For the past three years, I've spent my summers working at a family-owned ice cream parlor located fifteen minutes from my house. It’s really popular where I’m from and has this awesome old-fashioned vibe you can’t find anywhere anymore. Some great things about the job: ice cream, flexible hours, interesting customers and regulars, awesome coworkers, smiles, and did I mention ice cream? I love my job, and that's something I can say honestly. It's not just the money, and if you have ever worked with ice cream, you can definitely relate.
1. Politely waiting for the customer to order
This pretty much happens everywhere, and we've all been on both ends. You just have to keep calm, no matter how badly you want to scoop the order and be done with it. Patience is a virtue.
2. The customers who ask for a million samples, literally
Samples are the best things in the world, and free ice creams samples are the best thing in the galaxy. Then you have the people who take advantage. "I'd like to try one of everything please," is an unfunny joke that every customer finds hilarious. Some actually go through with it, and some get pretty close.
3. You’re constantly sticky
In a five-hour shift, I probably wash my hands/arms fifty times. I can't stand being sticky, but it seems like it's unavoidable.I'm eternally sticky and covered in ice cream, no matter how hard I try.
4. Is that blood on your arm or strawberry syrup?
In addition to the stickiness, you might look down at your arm and think your bleeding. Stay calm. Make sure it's not just strawberry or cherry syrup that you got on you when making a sundae or an ice cream soda (old-fashioned ice cream parlor thing, super interesting taste). I can't tell you how many times I've almost put a bandaid on a syrup stain.
5. Kids are loud, and sugar makes them louder
Ice cream parlors are generally pretty small. There's not a whole lot of room for noise to get lost, and you hear everything. Sometimes you hear things you don't want to hear, sometimes you hear weird things from outside, but it is almost guaranteed that you will hear children's voices crescendo into screams from the moment they walk in, to the moment they finish their ice cream.
6. Windexing the dipping cabinets, only for them to be covered in fingerprints a minute later
When you look at things, it's human nature to point, to touch. Growing up, I can recall my dad slapping my arms away from things. I was always taught to keep my hands off of glass surfaces. However, sometimes kids are too shy to say what they want so they put their hands on the glass, sometimes they're too short so their parents hold them up to the glass where they put their faces on it, and sometimes even adults just poke the glass aimlessly until it's covered in fingerprints and other things.
7. Breaking your arm on hard-to-scoop ice cream
You get comments every day, "Wow you must have some strong muscles," about your scooping. The funny thing is, your scooping arm gets super toned while your non-scooping arm just kind of becomes noodle-y and useless. Yet no matter how toned your arm gets, it's still next to impossible to scoop a brand new tub that just came out of a freezing freezer.
8. Having to list off gluten-free flavors
In the news, a lot of people have started going gluten-free, and some people can't tolerate it. This is a difficult thing to do in an ice cream shoppe. We have premium ice cream loaded with everything not good for you that tastes super good to you. Gluten is included in some of our flavors, and there's nothing harder than having to deny someone a cone because all of the cones contain gluten. Luckily though, a lot of places do have a list of the gluten-free options, or they carry substitutes.
9. Whip cream is an art
My boss likes to tell me that no matter how ugly I scoop (which can get really ugly sometimes), I can always cover it up with whip cream and a cherry. To his surprise, somehow, I even find ways to mess that up. You've got your perfect sundae with all of its topping glory, here comes the whip cream, then the cherry and-oh the whip cream fell. Now you have a bowl of slop. Not as mouthwatering.
10. When customers drop their cones
The only sad thing that can ever happen at an ice cream shop. I can't help but cringe when a customer orders a soft ice cream on a sugar cone that's probably going to fall the second they get it. Luckily for the customer, my shop will make you another cone if you drop yours.
11. Exploding milkshakes
I don't know why or how this happens, but it seems like I can't go a month without exploding a shake, let alone a week sometimes. Even with the perfect milk to ice cream ratio, I somehow screw it up. The worst is when this happens when you have a line out the door and have to clean it up, restart the shake, and make people wait longer. Sad.
12. Adorable children you want to steal
Going from work to beach volleyball, I would always end up with sand stuck to me because of the dried ice cream on my arms. The worst it's ever been was one time when I didn't feel good so I went to bed after work and woke up with ice cream still on my arms. Gross.
13. Finding ice cream on yourself in weird places even hours after a shift
Going from work to beach volleyball, I would always end up with sand stuck to me because of the dried ice cream on my arms. The worst it's ever been was one time when I didn't feel good, so I went to bed after work and woke up with ice cream still on my arms. Gross.
