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.
My mum always called icecreams we bought “licker icecreams”. Maybe to distinguish them from the icecream she made with carnation milk. i remember how much I loved it. Im pretty sure I would be so disappointed if I tasted it now. I have looked for the recipe. But never seemed to have found it,
Dad always asked us if we wanted a “licky icecream”, no way would we have chosen anything else. Tubs were for old folks! You must have had a freezer in your fridge tn.