Staying Cool

When my younger daughter, youngest child, was thirteen-years-old, we were attending the craft show during the Helen Keller Festival, a stop on the way to Memphis. The weather was hotter than it is now, upper 90s. We were so hot and thirsty as we walked. Soon, we saw a snow cone stand and walked slowly to get one. I convinced her to get just ice then get a flavored snow cone later. I did not want either of us to get sick from so much sugar while over-heated. Later, we got the flavored snow cone.  It was a long time ago and we carried no water.

Last week, while I was at Walmart, I saw a Popsicle maker, an eight-holer, reduced to a quarter. After washing it, I filled it with water. Ice with a handle is very cooling. I don't have to roll it around in my mouth, chancing choking on it, chew on it, or let some flavored, colored concoction dribble down my chin.

I don't know what I would do without ice. Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle, a novel I would highly recommend. I will spoil just one part about ice. The street gutters had toilet refuse in them which all ran to a lake. Men cut ice from this lake and stored it in ice houses for the wealthy to purchase in summer.

Want some of that ice in your tea?

Social reform regarding the treatment of immigrants was what Dreiser desired to happen. However, his account of the meat packing house so appalled President Theodore Roosevelt that the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act was the result of the book's descriptions.

Okay, I got away from ice. Now, I am doubting the lake where ice was harvested was in The Jungle. Oh, well.  No, it is the next day, and I was correct about the novel.

I love banana Popsicles, so I am going to see about banana flavor for my homemade Popsicles. I can put bananas and oj in the icicle maker, too.

If you have ever rubbed an ice cube on your body to stay cool, this little handled ice cube will work. I know I have rubbed an ice cube on my face, neck, and chest to cool off. Have you?

Your turn
How much does ice figure in your keeping cool? Shall we count ac as ice since it can by icy? Have you ever put plain water in your Popsicle mold? Eaten a plain snow cone without flavored syrup all in the name of cooling off? Have you read The Jungle?