My tiny patent leather shoes made clicking sounds on the black-and-white tiled floor. Chairs with plastic-covered cushioned seats and silver wire backs filled the room, and the whole place smelled like a giant sugar cone.
Those three things–the floor, the chairs, and the smell–are still with me today, just as vividly as they were all those years ago when I was growing up. It’s a relationship that’s never died. Aglamesis Ice Cream store was my favorite place in Cincinnati.
Wearing my ice-cream-suit
I loved this ice cream so much that when my parents took a trip around the world and left my brother and me in the care of our grandmother, I convinced my grandmother that we went to get ice cream every night. So we did. And when my parents returned, I’d ballooned into the chubby girl in this photo. I’ve probably never been happier than I was wearing three weeks worth of Aglamesis ice cream all over my body.
I’ll never forget swinging my legs as I sat in that wire-backed chair, licking the dripping mint chip ice cream that dribbled down my sugar cone. It was always mint chip. And the cups of water, there were always cups of water from the water jug along the wall.
A year ago, I was back in Cincinnati during a trip to an Ohio State basketball game. The moment we walked into Aglamesis, it was like I’d stepped into a time machine. Childhood-me came to life amidst the tiled floor and the chairs and the sugar cone smell. And when I sat in that chair and licked that mint ice cream scoop perched on my sugar cone, I couldn’t help but swing my legs a little back and forth.
And since I’d just eaten Montgomery Inn ribs followed by a trip to Skyline Chili for a Cincinnati chili hot dog and a Mello-Yello, I remembered that picture of chubby-me. But I smiled at the fat roll I knew was building around my waist because I’d never been happier.
