by Paula Johnson
The other day I had an interesting bit of US history wave across my inbox. The Navy is famous and infamous for many things since its establishment by the Continental Congress in October 1775.
For me, it’s special because both my brother John and my Uncle Gerry (Gerard) served in the Navy. However, did you know that during WWII, the Navy not only installed ice cream makers on its ships, but also created three barges, later in the war, for the express purpose of delivering ice cream throughout the Pacific Theater?
How great is that?! Why did they do it? As a morale booster!
Now, as an American history teacher, I always enjoyed the unit about the Civil War. Keeping 8th graders attention during segments of history had its challenges, and war can become a drag with all the dates, names, etc., etc. The Civil War was at the end of the school year – a drag under any circumstance. For that unit, I always had a zinger to pique their interest.
General Joseph Hooker also believed in morale boosting. So, he would employ a wagon load or so of women to follow him and his men on their marches. These women became known as “Hooker’s Girls.” This was the origin of the term hookers.
Ok – I digress – back to WWII and the US Navy.
The reason this little unknown piece of US history caught my attention is because my Uncle Gerry was stationed in the Pacific Theater. As I understand it, as a Lieutenant Commander, he was in charge of Naval Material and Procurement in that theater.
That alone would have given him access to knowledge of these floating ice cream parlors, but if you knew Uncle Gerry – he had a strong penchant for ice cream. Surely, he would have ferreted out this information, even if it didn’t cross his desk. It was difficult to keep an ice cream secret from Unc.
These special ships were referred to as BRLs (“barge, refrigerated, large”). Each had a refrigerated space of 130,000 cubic feet and was able to produce up to 500 gallons of ice cream a day!! With three barges designated for this purpose, that is 1500 gallons per day – I can’t even imagine.
I travelled with Uncle Gerry, his wife Betty, and their daughter (my cousin) Elizabeth. Unc could hardly pass a Howard Johnson/Baskin-Robbins without a stop. For him, this stop was a two-fer. He loved HJ’s fried clams and had a BK double scoop cone for dessert.
Here is another reason I am so surprised that I never heard of this ice cream/Navy relationship. The duo Baskin-Robbins had origins in the Navy during WWII – IN THE PACIFIC!
Burt Baskin ran a Navy PX in the South Pacific in an island group known as Vanuatu. Baskin was also an ice cream maker and made concoctions from some of the local fruits.
He was a real-life Radar-Klinger mix. He is known to have “traded a jeep for an aircraft carrier’s ice cream freezer.” This allowed him to keep his delightful dairy creations on hand at the PX. After the war, his brother-in-law, Irv Robbins, talked Baskin into going into business together (much like our Grandpa John with his brother-in-law George Wolters to form Hinrichs Wolters Grocery and Fancy Dry Goods).
They began in in the late 40s and by 1953 were in business as Baskin-Robbins with a rotating 31 flavors of ice cream.
Uncle Gerry wasn’t one to talk about his naval activities during the war, but this would have been a great tidbit to share and know – especially knowing his strong proclivity for ice cream.
There was a party of the Hinrichs clan early on in Mom’s entrance into the Hinrichs family. Ice cream was served. Unc, ever the gentleman and gallant knight, took a dish of ice cream over to our mother. She told him that she didn’t like ice cream. He replied, “Great! I’ll eat yours.” Both were happy.
###
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.