Yesterday was a spring-tease of a day. People threw off oppressive hooded coats and came scurrying out, like ants from under a log, to jog in shorts, ride bikes or just bask in the balm.
Today, well, today is more a day for curling up under a blanket with a nice cup of — ice cream?
Sure, if it’s free.
And it was, all day, at The Daily Scoop.
For the past five years it’s been a tradition at the little store on 12th Avenue near Madison — the day after the first day of the year in which the temperature hits 70, the Scoop’s frozen custard is on the house.
Tuesday’s high of 73 was two degrees shy of a record and was 20 degrees above the day’s average. Yet Daily Scoop owner Wayne Evans, who knows a thing or two about spring weather, said March 6 is not an exceptionally early day to hit the milestone.
“The earliest was two years ago,” when it came in January, he said. “But I picked a day in March” for the giveaway.
The Daily Scoop regulars are notified of the event via email, but longtimers just know that when the crocus come up and ski season is winding down, they should be on the lookout for the annual freebie. And pretty much any other day — or at least on a day in which you could hold a cup of ice cream comfortably without gloves on — that $3.98-value of rich creamy coldness in a cup would have been scooped up by hordes.
But while the sky was spitting frozen rain on the rest of us, Evans must have felt the weather gods’ warm smile upon him.
By 2 p.m., he said, not a single person had come to relieve him of custard they didn’t pay for.
“Nope, not a one.”
He was just starting the accompanying shake of the head when three people walked in.
One of them, a woman whose grey wool coat covered a wool sweater vest, walked up to the counter and said,”Ginny sent us,” as if she had entered a frozen-custard speakeasy.
The woman was Rosie Blecke who had driven over from the VA Hospital with her husband, Merlin, and their granddaughter, Aleka Stevens.
Merlin Blecke earned his rocky road by enduring five hours of cancer treatment. For Aleka, it was a case of rank’s privileges: as a junior at Legacy High in Broomfield, she no longer has to take the standardized achievement test being administered today, so she had the day off.
As far as Rosie Blecke is concerned, there’s no such thing as too cold for ice cream.
“Never,” she said taking off her black leather gloves and looking around the othewise empty store. “It’s warm in here.”
Karen Augé: 303-954-1733 or kauge@denverpost.com
