This Christmas our girls were gifted a more than reminiscent Olaf Snowcone Maker!
I see them going through the same process I did all those years ago. Yes, I myself was gifted one of these fun contraptions in the shape of a Snoopy doghouse…
I was six and it was the best present that year… I think. I could barely wait to get ice out of the freezer and make snow cones. I was going to be the talk of the neighborhood when I made my snow cone shack and blew that kid down the street out of his barely flavored water business.
I pulled it out of the packaging, my sister dancing at my side from one foot to another, barely containing her excitement. We broke a bunch of ice out of the tray and shoved it down Snoopy’s chimney and started turning the handle. But…. no snow came out. I hired my sister on as labor and had her pushing the Snoopy shaped stuffer as I churned the handle as fast as I could. Minuscule pieces of snow began to emerge from the dog house door. It floated down into the snow cone cup. We had been at it for 10 minutes…. We recruited my dad to churn and my mother to stuff the ice and apply the necessary pressure to the Snoopy stuffing handle. After an eternity (or 30 minutes, whichever came first), the cup was half full and we squeezed food coloring and sprinkled sugar over our hard earned snow cone. I ate one bite and my sister had the other and that was it for the snow cone as the majority of it had melted to the bottom. My six year old mind began to mull over the business plan. Labor (we were going to have either use my mom and dad or not have a business at all and they were expensive), cost of ice and sugar… then I realized that I was just going to equal the competition as in reality, the sum of all our current efforts were just barely flavored water…
I gave up my snow cone stand ambitions but every now and then, my sister and I would get out our snow cone maker and work at making one just for ourselves and just for the fun of it.
Life and Photos by Andy 