My Autobiography: Ball Ice cream!
You might have heard of cup ice cream, cone ice cream and even stick ice cream. But have you heard of ball ice cream?
It’s basically a plastic ball – with a pressable & removable lid, that completed the ball. When you open the lid, what you find is – SURPRISE – Ice cream 🙂
When we were young, we were crazy about this ball ice cream (and many other things, but for this post let’s restrict to one thing). The flavor was rich vanilla. I say rich, because the taste of that vanilla ice cream was quite different from (and better than) the dull vanilla that we get these days. I still remember the taste – I used to relish it, back then.
The best part about this ball ice cream is, once we finish eating the ice cream, we can close the lid back and then – yes, you guessed it right – use it as a ball! Back then, we were always short of balls to play with. We can’t keep losing balls and keep asking for more, right? So what we did, we asked for ice cream instead – this ball ice cream 🙂
I think, it was made by Aavin (the state-run milk producer, in TN). Ha, what an innovation by a Govt. department back then! BTW, you should eat pal-khova (milk sweet) and drink milk-shakes from an Aavin parlour, if you happen to be in (or) visit TN. These two are very good, even today. Fresh milk?
But this ball ice cream had one technical flaw – if we pitch it on the floor (how else do we play cricket?), the plastic cap drops from the body and the ball bounces awkwardly. That wouldn’t deter us – we used to bowl full-toss or play with it in some other way. Maybe we could have stuck the cap with cello tape or something . . . Maybe we tried? I don’t remember.
The plastic was hard and was impossible for (even) us to break – talk about quality! The body was white, and the cap was blue. Surprisingly, this ball ice cream is (one of the) fond memories that stayed with me after all these years.
You get to eat ice cream & you get a ball to play with – which kid can resist that? 🙂
Destination Infinity
Just asking: Anyone familiar with this ball ice cream?
I am glad you loved the ice cream. Hope you guys did some kind of bouncer and “hit” the batsman and inflict pain on him. Then, the next week, he will play in your team.
We had rubber-cork balls for that purpose. This one was a plastic ball, and we used it only indoors. It was allowed inside because it wouldn’t break anything!
Destination Infinity
I don’t remember how much I had this when I was in school in Salem. You said it correctly. It was white colour ball with blue cap. That used to taste toooo good. Yes, the cap used to come off from the ball as when we play.
My mother gave an idea here. She sort of melted the inner space of the cap and used fevicol to stick it firmly to the ball. I still remember this used to last a little longer.
I used to play with exam pad or daily calender pad as cricket bat to play in classroom. Full toss bowling and catching were the rules.
Good days of mine. Well! thanks for making me to remember.. 🙂
I think full toss bowling and catching were the rules for us, too. Don’t remember the rules part, clearly though. So, it was not only me who struggled to keep the cap fixed in the ball! 🙂
Destination Infinity
I can understand the amount of wistful feeling that must have been kindled as you remembered your love of ball ice-cream. From Chennai port this used to come to Port Blair and I was also buying them for my children. At the end of licking they used to do the same as you did in your childhood. Great children think alike! I used to allow my hall and adjacent terrace on the first floor for such game with the cane chairs forming wicket.
Interesting post. Something redolent of Avin Ice-cream!
Thanks
A N Nanda
http://ramblingnanda.blogspot.com
Are you sure it was Aavin brand ice cream? Somehow, I feel, it might as well have been made by kwality or arun ice creams!
Destination Infinity
I remember it was Aavin…and I remember between Kwality and Aavin, the latter was cheaper. Oh! so mean of me. Thanx.
Nice post! Still I love the ball now my 3years old son had developed an interest towards it. FYI it is from ARUN ice creams.
Maybe Arun also makes it. I saw the ball ice cream in Aavin parlour recently. It’s a good idea = combining ball with ice cream! 🙂
Destination Infinity
Love icecreams…be it cone cup or ball… and summer’s the right occasion too…
Now we have a lot of choices when it comes to ice creams, but the passion – that was present back then – is somewhat diluted now. I wonder if it’s the ready availability and over-consumption!
Destination Infinity
I remember buying the white ball with blue lid icecream for my sons. They used to love them. Nice reading about it here, D.I.
Good to see so many people remembering this ice cream. I did not expect that! Time for Aavin (or whoever it was) to rerelease this ice cream into the market now 🙂
Destination Infinity
I have a faint memory of eating this ball ice cream or maybe some variation of that. Probably by some different company, since you say this was TN govt based. I love any kind of ice cream 🙂
I forgot if it was made by Aavin or Kwality, even though I have mentioned Aavin in the blog post. Strangely, no one (even in the comments) seems to remember the maker!
Destination Infinity
Ball Ice cream.. for eating and playing..
Ha ha ha
nice writeup
thanks
Back then, at least, I thought it was an innovative concept! 🙂
Destination Infinity
beautifully written
It was beautiful to eat – so, naturally, it was beautifully written! 🙂
I used to have a collection of them.
They all came in a single color – otherwise, I would have collected some of them, too. Besides, we routinely lose all the balls while playing cricket (with them) – so, ‘collecting’ was a bit difficult! ” 🙂
Destination Infinity
I do not remember having ball ice cream. Or using the ball for playing.
Nowadays I like vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce or rose syrup.
I like vannila too – Italian softy ice creams 🙂
Destination Infinity
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Total nostalgia!! 😀 Used to dig into this one…
hmm… 🙂
Destination Infinity
Oh yes yes yes. Ball Icecreams used to be such a rage when we were young. I remember that if we ever heard the tricycle’s bell, it was for the ball ice cream. I agree with you on the point that the current ice creams lack the rich flavour, unless we specifically go looking for it.
Currently too, I am enjoying the italian softy ice creams 🙂
Destination Infinity
My first time here…
Yep, I remember the ball ice cream and how I tried bouncing and playing with it.. aww.. what fun it was 🙂 🙂
You too remember this? It was not so rare, then 🙂
Destination Infinity