I love ice cream. Doesn’t matter if it’s ninety degrees out or nine – I’m always in the mood for ice cream.
I’m guessing that my love of ice cream is inherited. My father, who’s not big on sweets, loves ice cream too. Growing up, we always had ice cream in the freezer. He’d scoop it into cake cones for us to eat on the patio in the summer, or into dishes for us to eat at the table before bed – as long as we didn’t clang the spoon endlessly against the bottom of the dish, trying to scrape up the last few drips.
My love for ice cream was well-known among my friends – and my friends’ mothers. When my friend Jamie’s mother made out her grocery list, she asked Jamie what MY favorite ice cream flavor was.
When my parents told me to get a job the summer before I started college, I headed straight for Friendly’s and got a job scooping ice cream. Talk about the perfect job! Unfortunately, you can’t eat your “mistakes” there. If you make a sundae with chocolate chip ice cream, and it turns out that the customer actually wanted MINT chocolate chip, the chocolate chip sundae has to go in the garbage. You can’t put it in the walk-in freezer and eat it on your break. Total waste of food, but it’s supposed to deter fountain workers from making mistakes intentionally.
That’s what we were called – fountain workers. We actually did make drinks by mixing syrup and carbonated water, just like a real soda fountain. That makes me sound ancient, doesn’t it?
I worked with a bunch of other high school and college students, which made for a fairly rambunctious work environment. I routinely came home with ice cream all over my shoes (which our dog would lick off) and chocolate sauce handprints on my back. Better on my back than my front, I suppose.
I served ice cream to tons of people that I knew from school, but I never ever gave away any freebies. I did replace one little girl’s ice cream cone when she dropped it out on the sidewalk, but that wasn’t sneaky – just good service.
The worst shifts were weekend mornings. Nobody wanted ice cream, but there were piles and piles of dishes, so I helped with those. I hated how people would leave their paper napkins stuck to the syrup on their plates – I had to pull off the napkins before loading the plates in the dish trays. The dishwasher area was hot and steamy and stunk of discarded food. The dishes came out still scalding hot, and if there was a big rush, I’d have to put them away immediately and risk burning my hands.
The best shifts were weekday nights. Ice cream orders were steady, but there weren’t so many that I got overwhelmed. It was the perfect pace for keeping busy without getting stressed out.
I don’t miss working there – I never aspired to management or even a pay raise – but I’m glad to have the experience under my belt. I’ve heard that everyone should work in food service at some point, to know just how rough it can be, and I’d have to agree with that.
But take my advice – work somewhere that has food you love.
What were some of your more memorable summer jobs?
Author: Mile High Mamas
Karen
I worked at the old Elitch Gardens (at 38th and Tennyson) all through college. I loved that job. If you don’t know the history of Elitch Gardens (the old one) you are missing out. I was really sad when they moved.
Jamie
I am still reeling from working in the Jolly Rancher factory one summer during college. It was the worst job ever!!!!!!
Amy
Working for the Bookmobile. I got to spend most days in the stacks shelving – and whenever a new book would come in I would get first dibs. Every once in a while I would get to go out on the bookmobile, driving around rural Northeastern Colorado, delivering books to small rural libraries and old folks homes (they loved the large print romances and westerns). The best summer job ever. At least, for this bibliophile.
Kari
I worked at an ice cream shop one summer, too. I thought it sounded like a great idea…until I developed a condition in my wrist from all that scooping that still exists today.
Coincideintally, that 10 lbs I gained during that job stuck around, too. 🙂
Kagey
My first job was at the Dairy Queen. The evenings after t-ball games were always busiest, esp. since the owners sponsored a team. The coach would come in and have a tally – how many vanilla, how many chocolate, and how many twist, and two of us would stand there and make 25 cones until the order was done.
Oh, and we had hard-pack ice cream, too. And I also developed a wrist sprain from scooping it out!
child's play
Ah, Friendly’s!
I moved from California to NJ when I was 12–it was the saddest day of my life. But then my parents took me to Friendly’s for the first time, and I knew I would be OK. 🙂
Tiff
http://www.childplay.wordpress.com
Colette Duranleau
Ice Cream was a shared treat of both of my parents, both children of the depression. Dad was a plain ‘ol fashioned vanilla man and Mom liked hers the gooier and nuttier the better. Mom’s day ended with two things, setting up coffee for the next morning and eating a bowl of ice cream in the summer. Her favorites were Blue Bell Tin Roof Sundae and Butter Pecan.
We still laugh about the time (on a day Mom had gone grocery shopping and stocked up) and Dad went to the freezer for ice cream and said “D, there ‘s no ice cream here.” which Mom responded there was too. She remembered putting it in the freezer.
It went back and forth like that until Mom finally got up from the table to point out said ice cream. She playfully pushed Pop s out of the way, opened the freezer door and pointed out the Butter Pecan, Tin Roof Sundae and DrumSticks.
To which Pops replied, there’s no vanilla, which of course to Pops meant there was no ice-cream.
It’s a great memory.
Colette, Denver, CO
Kim
Oh man,
I worked at Baskin-Robbins in San Diego during high school. I got major callouses from scooping ice cream. We’d get so busy & often had to stay until 1:00am cleaning up & mopping. It was a lot of hard work, but fun, too. However I had nightmares about the job for YEARS after I quit. I couldn’t set foot in the store for a long time, either. But I do love their ice cream. I don’t think there are any BR’s out here in Colorado, at least none that I’ve seen.
Lori
My first job was at a Bresler’s 33 flavors. A single scoop was 33 cents. I learned how to make buttercream frosting and little roses on cakes.
I just got back from visiting the in-laws in Boston. Mmmmmmm…..Friendly’s.