I was inspired this morning by Adrienne to write about ice cream.

With the current prices of gas, food, and everything, really, I find myself repeating this line over and over again: “When I first started driving, I could fill up my tank for less than ten dollars!” (Did you read that with this guy’s voice in your ear?)

Truthfully, I didn’t start sounding like Grandpa Simpson in just the last year. It’s been creeping up on me for the last decade! I knew I was getting old(er) when I started using this line: “I used to be able to get three scoops of Thrifty ice cream for forty-five cents!”

Does anyone else remember or still enjoy Thrifty ice cream? We had a Thrifty’s just down the street from our house when I was growing up. If I was out with my friends I’d always get a triple scoop–pistachio, butter pecan, and chocolate chip. But with my parents, it was always just one scoop of pistachio. It didn’t matter to them that it was so inexpensive, one scoop was enough. Even though I loved this ice cream, I always assumed it was probably pretty low quality since it only cost $0.15 a scoop. (Sometimes older folks like to remind me that they only paid five or ten cents a scoop.) Turns out, these scoops are made just only minutes away from where I live and it’s award-winning! I thought it was just a gimmick. I only learned about the story of Thrifty ice cream in the last couple of weeks when I stumbled on a TikTok about it. Here’s some corroborating evidence.

It’s currently 91℉ here in Southern California and I’m on a tight budget this summer. While it’s currently $1.99 for a single scoop, quite a bit more than the $0.45 triple scoop, I think it’s time to treat myself.