Thursday, June 7, 2012

Getting Carded...at an Ice Cream Parlor?

A group of senior college students and recent graduates walked into a store, and their eyes lit like kids in a candy shop.

It was a sunny, warm afternoon in downtown Columbia, Mo., and their SJI teachers decided to treat them to Sparky's Homemade Ice Cream, a place known to have sold cicada-flavored ice cream. Real cicada's. Cicadas freshly picked from the air.

The SJI students peaked over their peers' shoulders, trying to see what different flavors were offered. Unfortunately, no cicadas. They weren't in season.

Flavors ranged from Thin Mint to London Fog, from Salty Caramel to the basics such as Vanilla Bean. They spent the first five to seven minutes sampling the various flavors.

Then, there were the "adult" flavors, including White Russian. They had a Guinness Float written on its menu in bold print right next to Root beer Float. There were also one-pint cans of Guinness for sale in their mini-fridges that could easily be confused as cans of Arnold Palmer Ice Tea. 

But no. Guinness was actually being sold at this ice cream parlor, and yes, one of the ice cream flavors was White Russian. 

One of my fellow SJI classmates asked to sample the White Russian-flavored ice cream, curious to see if it matched the same tastiness as the other flavors we sampled.

"Can I see your I.D.?" the lady asked. 

I look at my classmate, then look again at the lady behind the cashier who was wearing an apron and grey visor. She knew she caught us off guard. 

But I looked at her again, and her face simply read, "Yes, I know we're carding you in an ice cream shop. But it's policy. ... And this ice cream is made of real goo-goo."


No comments:

Post a Comment