My sister and I had a rather strange experience the other day. It was one of those situations that makes you either laugh or cry, depending on your emotional fortitude.
One may say that we have just reached that age wherein we tend to look fondly on our days with nostalgia, and therefore criticize this new generation who obviously do not know what they're doing. Maybe I recall the days when our family ate together at the dinner table everyday and visited MawMaw and Papa every Sunday. My sister likes to talk about how, when we were in school, we knew how to sit in our seats and pay attention. ADHD did not exist, and if it did, it was just an excuse to misbehave. And don't even talk about corporal punishment. Everyone in the neighborhood over the age of eighteen had a right and duty to use it. I clearly remember the feeling of all eyes on me-maybe because there were. But even giving ourselves the slack of generational pride does not account for the absurdity of some things today...Like not being allowed to have a cherry on top of your Sundae.
Christine and I were bored one night and decided to engage in some emotional eating for old times' sake. We also went in honor of our birthplace, in which the unofficial mantra repeated outright as well as ingrained subconsciously by all family members and some close friends goes as follows: "Stuff your face or I don't believe you love me!" Close second is: "Eat everything on your plate! There are starving kids in China." This was later changed to the entire continent of Africa. Well I'm from New Orleans if you haven't guessed by now. Having been in the West I have been reformed somewhat by the lack of good food, but I have relapses, which brings us back to the ice cream shop where I found out the music has in fact died.
No matter any adult's age, I would bet on all the things I do not have-what a risk-that walking into an ice cream store conjours up sweet days of summer as a child. Of chasing the ice cream man, making Sundaes at home, or going to Baskin Robbins and sharing a banana split with your twin sister and hoping that more of the chocolate ice cream fell on your part. Well, poof be gone to such innocent happy memories! Who knew this day would come?
As Christine and I finally reached a consensus on flavors for our banana split, we discovered that there were no more peanuts bits to put on top...hmmm. Suspicious, but not earth shattering. Besides, Christine likes peanuts more than I do. Not a problem. Anyway, what kid isn't allergic to peanuts these days? We have to be careful. The employee proceeded with crushed almonds or some other safer nut. Then the fudge...Yes I remember the sequence. Finished off with some beautiful peaks of real whipped cream and for the piece de resistance! The cherry on top! But instead of placing said cherry, she hands us the confection as is-or was. When I reminded her of the missing item (I mean what kind of employee forgets a thing like that? In fact courtesy would have called for two, since we obviously were spliting the split. Emily Post would agree and have gone a step further to suggest a citizen's firing), she casually said, "Oh...There was an incident. We don't use cherries anymore." What? I had to laugh, as images of what type of incident might have occured to warrant such drastic action. I mean maraschino cherries have been used since the invention of ice cream! I'm sure someone has the original jar which they plan to auction on eBay. "Cherries still edible," would be a good selling point.
I feel sorry for the kids who won't know the joy of finishing off too much ice cream with that last sweet bite of a maraschino cherry. At least I can say I've had a real banana split. Why do you think we have that saying, "It's the cherry on top?"...At least there's still, "The icing on the cake." Hopefully that won't be taken away, too. We'll have to go underground if it gets to that point.
Obviously there was a legal issue as evidenced by the employee's sudden law speak, including vagueness, evasiveness, and immediate talk of the weather. Wow, corporate America sure does those employee geared legal trainings fast!
We live in such a litigious society now that many of the simple pleasures aren't so simple anymore. Maybe in twenty years we'll have to sign a waiver to eat ice cream. "It'll make you fat...But it's your risk to take, if you so choose. We highly advise against it, though." OK. I'll sign, but as a condition I'll write in that there has to be a cherry on top!
