We’ve got about a month left of Pop-Ice Season. Wait, you don’t know about Pop-Ice Season? Well, let me tell you about the favorite season of children in the Anderson family!

Pop-Ice Season is named after Pop-Ice Freezer pops—you know, the tubes of colored ice that tastes vaguely like fruit and a lot like sugar. The season runs from mid-summer to mid-fall.

I was reminded of Pop-Ice Season this year when both of my kids were at my parent’s house in July. Pops (my dad Bill) gave a Pop-Ice to each of the kids and the rest is history. Every time we go to Pops’ house now, the kids go right to the freezer.

Growing Up at Oswald’s

When Oswald’s was still in downtown Naperville, my siblings and I would pull a similar move. There was a difference, however—Oswald’s had an ice cream cooler when I was a kid! The ice cream cooler was full of Pop-Ices, ice cream sandwiches, and various other popsicles.

As toddlers and younger kids, we would always get Pop-Ices. All of our tastes changed as we got older, and we realized there was more to life than frozen sugar water. I asked my brother, Wil, what his favorite was, and he said the Chips Ahoy Ice Cream Sandwich. I was more of a Drumstick man myself.

When my dad was a kid, Oswald’s had 12 feet of freezers. One was full of half gallons of ice cream manufactured by the Wanzer company. The other cooler was filled with pints of ice cream and frozen novelties like popsicles and ice cream sandwiches. My dad said his favorite was a frozen chocolate malt. And yes, the malt came with a wooden ‘spoon.’

My grandmother’s favorite was old fashioned Hydrox chocolate ice cream. Back in the 30’s you could get your chocolate ice cream in a waffle cone, a glass dish, or as a chocolate soda in a glass! If she was lucky, my grandma would get her Ice Cream served by her grandfather, Louis Oswald.

Fall and Halloween Candy at Oswald’s

Oswald’s doesn’t have ice cream anymore, but we have a great candy section. October, in fact, is the best time of year for our candy section! On top of our year-round selection of unique and old-fashioned candies, we are stocked up on specialty Halloween candy.

One thing that has changed between the time when I was a child and now is the prevalence of allergy-friendly candy. My daughter has many food allergies, but this doesn’t make her Halloween any less fun. Allergy-friendly chocolates, gummies and more allow children with special dietary restrictions to have almost as many snacks as trick-or-treaters with regular diets.

When I started managing Oswald’s in 2017 I realized that children with allergies make up a larger group of children in general than when I was young. This allowed me to slightly change the candy buying strategies at Oswald’s and bring in some great allergy-friendly options.