My first real job (not the babysitting ones) was working at a Häagen-Dazs in Park Slope. The one I worked at (Michelle's Häagen-Dazs) is no longer there, but there's a new one two blocks down where the Neergaard pharmacy used to be (corner of President and Seventh, across from the Citibank). Now the Neergaard has moved too (next door to the Citibank).
Anyways, my first real job...
Scooping ice cream for a living is harder work than you'd think, especially Häagen-Dazs which is harder than your average ice cream. The trick is to keep your scoop in luke warm water between uses.
The first week I worked there I ate tons of ice cream. After that, I didn't eat ice cream again for about a year. You don't think of ice cream as having a smell, but when you've been scooping it all day, you go home smelling of it. Vanilla mostly. My cat found it very intriguing. I found it to completely eliminate any desire I had to eat ice cream. I lost three pounds that summer.
Back then, Häagen-Dazs had these t-shirts. You remember them. "Häagen-Dazs" across the front and a flavor in big letters across the back. I had several: Vanilla (black with white letters); Chocolate (brown with white letters); Boysenberry (purple with white letters); Coffee (tan with white letters? White with tan letters?); and the big error in judgment, Cherry Vanilla (white with red letters).
Moms and Dads out there, never ever let your teen-aged daughter out of the house wearing ANYTHING that says "Cherry Vanilla" across the back.
During my tenure there, they started changing the shirts to the ones that say "Häagen-Dazs" across the front with "Ice Cream" in script on a diagonal between the breasts. Also a mistake.
Häagen-Dazs is still up there on my list of favorite ice creams and it's definitely my favorite ice cream parlor. The chocolate crunchies alone are worth the price of admission and no one else seems to have them.
Through My Glasses, Dorkily
13 years ago
9 comments:
I find it almost impossible to scoop ice cream. That's why I eat it straight from the container.
Diagonal between the breasts? Oy. So not a good idea....
I'm laughing at your comments about the shirts. I have a teenage daughter so I will keep it in mind ....
With all the flavors to choose from my kids ALWAYS get the same flavors. They never try anything new.
MMMMMMMMMMM, ice cream! Want some now!
My first real job was working at an ice cream parlor, too. It was hard work (especially scooping out the flavors that no one really liked and that subsequently had become like a block of ice), very messy, and a lot of fun. But I still don't like ice cream any more after consuming so much of it ...
When were you at Park Slope? We lived on Berkely just off Seventh ... um, let's see ... that would have been in 94-95?
President and Seventh, is that right across from the school? I believe we spent a number of afternoons in the little courtyard there after browsing through the stoop sales. I really miss stoop sales.
The school is on 7th Ave, b'twn 1st & 2nd and I lived across the street from it from '69 to '95 (except for 2 years in Pittsburgh.)
Then I lived on 3rd Street during '97/'98.
My mom & step-dad are still there.
So there's a pretty good chance that we have at minimum walked by each other on the street! So, really, you're an IRL friend, not just a blogging buddy, right? How nice to know that we go so far back--friends for almost ten years now! Cool.
My first job was at a baskin robbins and I very much remember coming home with ice cream in my ears and eyebrows too! And I had one pumped up right arm and then a wimpy left arm.
Then I worked at the movies, and honestly, buttered popcorn is SO MUCH WORSE.
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