Many people know that I scoop ice cream for a living at Betty Raes. It’s a great job, and I meet great people, but every once in awhile a strange or annoying person will come in. They’re always obnoxious, but they make great stories.

Saturdays at Betty Rae’s are always packed with lines out the door. One of these nights I was working the cash register when I see two people emerge from the crowd with their cones ready to pay. There was a boy and a girl, their hair had dreads and were wearing kind of ratty clothes, but they looked nice enough.

As they approached the counter I greeted them with a friendly “Hi! How are you?” And the man’s response was, “Me and my girlfriend have been talking, and we have a question to ask you.” I was hesitant but I agreed to answer their question.

I expected them to as about a product or the business but instead he said, “Does your eyesight ever leave you?” was the question. I then explained that yes, it does happen when I stand up too fast. Most people get head rushes it’s not abnormal, but this man got a little too excited, then continued to bless me. All of a sudden, a prayer was being chanted at me.

I guess I was grateful, but they were holding up the line, and I was getting slightly annoyed. After his prayer was over, he told me my head rushes were “cured”, and I would never have one again. He handed me money, told me God loves me and that I am a good child of God then walked away. I will say that after that I didn’t have a headrush for a couple weeks, but yeah the blessing wore off.

Another time that stands out is the time a couple came in at closing and proceeded to try all 24 flavors. One after the other. I was fine with dealing out the ice cream, though it was strange. As they continued to treat our small ice cream shop as a wine tasting, they trashed the Brookside Baskin Robin’s mercilessly. “They only let us have three samples so we left” said the lady. They were so nice and ended up buying about $25 worth of ice cream for the two of them and gave us a $10 tip. So I’d say that the 15 minutes we spent discussing the ice creams textures and taste was worth it.

Betty Rae’s sometimes seems like a beacon for vegans, considering we have non-dairy ice cream. One time a woman came in, and she was sharing with me how excited she was to find this place. She was excited anout the dairy free ice cream because she was a vegan.. She went on and on about how much she loved that we had this product and how amazing we were. As she kept scanning the menu, she decided she wanted a S’mores sundae. It’s very delicious but definitely has animal products. She didn’t care when I warned her. She just said “oh I’ll be bad today,” while her friends (who all ordered one scoop of non-dairy ice cream in a cup) stared at her. I hope she enjoyed it.

Anyway, what I have learned from my job is that people may be strange, but it’s always worth being nice because at least you’ll get any interesting story out of it.