It’s National Ice Cream Sundae Day – and if you’re looking to try a very well-loved sundae today, you might head to Potter, Nebraska, which is the birthplace of the Tin Roof Sundae.
Potter is a community of just a few hundred people in the southwest part of the state, land that had once seen Arapahoe and Cheyenne people.
In 1928, Potter saw a storm where people said the hailstones were as big as grapefruit; one had a record circumference of 17 inches, weighing a pound and a half.
Just a few years later, in 1932, a much tastier and less destructive frozen item put the community on the map.
Harold Dean Thayer, aka “Pinky,” was working at Potter Sundry, a pharmacy and soda fountain owned by his dad.
According to Chowhound, the young man had a sweet tooth and an imagination, so he came up with his own sundaes.
His most famous one started with a tall glass, in which he added vanilla ice cream, followed by chocolate syrup.
After that, chocolate ice cream, then a helping of marshmallow cream.
On top of it all: Spanish peanuts.
The sundae reportedly got its name because the sound of the nuts falling onto the plate below the dessert reminded him of rain falling on the shop’s tin roof.
Locals and visitors have been ordering up Tin Roof Sundaes ever since.
It’s never become the kind of sundae that you can find in any ice cream shop, though not for lack of enthusiasm.
More than a few ice cream proprietors and makers have sold their versions of Tin Roof-style ice cream, and while they have their supporters, the original remains the number one choice.
Maybe that’s why the Food Network named the Tin Roof Sundae one of the best desserts in the country.
Today in 1947, the first newspaper report about a “flying saucer” in Roswell, New Mexico.
Today, Roswell is very popular with UFO tourists, but it’s also home to the Miniatures and Curious Collections Museum, which has dollhouses and miniature rooms and other small-scale exhibits.
So do little green men ever visit these little exhibits?
Why Is It Called Tin Roof Sundae? (Chowhound)
The Miniatures and Curious Collections Museum of Roswell, NM, is filled with wonderful things (Boing Boing)
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Photo by Patsy via Flickr/Creative Commons