Chocolate-Cherry-Peach-Crumble-Ripple-Chunk-Slow-Whip Ice Cream: A Lament

The younger generation may get tired of hearing 'when I was a kid' laments, but jeez Louise, could we please have some simple straight forward purchasing opportunities.

I didn't walk miles to school through the snow and ice. Although since virtually everyone took the city bus to and from school through our high school years, walking home was a treat not a punishment. Kind of like playing hooky.

And I've never begrudged the fact that pants overcame the "dresses and skirt whose hem touched the floor while kneeling" school wear of my generation. In fact, leading the move to pantsuits and then slacks and even jeans was a pleasure in which I indulged with both pride and practicality.

I even used to teach a class called Managing Change.

However, mistaking complexity for progress is driving me into that crazy old woman category.

When was the last time you tried to buy simple ice cream. Vanilla, chocolate or - yum - fudge ripple? If you look on the bottom shelf in the far corner you might spot as close it comes vanilla bean, or double custard vanilla, double dutch chocolate or chocolate, caramel ripple. But you better have good eyes and supple bending power.

Otherwise, it's row upon row of triple, quadruple, quintuple flavor, fruit, nut combos with names that never come close to revealing the contents. Contents may (or may not) be listed in tiny, beyond bifocal print on the wet, leaky edge of the carton.

Of course, you may also choose between, iced, yogurted, churned, slow-churned, hand packed, natural, organic, fat-free, sugar-free and possibly all chemical, although it would be hard to tell the last one from some of the others.

Each holiday adds a new special edition, as if missing the opportunity to expand the combinations might bring about the demise of the industry.

Not to mention the bars, sandwiches, rockets, mini-bars, singles, doubles and a true plethora of sizes, shapes and colors, mostly multi, that constitute the rest of the frozen dessert aisle.

Do folks today really need multiple, high stimulation tastes to enjoy ice cream? Simple, clear flavor and clean quality is all that it takes to please my taste buds. If I ever eat bear claws or moose tracks, I hope I'm winning the Iditarod.

LiveStrong Challenge Portland Oregon 2007

This is a personal and heartfelt plea...............as the Lance Armstrong Foundation says:


"Unity is Strength, Knowledge is Power, Attitude is Everything."


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Since retiring, my life has been transformed in many ways. Chief among those transformations is my work with the Lance Armstrong Foundation; combining my passions for bicycling and for fighting and defeating cancer.

After an incredibly inspiring LiveStrong Challenge bicycle/fundraising ride in Portland, Oregon in July of 2006 (70 tough miles on the bike!) I was fortunate to be chosen as a delegate to the first LiveStrong Summit in Austin, Texas last fall. Along with 800 other delegates, all committed to fighting and defeating cancer, I pledged to develop a Personal Action Plan to be implemented upon my return home.

My plan involves presentations to community, school and employee groups; serving on a Colorectal Cancer Coalition locally, developing and staffing exhibition booths and riding once again in the LiveStrong Challenge 2007 in Portland.

The statistics are frightening…Cancer is now the number one killer of Americans under the age of 85. It will take 1500 people – today and every day – from our lives. It will strike more than 40% of the American population. Right now there are more than 10 million people living with cancer in United States, and it is estimated that close to 1.3 million more will be diagnosed this year alone.

And I can guess without fear of being wrong that each of you fits those statistics in some way. We are all touched and tested by cancer.

I am in the final weeks of fundraising for the LiveStrong Challenge and I Need Your Help! Each and every individual contribution regardless of size is both critical to the fight and greatly appreciated.

You may donate online at my personal LiveStrong Challenge webpage:
http://portland07.livestrong.org/marcia_illian_banta
(or go to http://portland07.livestrong.org/ click on Donate and search by Marcia Banta)