You scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream
Those who like it like it a lot.
And when the temperature soars, many people like to cool off with an ice cream treat.
It's just after lunch downtown at Ross Drug Co. Limited and the stools at the soda fountain's counter are filled with teens eating large ice cream cones.
As soon as they leave, more people arrive. One of them is Joe Hudon. This self-described ice cream addict is here for his daily fix of something called Caramel Cookie Fusion. He sits at the counter and waits for his server to hand him a double scoop on a cone. When it is served, he takes a bite and savours the creamy, frozen concoction in the air conditioned atmosphere as he reads a newspaper.
Corey Jones is behind the soda fountain's counter. He's preparing ice cream sodas the way they were made here 94 years ago. He picks up a tall, clear dish and pours 1/3 of a can of club soda into it. Next he adds about a tablespoon of vanilla syrup before putting two scoops of vanilla ice cream into the dish. He gives it a stir, adds whipped cream on the top along with a cherry and then an extra squirt of vanilla flavouring. Next he adds a straw and a spoon. It's like a fizzy milkshake - and it's surprisingly delicious.
Many people, Jones says, expect not to like ice cream sodas because of the carbonated water but once the flavouring is added they realize this is very much like ice cream floats made with ice cream and pop.
"I used to love ice cream floats growing up."
Jones makes a lot of these ice cream sodas for seniors who ordered them at the drug store when they were children. He also makes a lot of milkshakes.
Not long after he mentions this, a woman comes in and orders a chocolate shake. He places two scoops of chocolate ice cream in a blender and then adds two per cent milk.
After it is thoroughly blended, he pours it into a cup adds a straw and hands it to his customer.
She takes a long sip with her eyes closed; clearly savouring the frosty beverage.
Kevin Horncastle is here on his lunch break along with a co-worker. They've come in for ice cream cones.
"It just cools you down on a hot day. It's nice to walk around the city and have an ice cream."
Here and at ice cream shops around the city people are lining up for something cold on a sweltering day.
At the Dundonald Dairy Bar at Tingley's people line up throughout the store and out the door looking for hard ice cream and soft-serve.
Just before lunch a dozen people are waiting their turn to order. One man orders double scoops of mocha double-double and Rolo. The serving is so big it is threatening to fall from its cone so it's placed in a dish.
Another customer orders a triple scoop of Death By Chocolate on a waffle cone.
"What? I like chocolate," he says to the woman with him.
Brendan McGee is behind the clear-glass freezer display case.
What surprises him, he says, is how patient people are as they wait in very long lineups to get their ice cream.
Before he started working at the Dundonald Dairy Bar a couple of months ago, the only ice cream he ever scooped was for himself at home.
He had no idea how sore his wrists could get until he started serving hundreds of cones daily.
"When I first started here it was brutal. But you get used to it and you don't feel it anymore."
While there are some who enjoy the tried-and-true vanilla and chocolate, many people are looking for more exotic flavours such as Triple Tornado; a combination of banana, cherry and bubblegum - it's a favourite of the 12 and under crowd.
More mature ice cream lovers are apt to order flavours such as grapenut and orange pineapple, he says.
But favourites with people of all ages now are mint chocolate chip and peanut butter fudge crunch.
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