This photo of my 3 year old grandson eating an icecream cone reminds me that when I was little, cones like this one cost tuppence ha’penny, normal sized single cones were 5 pence and the big adults’ double cones were 10 pence. There were twelve pence in a shilling and that became 10 cents in 1966 when Australia changed to decimal currency. That means you would get 2 of these little cones for a bit less than 5 cents, which sounds just absurd!
Getting an icecream when I was a kid was a real treat, if we were very lucky we’d get one when we went to the beach. It was always Amscol Icecream – vanilla, chocolate or rainbow , usually rainbow. Our fridge at home didn’t have a freezer compartment so there was never any there. On special occasions one of us would be sent down to the shop to get a brick of icecream which came in a rectangular cardboard box and was wrapped in newspaper so it wouldn’t melt on the way home. With our dessert we’d get a slice each. There were 7 of us in the family so there was never any left over to worry about and even the cardboard was licked clean!
Now there are just 2 of us and there are 3 different tubs of icecream in our freezer. None of it’s Amscol because the company that started here in Adelaide in 1922 was wound up in the 1980s. Instead there is 1 litre of Caramel Honey Macadamia, 1 litre of Café Grande and 2 litres of South Australian, Golden North Honey.
I must admit that I still like icecream just as much now even if it’s plain vanilla.
Musings of a Retiring Person 