I scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream!

Have you ever read an article and been instantly transported to your childhood?

I just read an article about the popular comeback of the ice cream sandwich from the New York Times called Frozen Treats: A Bite of Childhood.

The moment I started reading the article, a flood of 'ice cream sandwich memories' came rushing back of my own childhood. One memory in particular comes to mind.

My grandma lived in a tiny town called Rocky Mountain House, Alberta. This tiny town is nestled in at the base of the Canadian Rocky Mountains.

For most of my childhood, we lived on the West Coast of British Columbia and did not have that many chances to visit my Grandparents. So getting to stay with them in their home was a special treat.

Grandma kept an old deep freeze in the mudroom by the back door, where her friends and family entered the house. The front door was the formal entrance and was only used by guests.

Whenever we would visit, my little brother and sister and I would go out to the mudroom and hunt in the freezer for treasure! The treasure we were hoping to find was a bucket filled with homemade ice cream sandwiches.

Grandma made her ice cream sandwiches with large chocolate chip cookies filled with vanilla ice cream. She then rolled the edges of the sandwiches in melted chocolate. Before the chocolate hardened, she'd roll them again in a plate of chopped nuts, usually salted peanuts.

Then grandma would carefully wrap the ice cream treasures in wax paper, before placing them in an empty ice cream bucket in the freezer for us to find.

She made it seem like there was probably always a bucket full of ice cream sandwiches at her place. Though now that I'm an adult, my guess is she started making them right after she found out we were coming.

Childhood memories are amazing. Simple things like the thought of an ice cream sandwich can take you back twenty or thirty years. When times were simple and pleasures were sweet.

How far back can an ice cream sandwich take you?