As far back as I can remember, I have stirred my ice cream. I never once thought it was abnormal or rude, I just figured that's how you eat ice cream when it is served in a bowl. Growing up we would quite often have ice cream for dessert, that's right dessert! Remember dessert? Think back, way back before the words "calories" and "fat" took over your life, and think about dessert. We used to have it everyday, after supper. Sometimes, it was pie, sometimes it was cake, but most of the time it was ice cream. Dad preferred vanilla ice cream, so that is what we would have. I remember mom would scoop two and a half scoops into each bowl, two and a half scoops everytime. In the Summer we would top our ice cream with strawberries or rasberries from the garden and in the Winter, we'd top our ice cream with chocolate sauce or sometimes jam. No matter what we topped our ice cream with though, we'd always stir it up. We wouldn't think of taking a bite until all the berries or sauce or jam were mixed into the ice cream so well that you couldnt' tell that it was once vanilla. We loved this creamy soup and we ate it this way every time! Sometimes we didn't even use spoons to stir our ice cream, sometimes we would use popsicle sticks to stir it and then, we'd smear it on our teeth and call it toothpaste. I have no idea why we did this, my 32 year old mind cannot remember, but back when I was 8, Aim was 7 and Nic was 6, this was the way we ate ice cream, as if it were toothpaste! I share this memory fondly with Marty as I watch him eat his "skinny cow" ice cream (yes, calories and fat have taken over my ability to eat dessert and therefore Marty's,) and strawberries...without stirring it! I had already stirred, and eaten mine and I couldn't help watch with irritation as he spooned hard hunks of ice cream into his mouth, it just didn't seem right. I found myself fighting this uncontrollable urge to grab his spoon and start stirring!! The feeling was very strong, and Marty must have been able to feel my eyes staring into his ice cream, because he covered his spoon with his free hand and backed away from me. I guess I have mostly seen him eat ice cream cones, and those are hard to stir, so I never realized how weird it is to eat ice cream in a bowl with someone who does not share my stirring technique! I couldn't get Marty to stir up his strawberries and I can't fathom eating my "skinny cow" without stirring the hell out of it. Funny!