The Dip Cone Adventure

I walked into a fast food restaurant and said, “Do you have dip cones?”

(Dip cones are vanilla, soft serve ice cream cones which have been dipped in a chocolate sauce which then becomes a hard chocolate shell. This is something God has allowed in the world simply to be nice to punks like me.)

The woman behind the counter said, “Yes we do.”

I said, “I’ll have a dip cone.”

I paid and then the woman behind the counter turned to a young man who was standing behind her and said, “Would you make the dip cone, please? I can never do those properly. They always fall apart on me.”

The young man turned and walked away without saying anything.

Then I waited and waited.

…And then I waited a little more.

Other customers were coming and going. The workers behind the counter were chatting and laughing but were not dealing with my order. I didn’t see the young man who was asked to get the dip cone.

I began to wonder if my order had fallen through the cracks and been forgotten about.

I waited some more.

Finally, the young man came from behind a wall with a dip cone. He looked at me, held out the cone, and said, “Here you go. And if you will hold on a minute and I’ll get your other cone.”

I said, “Other cone? I only ordered one cone.”

At this point a handful of workers all turned and looked our way. Their faces seemed to say, “What kind of horrific mistake has occurred here at this sacred place!?!”

I quickly said, “It’s okay. I just ordered one cone and I’ve gotten my one cone. Everything is fine.”

The manager was standing nearby, the crew looked at her and she nodded her head toward the others as if to say, “Stand down, folks. We’re all clear.”

I think this is the most dramatic ice cream cone order I’ve ever been a part of and it reminds me of an important truth: Properly dispensing ice cream is not something to be taken lightly.