While weeding the garden last Sunday, I suddenly heard the familiar jingle “It’s a Small World” playing in the distance. My curiosity piqued, I soon discovered a small white refrigerated truck traveling down our country road at a snail’s pace trolling for customers.
Instantaneously my nerves went on high alert and my feet started moving. I desperately wanted an orange Creamsicle or a gooey ice cream sandwich and I was going to get one! Then, I quickly reconsidered perceiving that at my age I was far from the vendor’s desired customer. Although I successfully resisted the urge to chase down the truck, my incessant desire to do so took me completely by surprise.
It has been 40 years since an ice cream vendor appeared at my doorstep, though as a child growing up on the backstreets of Pittsburgh it was a nightly occurrence. After hot, humid days filled with kickball, games of hearts or sprinkler parties, the Goody Bar truck’s daily appearance was something our neighborhood welcomed, conditioned to do so at an early age. My friends and I loved eying all the treat decals on the back of the truck and willingly performed any chore our parents asked of us 
to earn the dime necessary for one of those wonderful sugary and fat-laden concoctions.
As I questioned the intensity of my reaction ( I walk right by these same ice cream treats in grocery stores with nary a thought) I remembered a section of the book The End of Overeating, in which the author, Dr. David Kessler describes in detail how emotions can make food memorable and stimulate our desires.
Here’s the abridged version: We all have personal experiences that give particular foods an emotional charge, be it a positive association with chowing down a steamed hot dog while watching a major or minor baseball league game, visiting one’s grandparent and feasting on her warm apple pie or cooking freshly caught trout over an open campfire. These emotions get stuffed in our memory bank but are easily recalled when triggered by some kind of cue. Once triggered, these memories are extremely powerful, interacting with reward pathways in our brains and creating powerful cravings.
Put another way, because as a child I found eating the vendor’s ice cream treats so rewarding, when I heard the musical jingle last weekend, the memories that had been tucked away and lying dormant for all these years, woke up with a jolt , significantly heightening my desire to pursue the ice cream bars and drumsticks. While I managed to avoid the treats this time around, those recalled memories kept me in an upbeat and happy place for the remainder of the day. Ah, if only I had such positive memories attached to eating cauliflower.
Please join us this summer for the Sizzlin’ Summer Challenge and share some of your favorite summer food memories.