‘I remember when ice-cream was the most delicious thing I had ever tasted’

Do you remember the time, many, many years ago when you went to the milk bar to buy an ice-cream, and the person behind the counter would pick up a gadget something like the rough sketch I’ve just drawn (from a memory that must be about 60 years old)?

A wafer would be placed in the bottom of this little unit, and next, a nice dollop of rich, creamy ice-cream would be scooped out of one of the tubs, buried in the counter, spread to fill the remaining space, and another wafer placed on the top.

Then the little lever underneath would be squeezed making the treat lift up and out, ready to be passed over to you, on the other side of the counter.

In my case in particular, this was happening between 1946 and 1950, when I was in my early teens, and at a time when very few of us kids could remember what ice-cream tasted like, let alone the wonderful appearance of it, due to the intrusion of the war. Whether it was because of the time it was happening, or because they were better then than now I don’t know, but somehow that ice-cream was one of the most delicious things we had ever tasted — rich, creamy, ice-cold and beautiful to look at; I hate to say it, but better than today?

Those years were a time of great adventure and excitement to kids like me, solely because of the harsh times we had been living in, for pretty well all of our young lives, when everything had been scarce or completely unattainable. The return to peace made such an impact that a lot of stuff which we would declare to be un-memorable today, are fixed much more firmly than would be normal, in my brain. I remember, just as if it was yesterday, my first post-war banana — it was pure ecstasy, as was the first orange or the first pineapple!

My mother was gradually finding many of the old, pre-war products were appearing on shelves once again, the long queues outside butchers shops or greengrocers began to lessen if not disappear as yet, and clothing suddenly had colour again too; the greys and browns of utility clothing was replaced by all manner of colours and designs, from companies that had spent years producing little other than military uniforms. For the girls there was the ‘New Look’, with beautiful, full skirts, slim waists and silky materials and for the boys the ‘Edwardian’ suit was invented, though this one proved to be a bit of a flop around the fashion houses, because it was designed to suit middle-class office workers, but it got taken up by young kids instead, who soon got the title of ‘Teddy Boys’ after the design of what they were wearing.

All sorts of ‘firsts’ happened around this time, cars in larger and larger numbers appeared on the roads, and not only that but at night they drove along with their headlights shining brightly, seeming to turn the road into a corridor of daylight — stunning after the tiny lights which had been permitted during hostilities. Factories, which had been on war production for five years were able to make their own products again, which meant that very quickly all the shops in the High Street filled up with stock, ready to do business. Not only that but we were allowed to go to the seaside once again too, most of the barbed wire that had protected us along every promenade was removed within a couple of years, gun emplacements were either demolished, or turned into kiosks or Council storage facilities and piers that had been partly destroyed so Jerry couldn’t use them to get ashore were quickly re-commissioned by eager Councils, wanting visitors and their money to return!

It was still a time of comparative hardship compared to the lifestyles we enjoy today, but at least the war was over and the natural, cheery spirits of the British meant that the best was made of what we had, I think most of us, (especially we kids), quite enjoyed those recovery years.