When it comes to making plans for the summer, there are the family vacations, summer parties with friends, and in high school and college, the daunting task of finding summer employment. When considering my prospects for how to spend the summer after my first year of college, the desire to scoop ice cream grew within me. My family and a few of my friends thought this urge was a peculiar one, but in addition to pursuing an internship, I pursued my coveted desire to scoop ice cream.

Ultimately, I got hired at one of the locally owned Ben and Jerry’s in the area. Working more or less than 20 hours a week with some of the best co-workers possible, while also dealing with the ice cream demanding public, has given me quite the collection of stories. So, in honor of my last week of scooping ice cream for the summer, here is a compilation of some of the best gems from the summer:

1. Just a cone.

At our shop, we also partner with multiple food delivery services and one night one of those orders that came in was just for a single cone. No ice cream required, just a waffle cone.

2. A smaller spoon?

Once when a woman ordered a rootbeer float, which we serve covered with a domed lid, a straw, and a spoon, the woman asked if we had any smaller spoons, because it wouldn’t fit through the hole, which was meant for a straw. I suggested she take the lid off.

3. “Happy B-Day” and a little something extra…

We once received an order for an ice cream cake with our “Groovy Tie-dye” design and with the inscription: “Happy B-Day! I also rolled you a blunt.” Following the directions, I decorated the cake and wrote just that on the cake. The night the cake was to be picked up, we got a call from the customer who wanted to make sure that their cake said what they had requested. This was because the said blunt had just been rolled.

4. The “Dopest Cake”

To continue the pot theme, another cake just said, “Dopest Cake Ever!!” So, welcome to Seattle, the land of legalized pot and the munchies for ice cream cakes.

5. No “Refills”

One Saturday a girl came in to get ice cream for herself and her brother. When I was ringing her up she explained that the last time she ordered a cone, the ice cream had dripped all the way to the bottom of the cone. She wondered that if she ran into the same problem again with this cone, if she could come back in and get another scoop. I said we only do one scoop per cone.

6. “Congatulation”

Another ice cream cake order came in from someone who was throwing a party for a co-worker who was not known for their spelling or handwriting as the instructions for the inscription of the cake read: “Congatulation! *Please write as spelled in terrible handwriting, but still legible. Use left hand or something.”

7. The need for frosting.

One afternoon, an Uber-Eats order came in requesting a sundae and in the special instructions the customer requested extra whipped cream because they were frosting a cake and had run out of frosting. Confused by this request my co-worker called the customer, who on the phone sounded like as if it was a kid trying to make this cake, and somehow got extremely creative in thinking of how to get more frosting, so they asked Ben and Jerry’s to deliver it to them.

Perhaps in this technological age, the child wasn’t allowed to go to the grocery store by themselves but knew how to order themselves food from Uber… But at least we could give them the frosting they needed.

8. "Can I have a refund?"

In the groupchat we had just for scoopers, a co-worker informed us that a woman had called the shop that morning saying that she had left her ice cream cake in her refrigerator overnight and woken up that morning to find it melted. She wondered if she could have a refund. While my co-worker was sympathetic on the phone she said once she hung up she couldn’t help but burst out into laughter, and when she told our manager what had happened she also thought it was hilarious.

9. "How artistic are you?"

...was the question a guy ordering a cake asked over the phone. My co-worker looked at the two of us who were working with him and we shrugged our shoulders. The guy’s first request was for a rendering of a corgi in fudge on the cake, which all three declined. The alternative offered was a drawing of a pepper to align with the recipient’s apparent nickname. I once also had to draw a bunny on the cake, the result as my friend put it looked as if a puppy and a bunny had a baby, so I would call that successful.

10. “Kipareo bika days Mika”

When I first say the order ticket for this cake I thought I was just misreading some sloppy hand writing from my co-worker but I checked on the online order that had come in and my co-worker had written what was requested, so I went about frosting the cake. Thankfully the customer called to check on the cake at which point I verified what they had wanted us to write on the cake. It turns out, the cake was for a 7-year-old who has their own secret language.

11. "You are so pretty."

The cherry on top of all my shifts scooping came on a Friday night. It was 10 minutes until the shop closed and my co-worker and I were looking forward to starting to clean up and get home after working a long shift, that was until a horde of 15 teenagers celebrating a friend’s birthday clamored off a party bus and into our shop. A little bewildered the two of us helped all the teens one by one, one of whom when I was ringing her up, said, “You are so pretty.”

That comment blew me away as at that moment when I was slobbered in stuck on ice cream that went half way up my arms, my hair that was coming out of my ponytail. I didn’t at all feel pretty but yet, this girl thought I was and that meant a lot.

All in all, 10/10 I would recommend working at an ice cream shop, and if not an ice cream shop, then some sort of food service industry. Working this job over the summer taught me a lot about thinking on my feet, and dealing with some not so easy requests from customers. But overall, it was hard work that was fun and work that will help me grow as I continue to explore different career paths. However, my family can be certain, I will not be pursuing a career as an ice cream scooper.