The 4th of July

Growing up, I could proudly sing any commercial slogan. The entire Doublemint gum commercial, the Oscar Meyer bologna commercial, a local Ford dealership commercial, pretty much any television jingle. I’d put on quiz shows for the neighborhood kids…if I couldn’t sing ten slogans in a row, I’d have to buy everyone ice cream. However, if I didn’t miss a beat, they bought a double scoop for me. Let’s just say I never paid for ice cream.

But there was one commercial I would passionately belt out with hopes it would come to fruition. Whenever the Cool Whip commercial came on the television screen, I would sing, “…whip smackin’, lip smackin’, ahh ahh ahh good…Cool Whip’s the one with the whip creamy taste…Cool Whip’s the one!” This commercial would air in even rotation during July, targeting Independence Day shoppers. Shoppers who could afford crates of strawberries, blueberries, buttery pound cake, and…Cool Whip. People much unlike my family. I dreamed of the fluffy whip topping my dessert, but my mom said we couldn’t afford such superfluous extras. And she was right, we couldn’t. My family was the type who couldn’t afford fireworks, so we set up chairs on our front lawn to watch our neighbors dance around the Chinese pagodas spinning on the street, and write their names in the air with sparklers.






Even though I can still sing the Cool Whip commercial years later, times have changed. I can now afford fireworks and desserts. Life is good. So good, I went to the grocery store this morning and stocked up on nothing less than crates of strawberries, blueberries, buttery pound cake, and…Cool Whip. And today I made the dessert I sang about 15 years ago and it was “…whip smackin’, lip smackin’, ahh ahh ahh good.”