The summer between my 5th and 6th
grade, my Dad took us to Vancouver, British Columbia for six weeks while he did some work/study at UBC. It was a pretty epic car trip from
South Dakota (we sat down in a booth at a pizza place en route and all reached
to put on our seatbelts). We stayed in someone else’s place while they were
traveling – another faculty family, I think. They were Norwegian and had a kid
around my age named Tjörsten (probably not
spelled correctly). Part of the house deal was that we could use their bikes,
which was pretty fantastic for me. I didn’t really make any friends in that six
weeks that I remember, but I did get to ride Tjörsten’s 10 speed bike around
in the neighbourhood of the house, which was one of those developments with
endless circular streets and lots of cul-de-sacs. This was a step up from my no speed bike at home, and there was a lot to look at in suburbia - and no gravel roads to wipe out on.
At some point on a walk with my mom and my
little sisters, we discovered that not too far outside the circular streets of
our neighbourhood was a 7-11 where they had cream soda slurpees. This was the
first time I’d ever had cream soda, and on a hot summer day it was DELICIOUS.
The slurpees were pink – which Mom said was different from US cream soda. Eventually,
I was allowed to ride Tjörsten’s
10 speed, by myself, to 7-11 to get a
cream soda. The height of adventure. Hot summer days, pink slurpees,
and a girl on a bike out in the world. Warm and happy memories.
Sure enough, back in the US cream soda was
caramel colored, but still tasty. When I moved to Australia, I was delighted to
discover “creaming soda” is pink here.
A couple weeks ago, on a warm summer day, I
was ready to relive my summer of adventure, so I bought some. Turns out 5th grade Amy had a much
higher tolerance for sugar than 45 year old Amy (6th grade Amy once
ate 5 bowls of Smurfberry Crunch cereal in one sitting at my friend Zhaleh’s –
her family still talks about it with amazement). Thank goodness it was on sale
so I bought a 10 pack. Anyone interested in 9 cans of my summer time memories?
