Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Ice cream socials

When I was a kid, one of the early-to-midsummer things that happened (I remember it as being around Memorial Day but it might have been later on) was an ice cream social.

This took place on the Village Green. (Yes, I grew up in Ohio, but in a part of the state settled by Connecticut - so we had some of those New Englandy things). In the early years they used to ask people to bake a cake or something and bring it, and then they cut all the cakes and put them out and you could pick a piece of cake to go with your ice cream. I think in later years they had more commercial stuff in.

(I can't imagine a town doing that now. The level of trust that the cake would be okay, and the level of trust about allergens, was really high. Then again, I don't remember as many strongly food-allergic people when I was a kid - there were a few kids at school who had to avoid nuts, and I knew someone who was allergic to chocolate, one person with celiac disease, and one of my friends got a horrible rash from rhubarb - but I don't remember the level of "we must prevent the entry of these foods in public areas" that you sometimes see today. Maybe people with severe food allergies were just expected to stay home? I don't know. Then again, I'm guessing in an open-air area, any "airborne particles" would very rapidly get dissipated)

Anyway, everyone in town (it seemed) went down there and got cake and ice cream. Some years there was a band (there was a gazebo that doubled as a band shell on the village green). Some years there were some other sorts of things - I remember there was a calliope one year. And maybe pony rides one year?

I just remember it as being a really big thing when I was a kid, something I looked forward to. I suppose my town was small enough that it was something doable. (I have no idea what the population of Hudson was when I was growing up. I'm sure it's a lot bigger now)

Looking it up, I see they apparently still do the Ice Cream Social.. That's nice. I'm sure it's probably different than what I remember as a kid but it's nice to know it still exists. (This year it looks like it's June 13. So it's a little later into the summer than what I was remembering.)

2 comments:

besshaile said...

oh that is such a wonderful thing. And now I want some ice cream. LOL

besshaile said...

oh that is so nice.