In the merry month of June

[sovay]

We celebrated Father's Day at Schoolhouse Ice Cream & Yogurt of Cape Cod, which is in Burlington. They remind me very much of Brigham's in my childhood, where I would always get a griddle-cooked grilled cheese and a kiddie cone of pistachio ice cream and sometimes a raspberry lime rickey; they make very fine soft-serve ice cream in two flavors (and they will cherry-dip a cone of it for you, which I don't think I'd had since elementary school) and grilled cheeses and BLTs and a totally cromulent turkey terrific, which they just call a hot turkey sandwich. The weather was seaside-sunny and the ice cream melted at competitive speed as soon as we took it outside. There was a high-finned, two-toned, chrome-bumpered car parked out front that turned out to be a 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air heavily modified to resemble a Cadillac of the same vintage. I don't know how a company thinks of printing a Father's Day card depicting Teddy Roosevelt riding a T. rex, but spatch and I gave one to my father because it provided a perfect excuse for an Arsenic and Old Lace-esque "CHAAAAAAAAAAARGE!" My mother gave him Simon Winchester's latest book, about precision engineering. Then we moved a comprehensively dead refrigerator out of the summer kitchen.

Rob and I drove around the neighborhood for a bit. This was a big deal, since it was his first time behind the wheel in fifteen years. I have not driven regularly in fifteen years, but have at least driven much more recently than that: just mostly at night, hence wanting to take advantage of a slow, sun-flooded, empty afternoon. We did not hit anything or even come close. Our eventual goal is a road trip, aiming for western Massachusetts and/or the sea.

On the bus home I wished I had a better ear for regional accents, because the four college-aged kids sitting ahead of me and talking back and forth had between them at least three different Irish accents. One of them started singing "The Rocky Road to Dublin" and his friends made him stop. Consequently, I have had "The Rocky Road to Dublin" stuck in my head for the last two hours. It reminded me that I totally missed Bloomsday this year. Her ear too is a shell, the peeping lobe there. Been to the seaside. Lovely seaside girls. Skin tanned raw. Should have put on coldcream first make it brown. Buttered toast. O and that lotion musn't forget. Fever near your mouth. Your head it simply. Hair braided over: shell with seaweed. Why do they hide their ears with seaweed hair?

If you are still looking for ways of helping families separated by the current administration's cruelty, I found this article comprehensive. I got it from the drift of similar articles going around social media in honor of the day. I like the intent of this tradition; I hope it comes to something. Open the door to the stranger.

Comments

[asakiyume]

I like the idea of a summer kitchen and, by implication, a winter kitchen.

[sovay]

I like the idea of a summer kitchen and, by implication, a winter kitchen.

The summer kitchen is downstairs, where I lived two years ago with the cats; it's where the grill is. We always eat there for the Fourth of July. The winter kitchen is upstairs, inside the house. It is an all-weather kitchen in that sense, but I like your formulation better.

[gwynnega]

I always associate lime rickeys with Boston, because that's where I first had them, the summer my parents and I spent in New York and Boston when I was eight.

[sovay]

I always associate lime rickeys with Boston, because that's where I first had them, the summer my parents and I spent in New York and Boston when I was eight.

I wonder if they're regional. I think of them as a normal part of the fountain soda landscape, which of course doesn't so much exist anymore—I almost ordered one this afternoon at Schoolhouse Ice Cream just because I was so happy to see it on the menu.

[edit] It's regional! Originally the Prohibition-era virgin form of a nineteenth-century cocktail that became a popular drink in its own right. The raspberry variant is uniquely New England. I'm delighted.

[gwynnega]

It seems to me I have had a cherry lime rickey somewhere in Los Angeles, but it's definitely not a common beverage here. I certainly missed lime rickeys as a child after we left Boston!

[sovay]

I certainly missed lime rickeys as a child after we left Boston!

I hope with the resurgence of cocktail and mocktail culture, you can find one closer!

[moon_custafer]

I don’t think I’ve ever actually had a lime rickey, but I associate it forever with a radio interview I heard as a child in which the interviewee (no idea who he was) recounted an anecdote about buying a lime rickey in some rural county that was officially Dry, and unofficially had tons of moonshine operations and lime rickeys were the traditional mixer of choice; when he found this out afterwards he realized why all the oldsters in the store had been winking conspiratorially at him.

[davidgillon]

Now earwormed with Rocky Road!

"Hurrah me soul" says I,

[sovay]

Now earwormed with Rocky Road!

I do my best to share!

[davidgillon]

I do my best to share!

I ended up going online to find something to change it up, and found something very different - Drowsy Maggie, Punjabi Style! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK-wHSqus9g

Also recommended, her collaboration on Shipping up to Boston and Enter Sandman (though I'm not convinced playing the pipes while hanging from a tram by your legs is strictly safe) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXm8JdC4k4c

[sovay]

(though I'm not convinced playing the pipes while hanging from a tram by your legs is strictly safe)

Okay, when we get back from the insurance, I have to see this.

[thisbluespirit]

I don't know how a company thinks of printing a Father's Day card depicting Teddy Roosevelt riding a T. rex,

LOL! But it found a good home. I'm glad you seem to have had a good day. :-)

[sovay]

LOL! But it found a good home.

He did enjoy it! spatch drew a cartoon inside of Autolycus pretending to be a tyrannosaur and Hestia, unimpressed: "Up the mammals."

I'm glad you seem to have had a good day.

Thank you! It was tiring like all days recently, but worth it.

[selkie]

I am glad you celebrated Father's Day this year. Also I typed 'Feathers Day' twice, just now, so sacrifice to your local corvid gods accordingly.

*hugs*

[sovay]

I am glad you celebrated Father's Day this year. Also I typed 'Feathers Day' twice, just now, so sacrifice to your local corvid gods accordingly.

Will do.

Thank you.

*hugs*

BRIGHAM's

[jesse_the_k]

Oh! 62% of my happy childhood memories involve the Brigham's in Harvard Square. The sodas came in glasses which fit into glassholders (a more mundane take on the Russian tea cup). Also biking down there on a warm June evening to get fudge for my mother.

What flavors do you favor in the ice cream world?

Re: BRIGHAM's

[sovay]

62% of my happy childhood memories involve the Brigham's in Harvard Square.

I want to say that still existed when I was a child, although I associate ice cream in Harvard Square primarily with Steve's/Herrell's. My childhood Brigham's was the one in Arlington Heights.

What flavors do you favor in the ice cream world?

My hands-down, leader-of-the-pack favorite as a child was pistachio. I can't really digest nuts anymore, but I still love the taste. Honestly I like most flavors that aren't stickily sweet or candy-based; I am lukewarm about chocolate and always make exceptions for caramel. I do not like mint. I really like lavender. My family makes hand-churned strawberry ice cream (technically frozen custard, but we always referred to it as ice cream) every summer for the Fourth of July.

[julian]

I came here to note, I've never encountered a cherry-dipped cone before. I may have to, this summer. Just for the experience.

[sovay]

I may have to, this summer. Just for the experience.

I recommend it!