Ice Cream Parlor ©2012 Bo Mackison

The first time I ever visited this ice cream parlor, I was newly married and Sherpa was giving me a highlight tour of Oak Park, Illinois. We were ready to leave the crowds of Lincoln Park for a little yard and a lot more quiet and our very own garage space, and Oak Park was one of our choices.

On my very first visit all those years ago, we both ordered apple pie with cinnamon ice cream. Oh, deliciousness! Once we moved to the area, we treated ourselves to pie ala mode at the beginning of every month. (My pay day.) No matter how stringent our student budget was, it couldn’t make us give up our monthly ice cream fix — though we’d have preferred a daily dose!

Recently we drove through Oak Park to see how the quarter of a house we had rented for a year was faring. It looked great. Then we drove past the ice cream parlor. It was no longer a restaurant, just a narrow shop with ice cream goodies on one side and a few tables and chairs on the other. It was nice to see the wall of old ribbons Petersen’s Ice Cream had won at over many years of State Fair participation. And the ice cream was as yummy as ever. No apple pie, though!

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.