PSP PS

So, on one of our warm and sunny walks through and around Palm Springs, Coco and I stopped for something cool and refreshing at a little shop that sold frozen yogurt, gelato, and Italian ices.

If you have never had an Italian Ice, it's kind of like a poor cousin of sorbet or granita - smoother than Hawaiian shaved ice, and with the fruit flavors mixed in, not poured on.

This little place had lots of flavors, including the classic lemon. This was a standard treat when I was a kid in Brooklyn, sold in pizza places and from guys with carts, and lemon was always the go-to flavor. We used to get them for a nickel, in a little paper cup, not cardboard but pleated paper. And when we were finished with the ice, we would suck that paper for any last remnants of flavor. I explained all this to the young woman behind the counter.

And which point she said "You mean cups like these?" And there it was:

No madeleine ever brought memories rushing back so vividly. I could almost smell the hot blacktop of a city summer after a rain, hear the sound of a spaldeen being hit by a broom handle, feel the soles of new PF Flyers pounding on the sidewalk and the sweaty coins in my hand, as I raced after the ice cream guy.

I paid one hundred times the price of my youth for a standard cup of lemon ice, and took one of the paper cups as a memento. I'm not sure what I'll do with it, but it has place of pride on my bookshelf right now, helping the memories linger.