NPR: Linkfest: Farewell to an Ice Cream Mogul

Linkfest: Farewell to an Ice Cream Mogul

As a kid, I equated birthdays with a great big Baskin-Robbins ice cream cake -- chocolate almond and plenty of icing. For this, I can thank Irvine Robbins, ice cream mogul. He died Monday at the age of 90 in California.

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Laura Conaway

8:58 AM ET | 05- 7-2008 | permalink

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Glendale, CA was company town. Two companies, really (Bob's Big Boy started in Glendale, as well). Two towns really, Glendale and Burbank. In High School,our entire church youth group seemed to also work at Baskin-Robbins (BR as we called it. And still do.)
We worked in company-owned stores, training new franchisees. We often worked in the international headquarters on Victory Blvd. Where they MADE THE ICE CREAM. It was a hoot.
Several stayed with the company. Several of us returned for jobs throughout our younger lives.
Some who were musicians wrote songs for BR. We made crank calls (on the clock!), impersonating Irv Robbins. One of us wrote an entire graphic novel about two BR super heroes, "Tubs and Partials". (You'd have to be a BR employee to completely get that.)
It was a hoot.
So, I join with Dan McGowan, Dave Rogers, Art Cuadra, Brad and Jerry Alden and hundreds of kids (now in our 50's) who grew up in a company town.
Sweet forever, Irv Robbins!
Glenn Wonacott

Sent by Glenn Wonacott | 3:31 PM ET | 05-08-2008

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