Things that fill me with melancholia
Dippin' Dots has been "the ice cream of the future" for at least sixteen years now. When I see those sad little Dippin' Dots kiosks at malls, I think back to the salad days of Dippin' Dots, the first time I tried them: It was in Nashville, at Opryland*, and I was in eighth grade. They were promoting Chaos, the new indoor roller coaster, and I ate my Dippin' Dots while standing in line waiting to ride it. The Opryland Hotel is still around, but Opryland the amusement park closed down years ago. It is Clancy I mourn for, I guess.
It upsets me when people write first-person statements on behalf of creatures who lack the power to signify. Like when you see a sign on an animal's cage that says, "I am an Asian elephant. Please don't feed me."
Sigh. Now I'm depressed. :-(
* Edited to add that I looked at the history of Dippin' Dots, and under the timeline, it says: "1989: Opryland U.S.A. in Nashville, Tenn., is the company’s first amusement park account."
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I hear ya...
Those dippin' dots kiosks depress the bejesus out of me, too. So cold war and space race-y. What is it about the out-of-date futurity that makes them so, so--well, melancholy-inducing, as you say?
But, really, I see them everywhere. So people must be buying them. Maybe we're in a small select group that finds them depressing.
Thanks for sympathizing
You really nailed it with the out-of-date futurity phrase. For me it's not so much the cold war association, though I can appreciate that too, but the broken dream. The brightly-colored dots in the logo, the exuberance, the hopeful, unabashed declaration.
On their site, they don't have the "The ice cream of the future" slogan, which is heartening, but I could swear the slogan is still on at least some of the kiosks. You know, maybe kiosks in general depress me too, come to think of it.
I buy them!
I don't actually eat them, my 7 yr old daughter does. I find them sort of devoid of flavor. I'm spoiled by today's ice cream overflowing with peanut butter cups. Dippin dots don't really spark any sort of memory for me at all, except of recent outings to the always crowded Mall of America. The dippin dots cart sits at the edge of Camp Snoopy in just a perfect spot that after running around my kid begs me to buy them (after Im grumpy and have spent $100 to ride the rides). She never is able to finish even the smallest size so I always go for a spoonful, always feeling disappointed.
I remember astronaut ice cream with much more longing. http://store1.yimg.com/I/eparty_1834_6745188
The days when all my friends wanted to go to space camp. My best friend Jen held onto dreams of being a female astronaut until college. I used to beg my mom for freeze dried ice cream, the ice cream of the future.