Freezies and Fish for Everyone
Beautiful weekend here in Minneapolis. I spent the better part of it enjoying the finer outdoor offerings the city lays at our feet. I have a sweet farmers tan (burn) to prove it. Today I’m wearing a dark t-shirt. The sleeves fall just short of my farmers tan making my arms look like giant Neapolitan ice cream bars. Yesterday I enjoyed a Freezie while sitting around Lake Calhoun watching kids catch sunfish at a steady rate of two or three a minute. One boy exclaimed while pulling a fresh catch from the lake that he had just caught his 17th in a row. Even at those numbers the kids didn’t seem any less excited by each additional catch. The father, who was watching his boys pull out the fish, had to validate each one with a silent nod of approval followed by a silent head shake ‘no’ that the fish was too small to be kept. He was a patient man. I felt some parental twinge in the back of my thalamus, when I noticed that the kids kept laying their polls flat on the boardwalk. Many of the surrounding and gawking kids were barefoot and something told me that I had better get out of there before one of those kids plunged a naked heal into a fish hook. That would ruin my whole afternoon. I have too many memories of brutal fish hook excavations from my youth and if I never see another hooked kid that would be fine by me. But hey, back to the Freezie. For some reason 7-11 stores pulled out of Minnesota many years ago and they took with them their glorious Bionic Blue Slurpee. Sometimes I’ll road trip it just to get a good brainfreeze off that classic summer treat. But alas, my Slurpee consumption is few and far between which means finding substitutes. The substitute is the Freezie: tight, compact, cheep and delicious – get your Freezie on! Also note: the freezie works well with booze.