Rabu, 02 September 2009

Bicycles, Baseball, and Ice Cream




Yesterday evening I took off the training wheels on my son Kennedy’s bike and he did his first solo ride. The experience reminded of when I entered Pierre Van Cortland (PVC as we called it and believe they still do) Middle School in the six grade. In sixth grade I had both a bike and permission from my folks to ride into the village of Croton to go to little league baseball practice and games at John F. Kennedy Baseball Field (JFK for us locals). When I road into town to play ball, which I did religiously, I brought what money I could scrounge up to buy something at the mom and pop store a stone’s throw JFK. On Face Book fellow Crotonites and I tried to remember the name of that store some said Riche’s, LBT’s Scoop and Judy’s, and other names came up. But no matter the name, kids like me fanatical about baseball went in and out of the store buying baseball cards, Good Humor ice cream, and Costa Cola. In front of the cash register the store had Good Humor “free-standing freezer-cabinet.” This had to be around the 1970s because the company that distributed the product depended on those white Good Humour Trucks to sell it from the 1930s to the 1970s. Thereafter stores like the one in Croton sold the ice cream out of freezer cabinets. I recall for about a quarter one could buy a Good Humor Strawberry Shortcake, Chocolate Éclair, or Toasted Almond ice cream bar on a wooden stick. Those bad boys were sensational! I hated the feeling of I had watching an opponent devouring whose team just beat mine enjoying one and I didn’t have any money to buy one. Thus in part, the thought of my next bike ride down to JFK field to play baseball kept me hustling to make money doing chores around the house and mowing neighbors’ lawns to earn enough chump chains for a toasted almond ice cream.

Link to Good Humor Company History:
http://www.icecreamusa.com/good_humor/history/

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