Ice Cream Solo, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 1958
A fair-haired little girl spoon-feeds herself ice cream while reclining in her pajamas on the couch. Color-wise, the trio of printed patterns that abound around her—the calico blanket, leafy slipcover and feathery wallpaper—are layered like the flavors of Neapolitan ice cream: strawberry, chocolate and vanilla.
If she needs a little light to eat by, that’s not a problem. The cherry on top of this ice creamy scene is the red-gathered plastic lampshade. A hand crocheted doily—the kind grandma makes—protects the end table top from the lamp’s scratchy ceramic base. This slide is marked “Patsy sick.” Everyone knows ice cream is good medicine. She enjoys the frozen sweet treat sensation the way it tastes best, right out of the half-gallon container. Thankfully, she placed the label so we could read it, because, of course, we want to know where that cream was sweetened, flavored and iced. It’s Pensupreme, a morph of its Liberty Bell state of origin and fine quality.I’m not sure if Little Miss Patsy’s faking it or if she really is sick, but either way, her dignity, poise and posture makes me think of “Whistler’s Mother,” an icon of American art painted in 1871 by James McNeill Whistler.
Here’s to Whistler’s Ice Cream Eater, ice cream colored interior décor and YOU!
Charles Phoenix
May 19, 2010
I’m thinkin’ that this is a little post-tonsillectomy medicine . . . back in the good old days when we all had them removed @ five years old or so . . . sure beats the ice chips I had to chill the pain!
Great photo. What brand of ice cream? I would kill for that lamp!
Great shot! Looks like a kid not faking it, and with tonsillitis, to me. Everybody knows you get ice cream after a tonsillectomy.
I’ll bet she just had her tonsils out!
You do good work! Please keep ‘em comin’!
Wasn’t America so cozy back in 58? Love it.
When I was a kid, they used to give ice cream to those who had had their tonsils out. So Patsy may not be faking it!
Reminds me of my daughter today. I would guess that she’s probably watching her favorite cartoon too!
I remember in the 50′s it was common for kids to have their tonsils removed for just about any reason. The bright side to the procedure was that you could eat all the ice cream you wanted as it soothed the soreness. Maybe Patsy was a tonsillectomy survivor!
charles, where did you get that picture of me??