Dinner yesterday on Main Street,
it was good, a place called The Tides,
strategically, just two doors down
from the small ice cream shop
with the wonderful goodness of rum raisin ice cream.
You know the stuff, I wrote of its praises
before, so great on a nice evening on Main.
The rain had cleared, and it felt like
a summer evening of old, not too hot,
a light breeze, out on a date, so maybe
two scoops and we could share?
It was going to be something special
to taste, again that creamy goodness,
a mix of old-world and new.
Going back to a past which may only
exists in a Hallmark-movie-mind
I wait in line after three tie-dyed hippies
all older than me, reliving a time long ago,
as they sample before deciding.
Then a young family with four kids,
another homage to the past,
and a young mom and a girl of ten
with a big pink ribbon on the back of her dress
jumps ahead of me in line.
It felt like another time and place.
I thought of the twilight zone… but wait
I’m on a mission, I must not be distracted.
But I worry about mission failure.
I don’t see it in the case, its not at the back,
furthest from the door
where it is always hidden.
I ask the young woman holding the scooper
for Rum Raisin… the greatest of all ice creams.
She goes to dig in, but realizes it’s not in the
last bucket… she asks her co-worker,
where is the Rum Raisin?
and he looks surprised anyone is asking for it
and says we are out of it…
Noooo… this can’t be,
now the line has grown and formed behind me,
she with an impatient look, like I’m a kook,
asks if I’d like something else?
My mind says no… I don’t. But I
don’t want to be a kook, and
I feel stupid being so prescriptive…
I scan the card board signs boasting
this or that ice cream.
Nothing catches my eye like RR would…
in a panic I point to the cardboard sign and say
I’ll try the carrot cake ice cream.
She says, you want a sample?
I say, no, just a single scoop, for if I tasted it,
I wouldn’t buy it, and who walks out of
an ice cream shop after 15 mins of waiting
without an ice cream?
Well to avoid further suspense…
it was very sweet, vaguely like carrot cake
with tiny pieces of carrot,
like coconut that your tongue finds
giving the impression of something substantial
It was creamy sweetness, but
none of the adventure of rum,
nor the substance of raisins…
it was not the Hallmark-movie
happiness I so anticipated.
Sadly, it was not Rum Raisin.