Going out for ice cream

[Hi everyone! I'm Georg, Jazz's wife and friend to the One True Tami blessedishername, and have been invited to post during Tami's trip, so I ought to post something.]

When I was younger, my parents picked one night a week, usually Friday night, where we would go out for dinner to such places as "The Pink Crab" or "The Striped Junk Shop" or "Piece of Mutt"- these are of course what my father called them. In reality, they were Red Lobster, TGI Friday's, and Pizza Hut. You are welcome to blame him for my sense of humor. We weren't allowed to have sugar on a regular basis as children, so the one glass of soda we had for dinner certainly affected our metabolism. Sugar + caffeine = hyper happy kids. To top off our evening, we would stop at a local ice cream parlor like The Tiffany Shoppe for something with ice cream in it. If we were really good, we got to share a Tiffany Tanker- 8 scoops of ice cream plus three toppings, whipped cream, and 3 cherries. Well, the first time we had it, there was only one cherry, and I scooped it up immediately to the annoyance of my siblings, for which they won't forgive me. My dad's favorite was a float made of peppermint ice cream and Mountain Dew. I repeat, y'all are welcome to blame him for my sense of humor.

Last night with the power outtage, Jazz and I decided to go out for ice cream. Jazz has been fond of hot fudge sundaes for years. We used to walk down to the ice cream shop on the corner, but since it relocated slightly to be under the same roof as the pizza joint, it has lost much in supplies and service, so we don't bother with it any more. We drove to the bastion of our Sunday breakfast, Friendly's, and had our ice cream there. On a Saturday evening, of course they were packed, but we managed to get a table anyway. I had to compare this evening with the evenings of my youth. I never remembered there ever being that much variety in how to eat ice cream or flavors. They didn't have bubblegum flavor, but they did have cotton candy, so they are still exploring options. I miss lime sherbert, which seems to have been replaced with Watermelon and Pink Lemonade. Coffee-flavoring seems to be much more popular, and I blame Starbucks for that (she says, drinking her coffee-flavored milk). I don't remember anything being coffee-flavor except coffee when I was young. I enjoyed a classic root beer float while pondering how the server would react if I asked for Mountain Dew with peppermint ice cream, but I am not sure now if either were even on the menu.

I also don't remember all of the noisy kids in the restaurant. I certainly ate in many a Friendly's in my dating years- it's a step above McDonalds when taking a date out for dinner, but not a breaking of the pocketbook. And I don't remember them as a child- but I probably was one. I am glad we went out last night. The restaurant was cool, and it gave us more to talk about than what we were reading. It was nice to sit across from a cute guy and blow bubbles through a straw like I used to. That and a real hot fudge sundae are just things you can't get at home.