July is National Ice Cream Month!

The Big 3

I scream! You scream! 90% of Americans scream for ice cream!

July is National Ice Cream Month! And with some of the oppressive heat that has gripping the Nation, ice cream is a natural fit into the American Food Pyramid. I think it's categorized as "necessary to the plot:. But I could be mistaken.

The Beginning  

National Ice Cream Month goes back to 1984. Here's what Wikipedia has to say, "National Ice Cream Month is held in each year in July in the United States. Ronald Reagan designated July as National Ice Cream Month in 1984.^[1] He also named the third Sunday in July as National Ice Cream Day. Reagan recognized the popularity of ice cream in the United States (90% of the nation's population consumes ice cream) and stated that these two events should be observed with "appropriate ceremonies and activities."

Not only was Ronald Reagan the greatest President in my lifetime, he was a Man of Vision. Coincidentally, he also died the same day within a few hours of my Dad's death on June 5, 2004. And Dad loved a big bowl of ice cream from time to time as well.  :)

History of Ice Cream   

31 Flavors My Hind Leg!

The history of ice cream goes back way further than I ever thought it would, maybe even thousands of years! "The first frozen dessert is credited to Emperor Nero of Rome. It was a mixture of snow (which he sent his slaves into the mountains to retrieve) and nectar, fruit pulp and honey. Another theory is Marco Polo, 13th century bard and adventurer, brought with him to Europe from the Far East recipes for water ices....said to be used in Asia for thousands of years." That said, ice cream may go back as far as very Ancient China, so along with gun powder, fireworks and spaghetti, we may have the Chinese people of a few thousand years ago to thank for ice cream!

Facts About Ice Cream 

Nanner Split

What better place to learn about ice cream than a website appropriately named icecream.com? Let's look into some fun facts about one of America's favorite treats. 

• It takes 12 lbs. of milk to make just one gallon of ice cream. 
• It takes an average of 50 licks to polish off a single-scoop ice cream cone. 
• The biggest ice cream sundae in history was made in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, in 1988, and weighed in at over 24 tons 
• In 2003, Portland, Oregon bought more ice cream per person than any other U.S. city.
• The ice cream cone's invention is linked to the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis. An ice cream vendor reportedly didn't have enough dishes to keep up with the demand, so he teamed up with a waffle vendor who rolled his waffles into cones!

There you have it, a few things about ice cream and National Ice Cream Month you may not have known.

Now get out there, find a cool, shady place at the park and take a gallon (or two) of your favorite flavor and have a cone! Then strike up a conversation with someone else and impress them with your encyclopedic knowledge of ice cream!

You don't even have to tell 'em where you learned it. It's a secret that'll stay between you and me. Unless you run into the other guy who reads this blog. :)