Saturday, February 10, 2007

The Ice Cream Man Encounter

I’m visiting my boyfriend this weekend in Knoxville, TN. It’s great, and the experience getting here was spectatcular. Sitting waiting to board the plane I happened to sit by a man I’ve come to know as the “Ice Cream Man.” Phil first words to me were “can you hold this?” As he motioned and started to hand his diet coke to me. Then he laughed, and so did I. We made small talk, and I asked what it was that he did, he told me that he was the regional Director of the Southeast sales division for Breyer’s Ice Cream, Ben and Jerry’s, and the Popsicle brands. Before I knew it him and his sales team (3 other men) were handing me free coupons redeemable at the grocery store for quarts of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. My life felt made. Free ice cream, good talk, etc.

As our conversation continued, I felt that Phil and I had an innate connection and understanding of one another. He recognized my youngness, but also my potential. And I recognized that he was at the opposite spectrum of life, about to retire in 3 months, he was ready to end the very chapter I was beginning to start. I picked his brain, and asked him questions about the business he was in, how he got there, his family, etc. I told him about my trip to Knoxville, how I had a boyfriend there, and the Masters program I was planning on beginning in the upcoming fall. I also described what I did, and Phil noticed how much I beamed when I spoke of it. That’s when we talked about the “fun job” philosophy. He believed that everyone should have at least 1 job during their life that they find absolutely fun, and do something they really like. At this I asked him what his fun job in life was. He looked at me, and didn’t answer. He had been working as the ice cream for over 23 years now, starting out there almost, and had not really done anything else.

By that time, they were starting to call rows and people were boarding the plan. I pulled out my airplane ticket, and Phil and I shook hands. It was nice to meet him, and I thanked him for the free ice cream and ensured him I would redeem them once I got back to Florida. I assumed he would be sitting first class, and that I would stroll by him as I boarded and he would be reading his James Patterson book – living out a murder mystery in his pseudo world where he solved cases instead of solving the world's problems using ice cream everyday.

But instead, I looked at my ticket and told him 18E. He said, “Well I’ll be,” it ends up he was right next to me in seat 18D. It was meant to be. I liked how life worked out like that sometimes. It made me feel like there were something’s I did not have to try and control, but instead they would just happen. I liked Phil and was happy that I would sit next to him for the plane ride, even if we didn’t talk, I liked the way he smiled, winked, and his gray hair. He was a jolly character. I liked those figures, and I liked well behaved older men, who knew how to treat a woman.

I told Phil I was writing a book, and that there would be a chapter in the book titled “The Ice Cream Man” and that it would be about our very encounter on February 9, 2007 in the Fort Lauderdale airport. He said he’d love to read it one day, and would look forward to it. He asked me what my name was and the last name he should look for. I told him __________. He said, well it may not be _________ then though…and I thought what, and then laughed, smiled, and said okay, maybe I’ll be married. So instead, he handed me his business card, but then I told him that if he’s retiring, this card wouldn’t really be useful to reach him. So he took the card and wrote his home address on the back of the card, this way I could mail him my book one day, and it was our joke that it could help keep him busy during retirement.

I learned about his family, his 4 children, 2 of them girls, who were twins and kindergarten teachers. He said his favorite part of his life is the idea that he would get to be known officially as the “ice cream man” at their school there in North Carolina. He would come to their school and give out ice cream coupons to all the kids. He said he would much rather be remembered by the kids as the ice cream man, instead of the Director of Ucliver. I liked him, he had some parts of life figured out, and I wanted to gobble every bit of knowledge I could from him. And I ate it up in handfuls. Whatever he was willing to share with me, I would gladly partake.

I learned about him and his wife’s routine adventures on Saturday mornings to the fast food restaurant where they would drive through and pick up breakfast, but also pay for the car behind them. He said this usually left the innocent bystander happy, and that perhaps he could make someone’s day, or a whole family’s day just by purchasing them a fast food breakfast. How great is that! I felt like I was having a Tuesday’s with Morrie moment, perhaps living the book’s philosophy out loud. There was more then one Morrie out in the world, and that made me feel happy, hopeful, and relieved.

So that was probably one of the best encounters with a stranger I’ve had in a long time. It even got me thinking about moving to North Carolina, because if Phil was anything like the other people there, I wanted to surround myself in a community of people who practiced random of acts of kindness, gave out free coupons for ice cream, and had comforting southern accents.

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