Coconut Cream Pie Ice Cream and Penny

I was lucky enough to get some time in Columbus while my brother and sisters were getting a little older. Most of the time I lived there, I did not have a car and lived in a little neighborhood just north of downtown called the Short North. My friend P. Susan and I decided to call it the ShoNo on the DL.

I worked at a little independent bookstore called An Open Book and managed to stay there for a few years. I lived in a little apartment with a roommate right on the corner. It was above Baskets By Bonnie and across from the Coffee Table. I had to pass Baskets By Bonnie to get to my apartment door and will never forget that this gigantic retail space was filled with windows stuffed with funky things like a mannequin in a bathtub. Bonnie was proud of her crazy windows and she often won the Best Window contests we had in the neighborhood.

As I have mentioned, just south of my apartment building was the restaurant Mac's. I know that my Mom used to meet me for lunch when I lived there and she would sometimes bring my sister, Lauren. Like my other sister, Lauren is definitely a sweets kinda girl and she would rarely turn down dessert. I nicknamed my youngest sister Candy because she always ate candy. I then nicknamed my sister Lauren, Penny. She got the name Penny mainly because she was opposite of Candy in the sense that she saved her candy instead of eating it immediately. You could go into my sister Penny's bedroom in the middle of July and she would have her plastic pumpkin half-full of Halloween goodies and an Easter basket with Cadbury Mini Eggs, unopened. She planned it that way. She figured out how much candy she had and she would calculate how much she could eat each day in order to make it last forever. She also had a knack for keeping track of everything she had in there to be sure the older brothers didn't attack it when she wasn't around. An ability to keep up with an inventory was a skill both of my sisters acquired. This is how my sister was nicknamed Penny- because she saved everything. Every penny. I admire this quality my sister has and wish that I could say that she got that from me. Not even close. I have known her as Penny for so many years now, it is difficult for me to call her Lauren and when people ask how Lauren is doing, it takes me a couple of seconds to figure out who they are talking about. She will always be Penny to me.

Penny loved Mac's as much as I did. We always, always got the Mac burger and so did Mom. We loved it, piled high with coleslaw and covered with mounds of fries. The one thing that Penny and I both liked was a side of mayonnaise for our fries. I know. People think it's crazy and to be honest, I have never done that anywhere else. Only at Mac's. There is something about your plate being filled with tons of fattening foods that makes you think, "Eh, what the hell?" So then you keep adding to it and why not begin with condiments? We loved the mayo on those fries and we used to stuff ourselves until we could barely make the long walk to the exit.

One time, Penny decided to stay the night with me so we could spend more time together, watch movies and do whatever we wanted. We ate at Mac's and then we tried Ben & Jerry's Coconut Cream Pie Ice Cream. We got one for me and one for her. We devoured it. It was gone almost instantly. In retrospect, I wonder how we had an ounce of room for one more kernel of food in our stomachs after eating at Mac's, but that is my sister and me when we are together. Nothing will stop us from eating something that is delicious. "Full" is barely in our vocabulary. And there is always, without a doubt, room for dessert.

That night marked the first night that we noted Ben & Jerry's Coconut Cream Pie Ice Cream our favorite ice cream ever! We vowed to never buy another flavor of ice cream again. With it's delicious, creamy texture, it had pieces of coconut custard mashed inside with giant chunks of pie crust. It has remained unmatched. Many brands have come close to copying this flavor, but will always miss on one ingredient. It could taste like the pie filling, but no crust. Or it can have the filling and the crust, but no real pieces of coconut. It has yet to be duplicated.

Not long after our night of Ben & Jerry's, we called each other to chat and we both happened to mention that we looked for the Coconut Cream Pie ice cream and both of our grocery stores had been out of it for a few weeks. I went online and Googled the flavor, ended up at the Ben & Jerry's website to discover that this was just a limited edition flavor and would not be released again. Apparently it was also a test to see if it sold and apparently, we were the only ones that purchased the flavor. I ran to every grocery in town, securing only a few pints of the flavor. And I had it in my fridge for a few months before it ran out.

We immediately began an email campaign and started bombarding Ben & Jerry's with complaints about losing our favorite flavor. To this day, we have yet to win our battle against the giant corporation. In fact, they never even responded to any of my emails. We may eat other flavors, but it is ultimately, against our will.

The only time I have come close to tasting something similar is the coffee creamer flavor Coconut Cream. Whenever I buy this creamer, I think of my sister, Penny. I think of the fun times we've spent together and how I can always count on her when I need a friend. She has gotten me through so much, even when she didn't know it at the time. We have grown much closer over the years and I cherish every moment we speak together, laugh together and eat dessert together.