I have to set the background, so bear with me ...
Circa 50 years ago I had a summer job stewarding tons of ice cream at an otherwise abandoned dairy plant downtown (in my hometown). The dairy company had moved to a new facility miles away, but the new place didn't have something the old place did - a massive storage chamber maintained at a constant 20 degrees below zero (F.).
This was a vestige of the old plant's role in manufacturing ice cream and ice cream novelties of all sorts. It had been the "freezing room" in which the newly-made ice cream was solidified.
When the company moved to their new plant it proved more economical to keep this one vestigial room operational as a storage facility than to replicate it at the new location.
The old dairy plant, which took up half a city block, was therefore a secure derelict complex with a single room and adjacent loading dock that served as my domain. I was the only soul occupying the place, day in / day out.
Each morning a tractor-trailer rig would pull in and I'd unload (literally) tons of ice cream. My only other duties consisted of assembling and loading the daily cargo for the four wholesale route trucks distributing the goodies to restaurants (etc.) throughout our service area. Other than these prescribed tasks I had the entire work day to myself - e.g., to read and sometimes explore the old complex.
Any ice cream packaging that became even slightly soiled or damaged had to be removed from inventory and "destroyed." If a single pint container in a case leaked, the whole case was doomed by policy and regulations.
Luckily, no precise specification had ever been applied to the means of destruction. As a result, I had sole access to a private collection of ice cream of all types (lolly treats up to 5-gallon restaurant / soda fountain tubs) representing circa 3,000 - 5,000 pounds of pure sinful pleasure.
Now, to milkshakes ...
Across the street was one of the town's oldest restaurants / diners. I made a deal with the venerable waitress who ran the place during the lunch shift. I'd bring in two pints of ice cream, of which one was a gift to her and the other was turned into a milkshake to accompany my sandwich or burger.
This allowed me to experiment with milkshakes of any flavor available in my vault's holdings.
Tip From Experience: Avoid using ice cream containing solid chunks in making milkshakes. A butter pecan shake is heavenly, but the chunks clog up your straw.
(separate of course!)
