Obama and his ’progressives’ may have destroyed America or the economy in the next two weeks, but I won’t be here. We’re leaving at 6 AM Wednesday morning (9/23) for Barcelona Spain, where we will board the Ruby Princess for a 12 day cruise around the Mediterranean. While I am gone, Melissa and David will care for you. So, in the mean time, in order not to leave you with something to worry about, I am going to tell you an ice cream story. I was the largest seller of bulk ice cream in my ten stores in Philadelphia back in 1970. 100,000 gallons, so ice cream is a subject I am very familiar with, and will now tell you about a big lie.
In 1866, William Breyer made his first gallon of ice cream in his Philadelphia home. He wanted to create a product with all natural ingredients, and he continued to experiment. Finally, he thought he had it down right, and he let his neighbors try it. They loved it. Pretty soon, William decided to build a plant to make his ice cream, because of its popularity. He opened “Store Number One,” in the Frankford section of Philly. He made it in the back room, and sold it in the front of his store. William Beryer died, and left the business to his widow and two sons, Henry and Fred. They expanded the operation, and eventually they thought up the Breyer leaf trade mark, which was a briar leaf. Clever!
At first, there was no such thing as refrigeration, so ice cream was made with ice cut from lakes and rivers, and made to lower its temperature with salt. In 1900, the ’brine’ system of refrigeration was invented, which made the manufacture much easier. Fred dies, and Henry then controlled the business. One day, he had a brilliant idea.
Before I go into that, let me ask you a question. Do you like your coffee with coffee grounds in the cup? No? How about grape skins in your wine? Neither do I, but that has to do with Henry Breyer’s idea. In order to get the flavor out of a vanilla bean, it must be boiled. All ice cream manufacturers boil the vanilla beans to get the flavor out of them, and then, just like coffee beans, they are literally garbage.
Henry thought he’d maybe save a bit garbage hauling maybe, if he just ground up the waste vanilla beans, and placed them in his ice cream. No kidding. He then advertised that his ice cream was, “Made With Real Vanilla Beans.” It worked and still works. Other ice cream companies also now put ’real (garbage) vanilla beans’ in their ice cream. It’s as bad as believing the dollar has something in back of it, when it is a total fraud, although a brilliant promotion. 90% or more Americans really believe that finding specks of garbage vanilla beans in their ice cream, makes it great. We’ve been raised that way, and Henry Breyer’s idea has paid off royally. We’ve all grown up with the belief that the dollar has real value, and is a pillar of honesty and prestige, even though that idea is just a fallacious as the vanilla bean scam. Sure, we buy things with dollars, but for goodness sakes, DON’T SAVE IN THEM/
When I had my ten stores in Philly, my ice cream was made in Lancaster County Pennsylvania, by an old Dutch guy named Bob Gollum, who had a company named “Gold Seal.” He delivered to my stores and painted his trucks in my color and name (Bijou Iced Creme Parlours), and naturally, I wanted no vanilla beans placed in the product. I did very well, and heaven only knows where I would have ended if I hadn’t moved to Colorado in 1971 to save an old 40 room 1882 hotel, which was going to be torn down. Bijou ceased to exist, because the fool I sold it to, destroyed it. Today, I still love ice cream, but not Breyers, as it is runny, watery, and not my idea of a good product.
The point of this, is that all that seems so good, pure, and wonderful…isn’t. The buck is a mere piece of paper, and ground up garbage vanilla beans in your ice cream is a total fraud also. Now I am off for a vacation, and if you wondered why gold took a tumble briefly, it is because the IMF needed some dough and sold a ton or so, flooding the market and bringing the price down a bit. Didn’t last long, did it? Protect yourself, try to get out of the big cities, and call my son or daughter while I’m away.