Post Script: Mello Rolls

On our trip out to Jones Beach on Long Island, John was describing to us a delicious ice cream cone he and his sister Susan used to look forward to on their day long jaunts to the beach.   He remembered them as being called "Neller" rolls.  He described them as being a cylinder of ice cream-vanilla, chocolate or strawberry- that came separate and were inserted into a rectangular cone.  They were sold on the boardwalk and boy, were they good! The perfect treat on a long day at the beach with the sun beating down, the sand blowing in your face, the waves rolling ashore…

It took a little doing to find "Neller" rolls because, the real name is Mello Rolls and they were made by Borden's.  Close - for the memories one has as a little kid. Most kids from that era (1950's, 60's) thought that Jones Beach was the only place in the world you could get a Mello Roll.  

Thanks to the searching of our daughter-in-law Maria, here's the "scoop", as they say!

The customers at Jones Beach had to buy tickets in 5c 10c or 25c denominations from a cashier.  The ticket colors changed each day so people couldn't redeem stolen or lost tickets.   Later , the concessionaires employed "line girls" who took the tickets in front of the counter so the servers couldn't "palm" tickets.   (Those New Yorkers - always thinking! )

The advantage to the seller was portion control - no relying on some teenager to make extra big scoops or put on extra ice cream for his friends. 

Also, the server never touched the ice cream.  The customer just had to grab the ends of the wrapper and unroll the ice cream while it was still on the cone.  AND, it didn't hang over the edge, so no dripping and sticky hands  and arms (or other parts of the body) as you would get from a regular cone.  

One  person relayed on the Internet how he tried to tell his grandchildren about Mello Rolls.  They were in disbelief as he told them that the cone was the size of the cardboard in a roll of toilet paper, and the ice cream was a hard cylinder that you had to unwrap yourself.  Another remembers dropping the ice cream on the boardwalk trying to get it unwrapped, but picked it up, put it back in the cone and ate it anyway! 

Mello rolls weren't unique to Jones Beach.  Others remember being bribed by their parents to behave in the car on their way to see the grandparents -- the bribe of course being a Mello Roll at the end of the long ride.

Another said he lived in the Bronx and "Chubby" used to come around and sell them to his mother for him and his brothers and sisters.  One man remembered that Mello Rolls were a special treat that could only be afforded once in a while. The costs seemed to have ranged from 7c to 10c. 

Those writing on the Internet had Dads who managed the concession, or worked in the Mello-Roll factory, or sold them!   First hand knowledge. 

There seemed to be a lot of remembrances of Mello Rolls by people in Canada.  And everyone says  the taste beat anything on the market today -- richer and much much creamier. 

Alas, Mello Rolls stopped being sold sometime in the mid 70's.  As one nostalgic person put it, "the day 

I was told they no longer sold Mello Rolls was the day I lost my innocence."