Savoring the flavor of National Ice Cream Day
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YOUNGSTOWN -- Dante Bernard didn't exactly follow the precise pattern in Big Joe Turner's 1954 hit blues song "Shake, Rattle and Roll," but he was content to do quite a bit of at least one of those.
"It's not too much of an exact science. It's just a nice foundation," Bernard, an educator with the Mahoning Valley Historical Society, said.
He was referring to the step-by-step process of making vanilla ice cream -- integral to which was spending about five minutes shaking the small plastic bag that contained the three key ingredients.
Bernard was not rhythmically jolting the bag to better perfect the treat for its own sake, however. He was shaking things up as part of an open house Sunday afternoon at the Tyler History Center, 325 W. Federal St., downtown, to recognize Sunday as National Ice Cream Day.
Sponsoring the four-hour, family-friendly event were the Joy Baking Group and Livi Steel Inc.
The sweet gathering also included two walking tours that H. William Lawson, the society's executive director, conducted through the corridor to show where Harry B. Burt, the inventor of the Good Humor bar, had his ice cream shops and candy stores.
"There's so much ice cream history in the (Mahoning) Valley," Traci Manning, the Mahoning Valley Historical Society's education curator, said.
Between 1893 and 1922, Burt was a well-known confectioner who made candy before adding a grill, a soda fountain and ice cream to his business. When he first arrived in the city, Burt opened a penny candy store on South Hazel Street in a small wood-frame structure before moving in 1895 to a larger corner building that faced Phelps and West Boardman streets and better accompanied the growth of his business.Two years later, Burt moved his shop to a new downtown location, 27 N. Phelps St., where, in 1898, the soda fountain was installed.
In the early 1920s, Burt developed a smooth but messy chocolate coating that was compatible with the ice cream he was selling. Because of the confection's messy nature, Burt's son, Harry Burt Jr., came up with the idea of adding a wooden stick, thus the Good Humor bar.
From 1922 to 1926, the year of the elder Burt's death, the treat's popularity and availability had grown significantly, largely courtesy of its production at the downtown factory, along with the use of refrigerator trucks.
After Burt's death, his wife, Cora Burt, took the business public via selling franchises for $100 apiece. In 1928, she sold the business and related patents to the Good Humor Corp. of America, according to the MVHS.
For much of Sunday's open house, Bernard and Jennifer Carr, a museum volunteer, collaborated to create vanilla ice cream that was placed in small cups with plenty of room for sprinkles and other toppings of people's choice.
The two of them began by placing about a tablespoon of sugar in a small plastic bag, adding a half cup of half and half, and about one-fourth teaspoon of vanilla extract. Then after sealing the ingredients, they were placed in a larger plastic bag that contained ice and rock salt (A different variant from that commonly used on roads and driveways in the winter). Afterward, Bernard shook the concoction for several minutes, allowing the mixture to solidify and form ice cream.
"It turns into a soft-serve," he said.
That final result was richly satisfying to adults and children alike, including Norman Hertzer, 5, of Cortland, who also found pleasure in a strawberry shortcake treat. Norman came with his father, Alex Hertzer, who works for the Mahoning Valley Manufacturers Coalition.
"I heard about (the open house) when a friend texted me. I like ice cream and wanted to check out the museum," Alex Hertzer said, adding that he also seeks to support the downtown corridor.
In addition, Sunday's event featured various activities for children and adults. Among them were drawings of ice cream cones for participants to color.
Wasting little time, Caden Godsey, 10, of Boardman, worked with close attention to detail to carefully add color to a pair of pictures -- one of which depicted the colors and order of a rainbow, the other that showed a brown cone and two shades of blue. Each was topped with a red cherry.