Ice cream and childhood memories go hand-in-hand, which is why we asked some of our reader-writers to write an entry about their earliest or fondest childhood ice cream memory. Evelyn R. of Pittsburgh, PA offering the following story about her local ice cream stand. Enjoy!
My earliest recollection of ice cream was when I was a very little girl, probably about 10 years old. We lived in what was a rural area then. It was mostly farm land, and my friends and I could take long walks, even drink water from a free flowing spring. Of course there were no big grocery stores but about a mile from my home was a little store, owned by a family. The ice cream counter was just inside the window of the store.
The father of the family that owned the store was old, or so he seemed then, and made small ice cream cones. The son, who was younger, made big ice cream cones. My brother was ten years older than me and had a car, so he would take me to the store. We would sit in the car, and when we saw that the father was busy with a customer, we would rush in and buy ice cream cones from the son. Ice cream cones were probably a quarter, so we wanted to get the most for our money, but we also loved ice cream!
The favorite flavors then were chocolate and vanilla. There weren’t wonderful flavors like Turkey Hill has now. The expression that my father taught us then was “You Scream, I Scream, We all Scream for Ice Cream!” The store is long gone, replaced by an intersection, but it is still remembered.
Tags: ice cream, turkey hill
Loading ...
If you’ve got a technical question about the ice cream making process or some other inquiry about the nuances of America’s favorite treat, chances are Ernie has the answer. He might not be able to answer all questions, but he’ll try his best and some may be featured on the Ice Cream Journal.
That is certainly a good memory..even today it’s a treat to go for a drive and stop for an icecream;but when that’s not possible sit on the porch “kick back” and have one of Turkey Hills’ unique flavored icecreams any way you prefer.
On a summer weekend day. sometime well before dinner, someone would say,” Let’s get some ice cream.” We would all go to our homes and get our money and walk up to FRANCES EDWARDS, the ice cream parlor on RIVERDALE AVENUE in YONKERS, NY. One scoop was 5 cents, 2 scoops, a dime!!! Oh so good, and we would walk back to the neighborhood,,,enjoying our ice cream cones all the way..This was in the the 1950′s..
on a rare visit to my grandfather’s we made homemade vanilla on the steps in an old fashioned ice cream maker. I don’t remember all the details, just the image of us sitting on the steps with the container, turning away. But it sure tasted good
I remember the store where I sat at the counter and ordered an ice cream soda for .25 cents or shared a malt with a friend. It was a great treat!
Ice Cream memories, oh how wonderful. I remember Mom & Dad taking us kids (7 altogether, I’m the oldest) for ice cream. We’d pile in the car and go to the nearest stand and all the kids got cones, Mom & Dad would get a sundae or banana split. MMMMMMM, of course I couldn’t wait ’til I was older and could get a sundae or even a banana split. Those were the days. Thanks TH for bringing back MMMMMMM memories.
MY FAVORITE MEMORY WAS HAVEING TO WALK A NYC BLOCK TO THE PARLOR FOR MY FAVORITE WHICH WAS A MELLOW ROLL THAT HAD TO BE UNWRAPED PUT INTO THE CONE AND TRUST THAT IT WOULD NOT FALL TO THE GROUND BEFORE FINISHING UNWRAPPING IT.THE ROLL CSME IN 3 FLAVORS AND IT WOULD LAST LICK BY LICK FOR ABOUT A HALF AN HOUR AND THAT WAS FOR A PRICE OF 5 CENTS. WHAT BARGINS AND MEMORIES WE HAD AND OF COURSE HAPPINESS ON A SUNDAY AFTERNOON.
i can rember when i was 8yrs. old getting a skyhigh cone which was 1 pint of ice cream cut in half on an angle for 10 cents. those were the good old days i sure miss them.
What a nice story! The bloggers are all doing a great job!
I will always remember the vanilla ice cream my grandfather made for Christmas. My Nana would have Hershey’s syrup and frozen strawberries to put on top and there would be coconut banana cake and salted cashews on the table. At the time I thought it was the best thing I ever tasted but in looking back I think about how it wouldn’t hold a candle to the creaminess of TH.
I remember at the jersey shore a store that had a giant ice cream cone on the top of the store, a $1.00 would get a large cone that seemed to be 10″ high that melted faster then I could eat it and it would run down my hand and arm
I have several wonderful ice cream memories from childhood, but one I remember well is the sound of the ice cream truck coming through our neighborhood. This had to be in the 60′s. You would hear his truck and go running to get your money. What I remember is he sold soft ice cream in a cone. Later on, I remember his truck was replaced by someone bicycling an ice cream cart. Then you couldn’t get the soft ice cream, just ice cream bars, creamsicles, etc. Still fun, but I missed the soft ice cream.
“You scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream.” What a familiar refrain. I, too, remember chocolate, vanilla and strawberry and the occasional maple walnut, my mother’s favorite. Mine, too, and it is still hard to find. (Are you listening, Ernie?)
Wonderful memories. Thanks.
That’s a toughy. I grew up in Queens, NY in an apartment area so it was either a luncheonette or close by Jahn’s. As I got older my friends and I preferred Jahn’s. My hubby who is older guesses the ice cream truck which used dry ice. For a kid it had to be a cup (8 cents small and 12 cents large) and choice of flavors limited to Vanilla, Chocolate or both V & C. Stores did not sell ice cream for home use since the small ice cube compartment did not keep it frozen well. In the fifties the refrigerators now had freezers so our parents bought sugar cones and boxed ice cream and again limited flavors. We are happy times have changed with the variety of flavors that are now made and the quality of out TH
Home made ice cream was all I ever had until I was about 10-12 years old. Dad let us smaller kids try to crank the handle, putting salt around the topof the container. wish we were still making it as it was delicious, but I am more satisfied with Turkey Hill, no cranking, more flavors.
Weekends were an exciting time for me when I was little. if there was enough money, my parents would buy a pint of ice cream for our family of four to share. It was wonderful to me!
IM REMEMBER HOW GOOD IT WAS AND STILL IS
I was probably about 8 years old or so and Bubble Gum ice cream was a new flavor. It had REAL bubble gum in it. We had driven to our favorite ice cream parlor for a special treat. On our way home, I was still eating my ice cream cone. Of course the cars had no air conditioning yet and the window was open. I was eating ice cream and chewing the gum that was in it. With the window down, my long hair started blowing in my mouth…and you guessed it….my hair got stuck in my gum! I’ll never forget that! What a mess!
I wasn’t a kid who went out for ice cream much, but what I did love was getting a real milkshake made from ice cream. I would always get chocolate, and it would come out in a big metal cup. It would fill my glass at least twice, and I loved it. That place closed, but my memories continue.
Cones, milkshakes, sundaes, parfaits, I love them all!
Love those Memories, down on the FARM, when my Grandmother and Grandfather would make home made Icecream, then a cone to put it in, It was alot of fun being young and eating Vanilla homemade icecream on the farm, Great Memories, Thanks for the Memories today……
My earliest ice cream memory is going to an ice cream shop called Sweet Williams in Penn Hills, PA. Sometimes if I tagged along while my mom ran errands around town, she would end our trip with a stop at this ice cream shop. What could be more special….quality one on one time with mom AND ice cream!
i can’t remember what my age was but my father would take us to a dairy in lancaster county that made thier own ice cream and was that good. but first we would get to eat dinner out what a treat for my sister and i. and my mother didn’t have to cook . i hear the dairy still there
I have been a fan of ice cream for as long as I can remember.There was a local homemade ice cream shop that had a clown face at the exit where you toss your garbage.It forever stuck in my memory and you can bet that ice was never thrown at the face.My first experience with Turkey Hill was when I started on an Atkins type diet I tried and loved the Carb IQ series ice cream and I lost 50 pouns over a 1 year period and ate ice cream every night.How can you beat that.!!! I ws using the Peanut Butter Paradise flavor and hope some day it will return to the shelf.Keep up the good work Turkey Hill !!!!!!!
One of my earliest memories of Ice Cream cones is about my dad getting us ice cream cones on the PA Turnpike. It was a hot day and we were traveling either to IN or back to Myerstown Pa. We were at a rest area and dad thought ice cream cones would be nice. By the time he got them across the parking lot they were melting every where. He was upset but we worked like crazy to get the rest of them eaten because ice cream cones were a special treat to us.
I love your ice cream!
There was a store, I think called Johnson’s on the north end of the Ocean City Boardwalk. I remember that they used to put a sourball hard candy in the bottom of the cone. Kind of like a treat after the ice cream!!!
Great story Evelyn!
I enjoyed reading it
thanks for all the nice memories–orange pineapple from Browns dairy, and from Sanders-Vernors ice cream !!!!!
I enjoyed Evelyn’s story. I remember our ice cream shop down the street from us. But what I remember the most is making our own ice cream. Mom would mix up the mix and Dad would get the ice cream make ready and get it started and then we would all take turns turning the handle until it was ready. Next to TH I think this is the best ice cream I have every eaten!
When I was little, my mother used to take me to the ice cream parlor for ice cream. It was delicious. I enjoyed reading today’s story.
On a hot summer night, when I was very young, my mother would sit me and my two siblings on the steps to eat vanilla ice cream that she had scooped from a large square cantainer. She had already bathed us, and changed us into fresh clean clothing. Then it was time to eat our ice cream on a cone. What a treat!
When I was young, about 5 or 6 yrs. old, my mother would take my brothers and sisters and I to the park everyday. It was a very nice walk each day. Across the street from the park was a store called “Sante’s”. We would go to Sante’s and get either a nice big scoop of ice cream or a root beer float. Sante’s store was great and it had a place in the back for an ice cream shop. That was the best of times. Thank you Turkey Hill and Evelyn for the memories
Well…I remember that all of the dime stores had ice cream parlors in them. While mom shopped, all of us kids went and got a black cow, malt, sundae, a cone or just a dish of ice cream. Loved the sound of the old Hamilton Beach malt machine. Loved the strawberries, whipped cream and peanuts on vanilla ice cream. Those were the days! We worked hard for some pocket change to buy those things we loved. The ice cream parlor was where all the young kids met on Saturday afternoon after we went to the movies. Ah…childhood memories! That would have been the 1950′s. Life was simple, slow and easy!
I am enjoying all these stories from the city folk and the country folk… Our common thread is the love of ice cream..to this day!!! Thank you TH for this venue, Yes, I remember the MELLOWROLL. always thought it strange , preferring the traditional ice cream cone…but who didn’t try one? For the motor vendors, there was BUNGALOWE BAR which had a little shingled roof top on his truck ,and of course, GOOD HUMOR… Every once in awhile, you’d get a piece of dry ice and it really did burn, ( No one ever sued ) The best was Good Humors raspberry ice on a stick which had all the flecks and pieces of rasp;berry..Oh so good.. The Sundae:..The littl cup of ice cream with a thick flat topping of the frozen chocolate syrup..
Every Saturday night my dad would buy ice cream and a quart of orange and rootbeer pop so we could make ice cream sodas. Oh my, that brings back such good memories. Thanks Evelyn for sharing your best ice cream memories.
My first ice cream memories are also of the mellow rolls. I must have been about 4 and I would get taken to the corner store so I could have one. These were creamy vanilla ice cream in what looked like a cardboard can. Where I got mine, instead of unwrapping them, they took out the bottom cardboard piece and aimed the roll at the cone and pushed on the top until the ice cream was in the cone. They were very tasty and they are where my love of ice cream got started. Thanks for the fun memories.
Evelyn R, even at the age of 10, knew the value of money. She was able to get the most ice cream for her money. I remember when there were many ice cream parlors around. You bought your favorite flavor and sat there in the store and enjoyed your cone or dish. Those parlors are gone but you can still enjoy your ice cream (Turkey Hill, of course) sitting around your kitchen table.
What a wonderful memory! I loved when my dad would make ice cream sandwiches out of waffles. He would open the ice cream container all of the way up and then slice it into thick slabs which would then go between two freshly-made, hot waffles! Hmm… We always had vanilla, but with all of the wonderful Turkey Hill flavors, I’ll bet there are some others that would taste great as an “ice cream sandwich!”
I’ve love ice cream as long as I could remember.
My earliest memory of ice cram is frozen custard. Near Meadvile, PA. Hank’s frozen custard. I live in Ohio now and when I go to visit my family, I always stop there. Probably not concidered ice cream, but it is so good. I have been going there since I was 5, I am now 64 years young.
I think my kid and I have the same earliest memory – taking a big lick off the ice cream cone, only to have the entire mound of ice cream topple off and splat on the ground, still looking so fresh and eatable. Oy.
my fist cone was a soft serve frozen custard vanilla in the back of my parents station wagon which I got all over my self an the car!!!My parents did not care they were happy an laughing!!I still drip icecream on myself!!!!
Nice memory, Evelyn
It’s amazing how pretty much everyone has a great ice cream story. Ice cream brings families together on hot summer days.
When I was a child we also sang \I scream, you scream, we all scream for an ice cream\. My Dad would take us to visit my aunt & uncle, and on the way home we would stop at a little ice cream stand that sold soft vanilla and chocolate ice cream. We loved having that treat on a warm summer night.
Every Sun afternoon my Mom would make a homemade complete meal. In the evening we would have cake and our treat of also having icecream. Also as a special treat we went to an icecream store by the name of Isaly’s. Now we eat icecream any day of the week when we can have it.
I was about 3 yrs old at my grandmom’s house and I was served a bowl of vanilla. it may not have been my first ice cream but it is the one that I do remember. my sister and my cousin were there too
Great stories and great memoeries of the past!
I remember going shoe shopping with my father’s cousin and after she found some shoes, we got ice cream. She let me chose chocolate ice cream with marshmallow topping. Yummy!
Growing up in Lancaster, PA, one of my earliest memories is taking a tour of Turkey Hill Dairy – and getting free samples! I’ve literally grown up with delicious Turkey Hill Ice Cream and love it!
Sweet story…Wonderful memories.
We have all heard that little ditty abot ice cream. I say it quite often with my family even today. Nice little story.
I still have memories from the 50′s sitting at the counter ordering chooolate egg creams and scoops of ice cream with jimmies! Does anyone remember jimmies??
That story above was great to read, and I experienced some nostalgia myself, reliving my early memories of ice cream. The story above was very similar to my early experiences, and I also loved the comment about jimmies because I totally remember them too! I don’t think I cam remember back this far, but I have seen so many pictures and heard so many stories told about my ice cream experience at my 1st birthday. My parents had gotten me an ice cream cake to celebrate with because it was soft enough to enjoy. When they brought it out with the lit candles in front of me, I got scared and started to cry. Having everyone stare at me and sing loudly seemed to make things worse so my mom blew out the candle and took it away as I was screaming. I threw my head forward in a fit of rage so that I face dove into the cake. My mom said then when my head emerged, I had ice cream cake all over my face, but I was no longer crying. I next dove my hands into the cake and began eating it, no more crying! haha. true story!