Rest in peace my brother…
We spent much of today in my home town, Stafford and wish all of it was eating ice cream and enjoying the beautiful country side. Last Saturday (September 7) my brother Fred left this earth at his home in Waterbury. Fred was 61. Today we spent time making arrangements with old friends at Introvigne Funeral Home and at Stafford Street Cemetery for my brother.
As time passed, my brother and I took very different paths with our lives but our roots are the same. Fred and I grew up in Stafford Hollow at the end of Patton Road, next to what is now the Mill Pond General Store and spent much of our early years with our grandparents. We enjoyed many of the things that kids in the 60s and 70s did including playing ball games in the park, ice skating on the pond, exploring in the woods nearby and fishing with my grandfather. Although to be honest, I never caught a fish…my brother was the angler.
After our activities we stopped by the Ice Cream Depot on Main Street for something tasty. As you can guess, I had a coffee milkshake with a scoop of chocolate. The Depot uses Gifford’s hard ice cream which seemed to lack the predictable taste of Gifford’s. Maureen, who prefers soft ice cream had Hood’s chocolate on a wafer cone with chocolate sprinkles. It appears that the Depot has all the basics and a few specialties. Despite the 60 degrees the Depot was a refreshing break.
One of my oldest memories is a visit to an ice cream shop called BellPats that my brother Fred and I enjoyed with my grandparents, mother, aunts and uncles and cousins. If my memory is correct Fred would usually have hard chocolate ice cream on a wafer cone and I had (drum roll please) a chocolate milk shake. At least this is how I want to remember my brother.
Rest in peace my brother.
The Connecticut Ice Cream Quest 