The best gift I have ever received was my Haasen Fraas
I often share general stories and fables with my millennial clients to drive home an idea that may be a bit foreign to them, but when it comes to selfless giving, I often end up sharing a personal story that had a profound impact on my life.
Here I am, in 1976, at the customs checkpoint at the Philadelphia International Airport. My “special package” goes through the X-ray machine and I see the lady snap to attention, double-glance at the screen and exclaim to the guard on duty “Sidney, we’ve got one here!” Sydney rises from her chair, her blue uniform straightening from the weight of her gun belt, as her eyes widen and she says “Ice cream?”
“Not just any ice cream,” I exclaim, “Haasen Fraas Chocolate Chip Ice Cream.”
The guard, looking like someone from a Frank Capra movie, says wistfully, “Ohhhh, Haasen Fraas Chocolate Chip Ice Cream!”
The lady on the screen raises an eyebrow and asks; “What is Haasen Fraas?”
“You mean,” I exclaimed, “you haven’t heard of a Haasen Fraas and you live in Philadelphia?
(At this point, I was expecting her to pull out her gun and throw some cold cock at me, but I was enjoying the weirdness of this airport security conversation too much to stop now.)
It came from here in the north. Yes, that frozen tundra known as Montreal, Quebec. (That’s in Canada, huh?)
The only thing we have in abundance in our arctic home besides snow is ice cream. Really, really awful ice cream. The best we had was something called “Heavenly Hash”, which was neither heavenly nor mind-altering. The name made us laugh a bit when we ordered it, but that didn’t make up for the pain our taste buds had to endure.
The year before he had gone to see a Guru; Bawa Muhaiyaddeen in Philadelphia. It was an amazing experience and when I was going home someone told me that I have to go to this store on the way to try the most amazing ice cream. It was heavenly and mind-altering in the way only extreme fat, sugar and dairy can be.
A year later I decided to go again and promised myself to bring a giant tub of Haasen Fraas Chocolate Chip Ice Cream.
My last day there, I bought the tub of ice cream, took it to the Ashram and went to the airport. We went through security (you know what happened there) and I saw a little cafe. They must have a freezer, right? Wrong. There is no freezer, but the lady was kind enough to let me store the tub of ice cream in her fridge.
An hour passes. Two hours pass and the plane is late. The damn ice cream is melting. I’m getting a little nervous until I realize I can see the plane from the window and it’s sitting there in the January snow! I run to the ticket counter with my slowly melting cube and explain Haasen Fraas’ journey to the lady. I ask her if I can leave the ice cream in the snow near the plane until we board and she says, “If you want, we can bring the ice cream now, pack it in ice, and it will keep neatly in the kitchen.” all the way to Montreal.” I happily agreed and was able to relax, knowing my Haasen Fraas wouldn’t melt. There’s nothing worse than a melted Haasen Fraas.
We discussed the plan and I sat in the row just behind the bulkhead. One of the flight attendants noticed her looking at a very pretty woman my age sitting alone in the bulkhead seat. The stewardess came up to me and said, “Isn’t she a pretty lady?” A little clueless I said: “Yes, she is pretty”.
“Wouldn’t you like to talk to her?” the stewardess asked me. (pinch me I’m dreaming, right?) “I’d like to talk to her but she seems a bit shy.” I said.
The stewardess turned to the young lady and said, “Honey, why don’t you sit down with the nice young man and talk to him?” She was her mother, of course.
wow! Does this ever really happen?
Flying back home after an amazing trip, organized by a stewardess with her daughter and…wait…after a nice 20 minute chat about me and her, I asked her the question…
“Sho, tell me: I said in my best James Bond voice: “Do you like cream of aysh?”
“Sure,” she said. I love ice cream.
“Would you like some now?”
“But we’re about to take off! There’s no way we can buy ice cream now.”
“Never say never” I said.
I called mom.
“Do you have that ice pack in the kitchen with my name on it?”
The stewardess said yes.
“It’s Haasen Fraas Chocolate Chip Ice Cream. Why don’t you open it? Give some to your daughter, take some for yourself and I wouldn’t mind a scoop too.” (Take that Sean Connery!)
Mom asked me if it would be okay to offer some to the other stewardess. I said “sure”.
(really, what are the chances of being able to offer premium ice cream for everyone on an incoming airline flight).
We all partook of the creamy goodness that was this premium ice cream, but I felt that the greatest pleasure for me was being able to offer it to these people in such a strange circumstance. The other flight attendant came up to me later and said, “You know, I’ve heard of Haasen Fraas ice cream and I’m not sure if I’m going to love or hate you for the rest of my life for sharing it.”
When I arrived in Montreal on a freezing January night, I realized that it was too late to go to my mother’s house. She lived in an office with a coke machine used as a refrigerator (the sacrifices we make to practice drumming). I imagine it’s January. It’s freezing. I’ll leave the ice cream in the van and when I wake up I’ll go to my mom’s house and have this tub of heaven for the next month waiting for me in her cute little freezer.
I woke up to a weird winter thaw of 40 degrees Fahrenheit. I went down to see that my Haasen Fraas had ceased to be. He had expired and gone to meet the creamy creator of him. Deprived of the goodness of ice cream. This was an ex-ice cream.
So, I guess a lot of you are thinking right now, “Damn, man…shit story. Sad ending. I don’t like sad endings. Why, Ken, WHY?”
Here’s the point:
I was meant to give that ice cream to those people. Having all the people at the airport helping me on my strange quest and it might not have been so sweet, if the ice cream had survived.
So what did I learn? If she had kept it all for me, I would have had nothing.
Follow your quests, never give up, ask for help from caring people along the way and remember to share and your journey will be as rich and sweet as Haasen Fraas Chocolate Chip Ice Cream.
Oh, and keep your ice cream in the freezer even if you have to wake your mom in the middle of the night to make it.
