I wouldn't turn down ice cream - especially in this heat

I had an ice cream sandwich before I started writing this column and it sure tasted great.

I could easily eat ice cream every night after supper but I’ve noticed over the years I’ve developed a problem when I do this; soon my britches won’t fasten and my belt is out on its last notch.

But, if you just eat one at a time, these ice cream novelties as they used to be called is sort of portion control after a fashion. If I get started with an ice cream scoop I generally don’t stop until my bowl’s full, then there’s chocolate or caramel syrup and whipped cream to top it off.

Some of the first of those novelty ice creams I remember was when we used to buy Dilly Bars at Dairy Queen. Vanilla ice cream with a chocolate shell all balanced on a stick. On a hot summer day it didn’t stay balanced on that stick for long so you might savor the first bite or two but the rest you ate fast before it dripped down all the way to your elbow.

My dad spent a stint driving a truck for Price’s Creamery in Portales. Seems like I even went with him on a milk delivery route one time. I’m sure he probably only worked there for a short time, probably right after we moved to town but we had more ice cream novelties in our freezer at that time than any other time in my childhood.

There were milk nickels, fudge bars, Dreamsicles and the little cones wrapped in paper. For a while work might not have been so great for dad but we were on ice cream easy street.

After we lived in town we had ice cream trucks that came through the neighborhood every day. We had paper route money soon after we moved to town so we generally waved the ice cream truck over on a regular basis.

We even had an ice cream truck that made the neighborhood rounds in Tucumcari after my wife and I were married. I learned pretty quick if I was outside when the truck came by and got something I had better take something inside to my bride as well or there would be trouble.

We had a lot of popsicles in the summer too but after my first Dilly Bar those frozen Kool-Aid on a stick treats just wouldn’t cut it. Sure if you had cherry or better yet black cherry I wouldn’t turn it down but ice cream is where it’s really at when the temperature edges up toward 100 degrees.

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

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