Cone, Sweet Cone

Saturday evening was not nice in northwestern VT. It was cold, dark and pouring rain. I had spent the entire day painting but one of the guys who owns the scoop shoppe wanted the night off so I said I work the last shift for him. It was my first time working alone but with the weather being so terrible it wasn’t really a busy night so I was fine. Most of our customers came through the drive-thru so they wouldn’t have to dodge raindrops anyway which enabled me to crank the music and practice my new jazzercise songs. (Yes, I really do that.) It was getting towards the end of the night when a man (probably… 40?) and his wife pulled up to the drive through window. He wanted a medium chocolate creemee (you probably call it SOFT SERVE and those waxy things you can put on top are called SPRINKLES not JIMMIES but hey, I’m no ice cream Nazi…toMAYto, toMAHto) nothing for his wife.

Let me just say that our medium sized creemees are 6 twirls and a top. I grabbed a plain cone walked over to the creemee machine assumed creemee-twirling position (you know what I mean, legs about hip-width apart, one slightly in front of the other, one hand clutching a cone ready to twirl the other hand controlling the lever) the chocolate ice cream came down and I twirled, and twirled, and twirled and twirled and twirled and twirled and twir (the top). Grabbing and napkin, wrapping it around the cone and reaching the ice cream out the window I gave him his total.

He just looked at the cone.

Then back at me.

Then back at the cone.

(his wife laughs)

(I’m still waiting for him to reach out and take it)

He looks at me, “You couldn’t get it ANY straighter than THAT?”

I look at him.

I look at the cone.

(it is SLIGHTLY leaning but hardly at ALL)

I look at him, “Would you like another?”

He looks at me, “Well, YEA.”

I look at him plaster a HUGE (totally fake, totally, annoyed totally about to PSYCHO) grin on and say, “of course, that’s no problem.”

He REFUSED my CONE!
I go back, grab another cone, assume position- - SHOOT. THE. PRESSURE. IS. ON. What if this one is MORE crooked than the other? I twirl… and twirl… and bring it back to him. He takes it, pays and drives away. Did not even say thank you.
I slammed the window shut (a lot of good it did me, no one was there) and replayed the scene.

I really cannot believe that he refused to take the cone! As soon as he took one lick it would have pushed the ice cream perfectly center! I could totally understand if it was REALLY crooked but if a cone is too crooked I always re-do it before I even bring it out. If you think that is REALLY MIGHT fall off the cone, just ask for a dish and a spoon. And, I could even understand if the cone was for a child, it might be too much but for an ADULT? Like, HELLO?!?!?! JUST LICK IT DARN IT. If I were really cheeky (I am in my mind, never in real life) I would have taken it back, taken a lick so it was centered, and handed it back to him. UGH. Reason number 243 why I will become the Ice Cream Nazi.