(photo credit: bluebell.com)

I wish I’d bought stock in Blue Bell.

Products come and go from American supermarket shelves, but none in recent years has been lamented more than the loss of Blue Bell Ice Cream.

Blue Bell isn’t the only company that makes ice cream, but you’d have sure thought that they were.

Wikipedia, that bastion of Internet accuracy, lists 158 major brands of ice cream.

Without cheating, I encourage you to quickly name five ice cream brands, other than Blue Bell.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

Yeah, I couldn’t do it either.

However, my search for brands of ice cream did take me down memory lane.

One of my earliest memories of ice cream was in my hometown at Mr. Phillip’s drug store. He had a soda fountain. I don’t remember much about it, but I do recall that the experience of watching him make whatever I ordered was as enjoyable as the ice cream, malt or shake that I consumed.

When I was older, I’d sit on the curb outside the 7-11 and eat an Eskimo Pie I had bought with the coins I’d saved. It was a challenge to savor each bite in the summer heat just long enough so that I could finish it before the ice cream ran between my fingers and down my arm.

I used to love Drumsticks. The caramel was encrusted with crushed nuts, and was the perfect precursor to the vanilla, and the waffle cone that held it all.

One of my favorite memories is my parents taking my sister and me to Baskin-Robbins 31 Flavors. Everyone but mom got chocolate. Mother would get Pralines and Cream. Baskin-Robbins was the first ice cream manufacturer that I remember who had seasonal ice cream flavors. You could get pumpkin-flavored ice cream at Thanksgiving.

You don’t see Baskin-Robbins much anymore, but there seemed to be one in every town when I was young.

I don’t know where the A&W Root Beer stands got their ice cream, but I can sure tell you that there wasn’t much better than a frosted mug of their ice cream drowned in A&W Root Beer. They used to give small A&W mugs to kids that you could bring back for a free root beer float. I think my mom still has my mug.

Yarnell was an ice cream brand that I’d forgotten. But I remember that they made excellent ice cream. Dreyer’s Ice Cream was tasty, too. Braum’s makes exceptional ice cream, and I still eat it often.

Good Humor is a name I recall, but we didn’t have a Good Humor Ice Cream Man driving through our town, so I never tried it. But I thought he had a really cool uniform.

Some other ice cream brands with interesting names that I’d not heard of prior to my Wikipedia search: Bubble O’ Bill, Cows Creamery, Dickie Dee, Frosty Paws, Ice Screamers, J.P. Licks, Paddle Pop, Turkey Hill, and Wibbly Wobbly Wonder.

The folks at Blue Bell may not have known until now just how much Southerners love their product, but that fact has become exceedingly clear. People are in Blue Bell withdrawal, and are ready and willing to do just about anything to have it back. But, the wait won’t last much longer.

Yes, I wish I’d bought stock in Blue Bell. And insulin.

 

©2015 John Moore

To read more of John’s musings, visit johnmoore.net/blog