Opinion - Columns - Kathe Tanner

Thursday, Jun. 25, 2009

Butter Brickle graduates to family-legend status

Sleepovers, laughter mark granddaughter's promotion

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A month or so ago, when our about-to-be daughter-in-law Kim wanted to order an ice-cream birthday cake for her fiancé Sean, she asked him a simple, thoughtful question, “What’s your favorite kind of ice cream?”

After some hemming and hawing — he likes lots of flavors — Sean replied, “Butter Brickle.” Kim responded with guffaws. “Whaaaaaaat? What’s that?” she asked. “You’re kidding me, right?”

Obviously, she’d never heard the copyrighted trade name for that light, crunchy toffee. When it's folded into silky, caramel ice cream, it creates a dessert to remember, obviously.

I understand Butter Brickle ice cream was popular from the 1920s to the 1970s, but is rarely found these days because it costs money to use the name. Now most firms sell English toffee ice cream instead.

Sean tried explaining Butter Brickle to Kim, which only made her laugh harder. Their blended family of daughters — ages 13, 10, 10 and 6 — joined in the hilarity.

It is a silly-sounding name.

Fortunately, there’s no trademark charge for creating a family legend. But to explain, I must digress a bit.

On June 11, Grandgirl Caitlyn was promoted from middle school to high school. “It’s not a big thing, G-ma” she’d said bravely earlier, when we’d told her we couldn’t attend due to work-schedule clashes.

“Maybe it isn’t,” I’d replied grumpily. “But you are.”

Then our caring EditorBoss Bert all but insisted on switching my vacation dates so we could attend. Bless you, Bert! We quickly and happily made last-minute plans, also arranging for Caity and her sister Alyssa to spend two nights of “sleepovers” at our motel in Davis, where Sean and Kim live.

What we hadn’t realized was that literally thousands of U.C. Davis seniors also were graduating that weekend. The university town was packed tighter than Dolly Parton’s brassiere.

Finally, we snagged what must have been the last available room in the entire town. It was … um …. cozy, stuffed with two queen-sized beds, a tiny desk-table, chair, TV armoire-ette and a nightstand, leaving less than two feet of open space around the edges. Suitcases? Surely you jest.

In the end, the tight quarters didn’t matter.

The two girls were entirely in charge during the two days, plotting our schedule, activities and meals. If they couldn’t agree on something, they had to negotiate the solution between themselves.

Husband Richard and I explained such things as the unlikelihood of finding a parking space on graduation Friday night in downtown Davis, or how long the wait might be at a popular restaurant. But the girls made the decisions. They joyously planned to swim, shop, see a movie, get fresh doughnuts for breakfast, have a crab dinner and spend two days bossing around their G-ma and G-pa.

Some plans went awry: Amazingly, it was too chilly to swim, and we couldn’t find the kind of shopping areas in Davis that the girls wanted. We wound up at Rite-Aid (what a thrill).

But lunch at Joe’s Crab House in Old Town Sacramento was tasty, lengthy, messy and hilarious. Caity browsed and finally selected her own perfect “graduation” gift. We battled through some hard-fought games of Scrabble. The doughnuts were sinfully wonderful.

Coming in second after the promotion ceremony, however, the trip’s highlight was within Pixar’s cartoon movie “Up”, as we watched the little Boy Scout describing sylvan days before his father divorced and drifted away.

After every father-son adventure, the child recalled, they’d shared ice cream cones, one always chocolate and the other …. you guessed it …. Butter Brickle.

The four of us roared with instantaneous and nonstop laughter, much to the bemusement of other movie-goers around us. Then, in unison, Caity and Lyssie looked at me, pointed their forefingers and stage-whispered, “Don’t say it, G-ma … don’t say ‘I told you so!’ ”

That just made us laugh harder, longer.

We were still giggling when the movie let out. I immediately sent a text message to Sean, saying, “You’ve been vindicated. Butter Brickle.”

What a wonderful vacation! We saw our beloved Caity move into her future on her first pair of high heels. The sleepover was a huge success. We spent time with the rest of the family, too, and enjoyed it all.

Best of all, our last-minute trip had produced wonderful memories and what I’m sure will be a lifelong laugh trigger … just say “Butter Brickle.”

E-mail Kathe Tanner at ktanner@thetribunenews.com. Read more “Slices” at thecambrian.com.