Julie True Kingsley: Life Is Better With A Pint of Vermont’s Finest

From: Julie True Kingsley’s Blog
http://julietruekingsley.com/2012/10/08/life-is-better-with-a-pint-of-vermonts-finest/
October 08, 2012 at 05:30AM

(Photo courtesy of Julie Desmond)

I can tell a thousand stories about Ben & Jerry’s.  Yes, I’ve toured the ice cream factory in Vermont. What ice cream addict hasn’t? In college, I think that I occasionally dated both Ben & Jerry every Thursday night while watching Beverly Hills 90210 with the girls.  As I recall, back then we decided that one pint was a single serving.  Needless to say, me and Ben & Jerry’s go back.  Way back.

(Picture Courtesy of Ben & Jerry Website)

So let’s slip back to Portland, Maine circa 1989…

It was senior year, when everything you do seems to be that much more magnified because its all about to change.   I was so lucky.  I had the most amazing group of friends.  Three of us were named Julie.  There was Danielle and Kate.  There was Holly, and of course Mike.

We’d all go to the beach, to movies, to the mall.  We’d meet for bagels or pancakes in the morning, and giggle as we were late for school.  We’d occasionally sit around and drink warm cans of Busch beer, then stick the beer boxes on our heads and pretend to be beer monsters for fun (How lame is that?).  Yet, it’s tackling the Vermonster that is one of my favorite memories with them.

Are you familiar with the Vermonster? It has twenty scoops of ice cream, four scoops of hot fudge, three chocolate chip cookies, ten scoops of walnuts, two scoops of four toppings of your choice, and whipped cream.   It has a whopping 14,000 calories.  That’s right let me say this again, it has 14,000 calories.  There were seven of us.  That’s 2,000 calories each, but we didn’t care.

We shoved huge chunks of ice cream into our mouths, moving from Chunky Monkey, to Best Vanilla, to Oreo Mint, to Cherry Garcia.  The whipped cream was not that poofy stuff from the jar, it was the heavy homemade variety that mixed perfectly with the gooey hot fudge.

Did we finish it? No, we didn’t even come close.  We were Vermonstered by the Vermonster.  It won.  I remember all of us staring into the soupy mess, wishing we had room for more.  Afterwards, we all walked through the Old Port, high on sugar and friendship.  The night was perfect.

Ice cream pulls people together.  Eating a Vermonster is something that you should do with a group of friends.  You should do it in high school while your metabolism can handle the imminent sugar shock and your veins are void of cholesterol.

Many people from this same group got to together for a Forties Feast.  Kate and I tackled a tasting menu called, “The Land of Luxury,” while the other girls tackled “Feast and Forage.” Some things don’t change.

So, I’m lifting a scoop for you guys from 1989 and Ben & Jerry’s.

Good friends and Good Times!

Check out all of the other blogs on with the theme Life Is Better With a Point Vermont’s Finest:

Publikworks-An Above Average Crackpot

Jacquelin Cangrove

She’s A Mainiac

The G is Silent

k8edid

Peg-O-Legs Ramblings

Lenore Diane

blogdramedry

Georgette Sullins

The Blurt Blog