer sundays we were going for it after the Mass. The most magical ones were those in the evenings - the panorama of Kraków's Old Town in the sunset and street lantern's light looks 'out-of-this-world' beautiful.
In my town we have 2 ice cream places that make their own, and there's one in the next town over, and they are all REALLY good. A few towns away, there is a farm that makes their own with milk from their dairy. They've expanded their ice cream stand from when I was a kid and now have mini golf, batting cages and a driving range, but they still have some cows out back to visit (and smell!). Trips there will be part of my daughter's memories. She and her friends still make the 20+ minute trip, and they're in their 20's now.
I was born and raised in a steel mill town just south of Buffalo, NY, called Lackawanna. Sure, we had the Dairy Queens and the Charlaps stands (a local brand of hard ice cream) like everyone else. But we also had what no one else in our area did...Fran-Ceil French Custard. Founded in the 1950s by two brothers-in-law, Fran-Ceil is named after the sisters the men were married to, Frances and Celia. When I was growing up we simply referred to ‘Fran Ceil’s French Custard’ as ‘the stand.’ It was located right next to the Little Loop Football Field and baseball diamonds. Everyone in our town grew up at that place. After a game, coaches would take us there for a cone, win or lose. Our parents would stop in for a sundae on the way to the Drive-In just minutes away for a double treat. Hot summer evenings were spent congregating in the parking lot with neighbors and friends. I moved out of state for a few years after college and always missed getting a "twist" cone when things just weren't going right in my day. 60 years later and "the stand" is still standing! Still selling memories of my youth. Not a summer goes by without friends who have moved out of state, visiting "home", and us stopping for a treat. Memories can be made around ice cream, but we prefer making them around French Custard at Fran-Ceils! Thanks for reminding me it's time to go for a drive!
when we had my grandfather's hand made peach ice cream from his own peaches, he cranked by hand, and it was a treat to get to churn, (for about 3 minutes, then my arms collasped)
Other than Culver's custard (which, being on the east coast I cannot get whenever I want), my favorite "hometown" ice cream place is actually in the northern Wisconsin town where my family's lake house is. It's actually a fudge/candy/ice cream shop, and it's the only fudge I spend money on. The ice cream is also really good.
This has me all teary over my mediocre lunch. Still in my childhood home and there has always been a chain ice cream place, pretty much in my backyard, more like the neighbor's but the sign shines into our back windows and you can see our house from the parking lot. My friends and I thought we were so grown up when our parents started letting us go by ourselves. I'm 46 later in the week and I still remember so I think you nailed this one for all of them. Good job!
#1 Love! Betsy guiding her sisters in their first forage for one of life’s essentials!
#2 It isn’t a REAL ice cream parlor unless it has signs proclaiming “I scream U scream We all scream for Ice Cream!” as proudly displayed in the Dairy Bar of my childhood (no drive up window, either!)
#3 I don’t know where you shop for ice cream but it is not pennies per pound - I recently saw some Jane’s ice cream that was $8 for a pint.
You did good. What is likely to bring the girls home as adults (though probably not as often as the bored empty nesters they left behind) is each other. No, not you and Lola; you will be considered old, irrelevant and outdated. The sisters. They may scatter to the four winds when each leaves home, but they will likely come home for Christmas and maybe some other special days, and the house they grew up in holds the memories they have in common. Also spare bedrooms they don’t have to reserve and pay for. And they WILL remember the ice cream store in walking distance where they could go together and spend “their own money”. My friends’ kids seem to come home to visit the aging family dog, too. Not mom, the dog. I don’t know if the same holds true for the family pig; you can let us know.
Oh and the thing about the kid leaving for college? For many families that is immediately preceded by the senior year/college application process, during which the former child becomes irrational, self centered and hypercritical, so leaving them at the dorm comes with relief as well as grief.
I can totally see the kids coming back for each other rather than for us. We're already pretty minor characters in their life. As for wanting her to leave at the end of the application process, that's entirely possible. A better outcome would be her picking an online school. Way cheaper, and we'd never have to go through the separation anxiety in the first place. She could walk for ice cream all through college.
You joke about online school, but it's keeping me from being an emotional mess, lol. While my son is only 17 , he did graduate from high school last June and his being able to enroll in online classes for his first year of college is wonderful. And since it's going so well, he applied to transfer to a school that he had looked at years ago, I had reservations since it's nearly a four hour drive away but since they now offer a totally online option I'm thrilled. I hadn't even thought about the costs at first, so it was eye opening to see that room and board was nearly the same price as tuition, so saving nearly 50% is amazing!
When we visited Boston 40 years ago, we were at a muffin shop before closing. They gave us SACKS full of muffins! I was about 12 and that is one of my best memories!!!
That's an incredible memory! I would also remember that one for life. I have yet to be so blessed by the muffin man.
That was a great little excursion for the girls with a memorable ending. I can live without ice cream (gasp), but the one place I'll never forget is the little family place about a half hour from my g'parents home. We had to go passed it each trip and it was always a treat when Dad pulled the car into its parking lot. I swear it took over a half hour to get all 6 of us our ice cream sundaes or cones - and always a Dilly bar for Dad - and I suspect it wasn't any "special" ice cream, but none of us kids have ever forgotten that place. What's even cooler is it is still there, some 60 years later, with still no drive up, still those windows they slide up or down.
And Lola hopefully never had to hand crank the ice cream machine like I did before it was motorized. We kids took turns because oh geez was it tiring. But nothing beat the taste of it and especially with some of mom's home-frozen peach (from an orchard, never the store) slices and its juice on top.
Glad to hear the roadside ice cream place is still in business and still slowing family road trips to a dead stop six decades later. As for the hand crank, that's a good way to have your arm fall off.
Or end up with one arm vastly larger than the other.
I think I have you beat on the number of houses lived in by age 12-13. By the time I was 12 I had lived in 3 states, none next to each other, 6 cities and 8 houses. This is not counting the first few summers while my dad was working on his Masters and we drove from Fla to Mass and rented a furnished apt. each summer until he graduated.
I love ice cream. My grandfather was foreman of a dairy/milk processing plant and he made the best homemade ice cream. Growing up, my dad copied his dad's recipe's and made a batch at least once a summer. Back in the dark ages most dairy's made their own ice cream and usually had an ice cream parlor where you could sit and gorge. In all those cities that I lived in, Dad managed to find the best local ice cream. There was always good ice cream in our freezer. You are right about it tasting much better at the ice cream parlor than at home ;o) Saturday nights Dad would get restless until he got all of us in the car and drove either for ice cream or A&W which is ice cream and root beer! Very rarely it would be McDonalds with milkshakes and fries.
The last place we lived before I spread my wings, another state and another city, we had a frozen custard place, 2 blocks from our house. It was privately owned and operated and as far as I am concerned much better than DQ. The first time we went, before school had started, there was a family in line in front of us with a girl that seemed nice. Imagine my surprise to open my front door later that week to the very same girl! Her godfather had told her that I was coming and she made it her mission to get to know me and show me the sights. Such great memories! We became best friends and even roomed together when we went to boarding school.
Ice cream was/is a constant in my life. My husband took the lead and when we got into our first house we had a homemade ice cream feed in our front yard and invited all the neighbors. When we bought our first home we brought the ice cream feed with us. We had an ice cream feed every Labor Day for many years.
I'm thinking of making a batch of ice cream soon, it's the best way to meet new friends and enjoy old friends.
They are going to want to go at closing time every day now! My ice cream memory is the time I was picked up from summer camp about 75 miles away from where we lived. I was probably about 10 or 12 years old. My uncle (uncles are the best!) came along and decreed that we were (1) taking the backroads home instead of the highway, and (2) stopping at every Dairy Queen along the way. What a TREAT! Ice cream like 6 times in an afternoon?!?!?
Ice cream memories . . .
Thrifty's ice cream (and how I thought the metal gun tube scoop was so fancy)
Freaking out at how blue the bubble gum flavor was
Parlor in my hometown (104 years and still going strong) (oh, and they only take CASH)
The weird yellow color of old fashion vanilla in the carton
How I now have a list of the good/bad vegan ice cream brands (as older son had to stop eating dairy for a short time in order to take acne medicine)
. . . and hopefully more (memories) to make.
Our ice cream place is "The Chief," located in Goshen, Indiana. It's been there as long as I can remember, and my brother brings his family from Avon, Indiana every summer to get ice cream there. Traditions run strong.
For me the family ice cream trips will always be remembered as a part of our sunday drives to the church. No matter if it was our parish or not, for many years during summer sundays we were going for it after the Mass. The most magical ones were those in the evenings - the panorama of Kraków's Old Town in the sunset and street lantern's light looks 'out-of-this-world' beautiful.
Ice cream for free within walking distance? Sign me up! After awhile you’d have to roll me back and forth, but that’s okay!
The kids are very curious if the free part of that will be repeatable. They're already plotting the timing of their next trip.
In my town we have 2 ice cream places that make their own, and there's one in the next town over, and they are all REALLY good. A few towns away, there is a farm that makes their own with milk from their dairy. They've expanded their ice cream stand from when I was a kid and now have mini golf, batting cages and a driving range, but they still have some cows out back to visit (and smell!). Trips there will be part of my daughter's memories. She and her friends still make the 20+ minute trip, and they're in their 20's now.
Sounds amazing. Ice cream has a power to draw kids back that parents never will.
I was born and raised in a steel mill town just south of Buffalo, NY, called Lackawanna. Sure, we had the Dairy Queens and the Charlaps stands (a local brand of hard ice cream) like everyone else. But we also had what no one else in our area did...Fran-Ceil French Custard. Founded in the 1950s by two brothers-in-law, Fran-Ceil is named after the sisters the men were married to, Frances and Celia. When I was growing up we simply referred to ‘Fran Ceil’s French Custard’ as ‘the stand.’ It was located right next to the Little Loop Football Field and baseball diamonds. Everyone in our town grew up at that place. After a game, coaches would take us there for a cone, win or lose. Our parents would stop in for a sundae on the way to the Drive-In just minutes away for a double treat. Hot summer evenings were spent congregating in the parking lot with neighbors and friends. I moved out of state for a few years after college and always missed getting a "twist" cone when things just weren't going right in my day. 60 years later and "the stand" is still standing! Still selling memories of my youth. Not a summer goes by without friends who have moved out of state, visiting "home", and us stopping for a treat. Memories can be made around ice cream, but we prefer making them around French Custard at Fran-Ceils! Thanks for reminding me it's time to go for a drive!
when we had my grandfather's hand made peach ice cream from his own peaches, he cranked by hand, and it was a treat to get to churn, (for about 3 minutes, then my arms collasped)
Other than Culver's custard (which, being on the east coast I cannot get whenever I want), my favorite "hometown" ice cream place is actually in the northern Wisconsin town where my family's lake house is. It's actually a fudge/candy/ice cream shop, and it's the only fudge I spend money on. The ice cream is also really good.
I used to live around Rhinelander. Where's that special ice cream place?
Dan’s Minocqua Fudge in Minocqua!!
Minocqua was one of our favorite places on Earth when we lived up there in the mid 80s. Haven't been back in wayyy too long.
I can tell you've actually been there because you spelled it right. 😆
I've flown into Rhinelander many times, been going to Minocqua since I was a baby. 2019 was the 40th anniversary of our family owning the lake house!
This has me all teary over my mediocre lunch. Still in my childhood home and there has always been a chain ice cream place, pretty much in my backyard, more like the neighbor's but the sign shines into our back windows and you can see our house from the parking lot. My friends and I thought we were so grown up when our parents started letting us go by ourselves. I'm 46 later in the week and I still remember so I think you nailed this one for all of them. Good job!
#1 Love! Betsy guiding her sisters in their first forage for one of life’s essentials!
#2 It isn’t a REAL ice cream parlor unless it has signs proclaiming “I scream U scream We all scream for Ice Cream!” as proudly displayed in the Dairy Bar of my childhood (no drive up window, either!)
#3 I don’t know where you shop for ice cream but it is not pennies per pound - I recently saw some Jane’s ice cream that was $8 for a pint.
Wait… ice cream parlors out there aren’t open year round!? As a Californian, I find that insane! Even when it’s cold we go out for ice cream. 🤯
Open year round in the sunny South, too.