Today, ice cream is sold in scoops or whipped in cornets, there are many kinds and flavours, yet when I was little, I remember that there were two ice creams that I liked the most: one was sold in the sweet shop that I, my mum and my dad intimately called it “strawberry shop“, as it had a deep pink colour and triangular tables with rounded corners and formica on it with yellow and very dark pink surface. Individual tables were separated from each other by partitions with ornamental grids at the top.
Nowadays, everybody would laugh at it, but at that time the decoration corresponded to the contemporary fashion trends. And it smelt so good in there – well, exactly like in a sweet shop. Coffee, but also milk cocktail (strawberry of course), and most of all – ice cream. At that time there was the traditional choice of vanilla, chocolate and of course strawberry ice cream. I loved it. And since my father worked nearby, any time my mum and I went to see him, we popped into “our strawberry“ sweet shop on the way back. Although the shop is no longer there, I can still smell its aroma and I often remember it. It was not in Prague, it was in Liberec, in the square near the town hall. And it simply was magical.
The other memory I have is also linked to ice cream. In the 1970´s it was one of the few delicacies and a sort of quiet attractions that people could enjoy as much as they liked.
Any time the weather was warm enough, something like stands emerged with a whipped ice cream machine. But at that time, the ice cream was not in cornets. It was served in low quadrangular bowls with a hollow in the middle in which the ice cream looked like fire. It was difficult to eat it from the bowls, but as far as the visual aspect is concerned, it was just perfect. Then the choice became larger, so besides vanilla, chocolate and strawberry ice cream, there was also pistachio and lemon ice cream and it was a great delight for the whole afternoon.
The little bowels soon disappeared – the last time ice cream was served in them was maybe sometime around the mid 1980´s and since then they have been irretrievably replaced with cornets. The era of little elegant bowels is over as well as one era of our life.
When I go for ice cream today and I do not know which one to choose, in the end, the one that wins is one of those that I know from my childhood. And again and again, it brings back the memories of the atmosphere of our sweet shop and the magic times of carefree childhood afternoons.
Miloslava Landová