Blue Bell Turns 100

And I celebrated the fuck out of it. Blue Bell was born in 1907 when a humble group of farmers started selling their butter. A few years later they started making a gallon or two of ice cream a day to give to their friends. The rest, as they say is history. They're currently celebrating their birthday with a three-day event in Brenham, Texas. Problem is, all there is to do is eat free ice cream. There was a live music stage and some exhibits, but they could only really occupy you for 30 minutes. I was there for more than three hours. I'm going to finish celebrating by remaining horizontal for the next 24 hours.

The weird thing is, all of the workers seemed really, genuinely happy to be there. I kept saying "Thanks a lot" whenever I'd get some more ice cream. They'd turn right back around and say, "No, thank you." It's like Blue Bell hired all the actors from their commercials to come pass out ice cream.

They showed me this article about Blue Bell (and Shiner) from the New York Times and talked about how the author was really weird, but they were really sad that he'd passed away and couldn't come down to celebrate. They talked about how 11 people peel over 36,000 bananas by hand in 7 hours. Then I met a guy that did it, and he convinced me that it was better than my job.

And then I tried 12 different types of ice cream. Eventually I had to eat a "sausage-on-a stick" just to get something on top of the Anniversary Cake, Century Sundae, Krazy Kolors, Cake Batter, Rainbow Sherbet, Peaches and Homemade Vanilla, Strawberries and Homemade Vanilla, Cookies and Cream, Chocolate Covered Cherries, Cherry and Vanilla, French Vanilla, and Banana Split.

Then I went back for more. I also got a paper hat.