People Are Strange...

Mainers are known as a hardy, resourceful breed. World renowned for the taciturn turn of phrase, Yankee thrift and clannishness.

Bet you didn't know we were all addictive personalities, too...

I was driving home from town tonight after a fuel run. It was snowing, in fact it had begun only forty minutes earlier, but it was already sticking to the roads and windshield where the wipers don't swipe. The weather cretins are overjoyed, forecasting 6 to 11 inches of the white stuff by early morning, to be topped off by a half inch or more of ice and a two inch changeover to sleet and rain. Important stuff for a place that lives and dies by the weather forecast. So it's snowing a fair clip, with small flakes of snow that make lovely swirls as the wind blows them around in the eddies of wind from passing cars. Then I saw it – all lit up inside, but no signs or other exterior indication of being open for business, except for one anomalous fact: the tiny parking lot was full to overflowing with cars waiting for others to leave so they could enter.

Tomorrow is Saint Patrick's Day, but more important around here, it is opening day for the Gifford's Ice Cream stand. As a practical matter, the proprietors know a shakedown is a good thing. So, for two hours the night before the Grand Opening for the season, they give away, free of charge or obligation, a single scoop dish of any flavor on the menu to one and all who show up. Tonight, the time frame was set from six to eight PM. At approximately 7:45 as I drove by, I observed about 120 cars in the lot, with people qued up (standing in a line) at each serving window, stretching almost a hundred feet in each row across the parking lot. In some cases, blocking the entrance and exit to the lot! Perhaps 250 people in total, waiting patiently in the driving snow for their fee half cup of ice cream.

Did I mention the temperature was 26°F? That the wind was blowing about fifteen miles per hour? That these nutcases had a half hour wait before they'd get to the head of the line? All for a half cup of ice cream?

That's true addicition, if you ask me...