Ah, Summer

The dog days of summer are finally here, Monday heralding the start of this sweltering season with the Summer Solstice. The major religious observations are long since out (fasting for Lent, etc.) and grilling/BBQ’s are in. Spring’s fruit and vegetable seedlings are now robust plants, vines teeming with strawberries, leaf lettuces rife with crisp roughage and summer’s first tomatoes just starting to ripen.

Another great signifier of summer is the reopening of seasonal businesses, in particular the amusement/theme parks this area is well-known for (Kings Island, The Beach). But my case in point is Tucker’s Whippy Dip (FKA “Boomerangs”), a purveyor of bargain-priced delicious frozen treats located on 127 E. Main St. in my hometown of Mason, OH. Though their eponymous sign bearing a cartoon soft serve donning sunglasses and a delightful grin has been missing from its rooftop for over a year (it’s still being repainted), few realize it nor need it to remember where their favorite treats are. Tucker’s menu is fairly diverse – one can choose just a simple soft serve with their choice of toppings, an elaborate hot fudge sundae or good ol’ banana split, an ice cream Swirlie with the candy of their choice (their equivalent to Dairy Queen’s Blizzard – it’s what I always get when I go there), a devilish mixture of slushie and soft serve called a Glacier (my husband is fond of the cherry flavor) and much more. They even serve a few hot items such as hot dogs and nachos, as well as soft drinks. This small but heavily populated establishment opens at 1 pm during the week (11 am on Saturday) and stays open well beyond sunset, offering an opportunity for those craving a late-night treat to get it before 10 pm.

Today was my fourth or fifth visit to said place this season (they opened in May) and as I drove up and took advantage of the few parking spaces they have, I was surprised to see that not one patron was in sight (a far cry from how it looks between the hours of 5 and 9 pm – it’s so thick with people then that there is little room to stand, much less sit, on their modest patio). Anyone who knows me knows that I love to be first in line for something I really want so that was a treat in itself.

I placed my usual order (small chocolate soft serve in a cup w/rainbow jimmies, small Butterfinger swirlie) at their window, sighing with rapture from the crisp, cold air that wafted through it onto my sweaty face, and sat down with my daughters at one of the available picnic tables, its giant rainbow-paneled umbrella providing the perfect amount of shade for the time of day (it was a little past 2 pm). The air was thick with moisture from the morning’s thunderstorm and a peaking temperature of nearly 90 degrees only encouraged us to gorge ourselves on ice cream so we all dug in immediately once our order was up.





Within just a few minutes, there was nothing left of the chocolate soft serve but a thin coating in their Styrofoam bowls (plus a few random jimmies) and a brown ring around each of my daughter’s mouths coupled with grateful smiles. I wiped them clean with a napkin and a splash of water and then lined both of them up in front of the place to take a picture, wanting to preserve our “sweet” moment.



Our visits this season will outnumber what we can count on our hands.