Thursday, July 06, 2006

I scream, you scream...

...we all scream for ice cream. Remember that from your childhood?

Somewhere in time near my first exposure to that old saying, an actual ice cream incident occurred that has been repeated endlessly in my family. If my sister and I hadn't lived so far apart geographically for so many years, the details as to who did what to whom may not have been blurred. Somebody would have corrected the story soon after its first mistelling. Now, though, through many repetitions by each of us to our own respective audiences, the truth has been corrupted. My memory is that I was the outraged party, and my sister is equally adamant that she was the offended victim. Either way is a distinct possibility.

A little backstory: In the 1950s a nickel would buy a single-dip ice cream cone. With a dime, one could buy a double-dip cone or two single-dip ones. One block from our house was a drugstore/soda fountain, and in the summertime we wore out the sidewalk between there and home.

Okay, to continue with my story, on the day in question only one of us went to the drugstore. The other one stayed home and waited. My sister's theory is that because I'm four years older than she, it's obvious that I'm the one who would have walked to the drugstore to buy ice cream cones for both of us while she, the younger innocent one, stayed home and waited. My theory is that she was most certainly old enough to have been the one to run that particular errand, because both of us walked past that drugstore every school day from first grade on, and she was ten and a half years old when we moved away, for God's sake.

There's no way at this late date to prove whose memory is correct on that one issue, but as for the rest of the details, we're right in line. We both agree that the walking sister started out to the drugstore with two dimes. We both agree that approximately fifteen minutes later the walking sister came home empty-handed except for one double-dip ice cream cone, which she was licking enthusiastically. We also agree on the exact words of our ensuing conversation:

Waiting sister: "Where's my ice cream cone?"

Walking sister: "I lost your dime."

6 comments:

  1. Yeah, Priss, you say that because you don't know my little sister, the one who managed to pull an "A" in high school on her report about the results of a science experiment that NEVER EXISTED!! She's sweet, I'll grant you, but she was SLICK in those days.

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  2. Hehehe. I called my sister a while ago to ask her if her ears were burning. She saw my name on her caller ID and sang her hello: "Na-na-na-na-boo-boo."

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  3. thanks for the tip of translating pages from different language . no more clicking off and all that stuff works great by the way. great story about the ice cream. surely some one remembers which did the deed.

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  4. Patsy: Yeah, someone remembers who did the deed--I do. But my sister says she does, too, and all of our witnesses have since passed away.

    Janet: My sister would have cried and asked for another dime, too. I'm sure I'd remember that if it had happened.

    FHG Rebekah: OK, we're keeping score. Priss has lined up squarely with my sister, but your vote was a little ambiguous. At first glance it looks like you believe MY version, but my sister says that's just how it looks on the surface. She says the fact that you talk about OLDER boys being mean to you shows that you're empathasizing with how I treated HER. (Please don't bother to clarify this unless her interpretation is wrong; I know you're busy.)

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  5. Haha Aren't sisters wonderful! My vote is on you as the "walking" sister, its so logical :)
    Sandy

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  6. Okay, but Sandy, if you're gonna resort to LOGIC, wouldn't you think that I, the older sister, would have been more skilled at manipulation and that, therefore, I would have talked my little easy-mark sister into going to the drugstore? Doesn't that make more sense? No? You don't think so? Hmmm.

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