On my way home last week, after a long hot day out with Mama, I was longing for something cool to drink. Typically I'd opt for an iced coffee from Starbucks (the only coffee place near her home) but this particular day I wanted a frozen Coke. I headed over to Burger King, hoping against hope that the machine was up and working. It does seem that more often than not, it's out of order!
I sipped that frozen soda all the way home and it was delicious. It was everything I wanted it to be that day: cold, energizing, and refreshing.
I remember many years ago when Daddy excitedly told us kids he wanted to take us to a convenience store near our home to get a new drink called an ICEE. He presented us with this red frozen drink that domed in the cup like soft serve ice cream and was absolutely the most unusual and delicious drink I'd ever had. I'd guess this was about 1965. I loved the bear with his ice skates and big warm sweater that was on the cup. It was always a treat when Daddy would take us to the store to get an ICEE.
I was thinking about this today when we headed home after a long morning's work in the yard in town. I wanted a frozen drink but was too worn out to even think of driving to any place where one might be available. And obviously too tired to think of making my own which I have done at times thanks to the crushed ice feature on my lovely blender.
But that made me curious about how and when ICEEs came about.
Way back in the 1950's, Omar Knedlik owned a DQ franchise in Coffeeyville, Kansas. He did not have a soda or ice machine and desperate to not lose the business of possible customers in the hot days of summer, he'd buy bottles of carbonated sodas and store them in his freezer. He noted that they became slushy and his customers LOVED them. Business boomed and an idea began to grow. Why not create a machine that would freeze these drinks? He built his prototype from used car parts to create a sort of air conditioner that froze the drinks.
Mr. Knedlik went to a manufacturing company in Dallas, Texas to build his machine. Apparently he must have succeeded because Dairy Queen began selling frozen sweet drinks called Mr. Misty in a variety of flavors. Mr. Knedlik's drink was called ICEE, a name generated by a contest he held. His initial plan had been to call the frozen drink, Scolasice. Mr. Knedlik's patent invention was eventually purchased by a company in California in 1965 by a company that promptly trademarked the name ICEE and began to sell the machines to select convenience stores.
Eventually the 7-Eleven chain of convenience stores purchased several machines and installed them under a name all their own, Slushie. The product and machine is exactly the same as the ICEE machine.
ICEE is now sold in movie theatres, malls, and amusement parks. It is currently owned by J&J Snack Food.
Do you have fond summer memories of Mr. Misty, ICEE, Slurpee (named for the sound one makes with the straw) or even the renegade Slush Puppy?
6 comments:
We could walk to the convenience store picking up pop bottles along the way and hopefully have enough when we got there to get Icees. Small ones were only ten cents back then. We often get a frozen Coke at Sam's to share. A huge one is about $1 there. I saw that McDonald's also has them this summer. There is nothing better when it is hot!
How funny your writing about Icees. Jeff is a huge icee fan. He bought them just yesterday for the 3 grands here. Jj and Jackson were fans too but grand#9 didn’t seem impressed.
In the little town I grew up in, there was a convenience store named Boatwrights. My dad was an electrician at an ammo plant but he moonlighted doing electric jobs for whoever needed it. He installed that first Icee machine for Mr. Boatwright and that was big deal in our little town, The cola flavor is my favorite too
I love an icee. When I was a kid (1970's) as a special treat we would get to go to the Suwanee Swifty for either a cherry icee or a coke icee. Mamma would dig change out of the bottom of her pocket book. If there was enough we could get some candy with the icee, if not we got a Suwannee Swifty canned drink and were happy with it. Now I occasionally treat myself to an icee with coke or cherry still being my favorite flavors.
Have you seen the wall of icee's at Buckees in Warner Robins? I was impressed with the variety of flavor choices. I tried something different, white cherry. I also got a brisket sandwich, I would not get it again. It had more fat than meat. I expect brisket to be a bit fatty but it was pitiful. Hopefully my sandwich was just a dud, I was very disappointed in it after all the hype about it.
I have already gotten some good peaches this year, some of the best cling peaches I have ever eaten. I am waiting on the clear seed to get ripe. They are my favorite. This week's treat was a peach shake from Chic Filet
Hope your week is good. Kip
Mr. Misty was a favorite, usually lime if they had it. I think DQ had some other concoction that involved the soft serve ice cream. Never have had an ICEE. Interesting story...they say that necessity is the mother of invention. Something else that is good on a hot day is a coke or root beer float.
I appreciate the ladies chiming in with their biscuit recipes.
Lana, my ex and I used to drive along the roads into town looking for bottles to return and if we found enough we'd get an icee and if we'd done really well we could get a sausage dog to go with it! lol Goodness, I'd forgotten that...It's a fonder memory of my first marriage.
Kip, NO! I haven't seen the Buccee's wall of Icee. I'll have to get John to go by there Sunday after church, lol. The brisket sandwiches I've had there were less fatty than I expected. I've gotten fatty brisket at Sonny's that way. Ugh. I urge you to try it again. And by all means check it out and return the thing to them if it's loaded with fat. That's just poor attention on the employees part! We tried the turkey ones and the meat was sliced soooo thick like 1/2inch thick but it was lean and tasty.
Daddy didn't do buy a lot for us kids. Mama was pretty sure she knew all about what we wanted but he introduced us to ICEEs and an Apple Beer (non-alcoholic), and a few other weird flavors of sodas and such. That was the one thing he could do for us so he did.
Rhonda, I like Coke flavor best, too.
Donna, I remember that there were two Mr. Misty drinks and one had ice cream in it and one was just slushie ice/flavoring mix. I liked the Lime ones without the ice cream. I think they called it a Mr. Misty Float if it had the ice cream in it.
John likes a soda float. I think he introduced the kids to them. I only ever had one growing up. One of the Duggar girls who married had Root Beer Floats at her wedding reception, lol, because she and her husband loved them so much.
I don't necessarily care for Icees, but give me a float any day! Greg has a fondness for root beer floats, so we usually have ice cream and root beer in the garage frig/freezer all summer. The grands love them as well.
Last winter Bradley and I discovered "dirty" Dr. Pepper (or Diet Coke) - lime juice and coconut creamer added to the soda. I cannot find coconut creamer anywhere around here, so we use vanilla, and it's really yummy.
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