Ahhhhh, summer!
Here in Texas, we’ve already had some hot days (think triple digits in some parts). Even though summer doesn’t officially start until June 21, we’re always looking for ways to cool off. As a child, one way that I loved was to enjoy a Popsicle.
My favorite flavor of Popsicle has always been banana because that’s what my maternal grandmother – Mam-Ma – always bought. We neighborhood kids would be playing in our sandbox or roller skating up and down the bumpy sidewalks in my little hometown of Miles, and we’d see Mam-Ma slowly turn the corner in her old green Pontiac.
We’d stop whatever we were doing and race to her car because we knew she was bringing us a treat! Somehow she always knew the right number of banana Popsicles to bring so that each child got one of his or her very own. It didn’t matter if there were six kids or a dozen! (Years later, it dawned on me that she probably called my mother beforehand to find out how many kids were playing at our house on any given day.)
Mam-Ma, who had to quit school in the sixth grade and go to work as a house cleaner to help make ends meet for her family, was definitely a child of the Depression. I believe that because she didn’t have much growing up, she was always very generous to us – Christmas gifts, birthday presents, just-because games and snacks – and Popsicles. I remember the ones she brought us had two wooden sticks. Do you remember those? Nowadays, Popsicles come with only one stick.
Curious, I looked up the history of Popsicles. The treat – billed as a frozen lollipop or “a drink on a stick” – was accidentally invented by an 11-year-old boy, according to an article I found on NPR’s website.
Here’s the scoop: “Back in 1905, a San Francisco Bay Area kid by the name of Frank Epperson accidentally invented the summertime treat. He had mixed some sugary soda powder with water and left it out overnight. It was a cold night, and the mixture froze. In the morning, Epperson devoured the icy concoction, licking it off the wooden stirrer. He declared it an Epsicle, a portmanteau of icicle and his name, and started selling the treat around his neighborhood.”
The article, written by freelance writer Shelby Pope, went on to say that little Frank began selling his frozen invention at Neptune Beach, a nearby amusement park. Years later, he applied for a patent and changed its name to Pop’s ‘Sicle – or Popsicle – because that’s what his children called the treat.
Epperson later sold his patent to the Lowe Co. which introduced the product nationwide. But here’s the most interesting part: “During the Great Depression, the company debuted the two-stick version of the Popsicle to help consumers stretch their dollar – the duo sold for 5 cents,” according to Pope’s article.
That meant cash-strapped parents could equally divide the treat in half and give a Popsicle on a stick to two children at a time. (The company went back to only one stick per Popsicle in 1986 and I am so glad I am two-stick-Popsicle old enough to remember!)
If God blesses me with grandchildren, I’m going to keep Mam-Ma’s banana Popsicle tradition alive.
How about you? What’s one special thing you remember your grandmother doing?