Clinical depression is as solemn and gloomy a condition as it gets in this world. I had once imagined it reduced the souls and flesh of ordinary people to mere skeletal remains of whom they once were. That they walked in zombie-like trances through dark hospital corridors, abandoned by society and family, mute except for sporadic wails and utterances of pain.
In 1974, before the pharmaceutical revolution, before Prozac and other anti depressives infiltrated and changed psychiatry and treatment — allowing patients to come out of clinical depression and back to functioning lives in a matter of weeks — the wards of mental hospitals were filled with patients like me, suffering from depression without any means of medical relief. All we had were old down-home recipes passed from generation to generation: contagious laughter, loud rock and folk music, community ping-pong games, late-night soul-searching groups that gathered in the
lounges until the midnight curfew hours, and informal cocktail-less but still boisterous parties where intimate talk bloomed like wild flowers. Anyone who had a guitar or could find one was coaxed to play Bob Dylan or Joni Mitchell, off key or on key, it didn’t matter. Freed from the oppression of outside pressures, childhood slowly came back to each of us. The ultimate healer and liberator from a present that was too painful and confusing, regression was a cherished, sought-after friend. Regression slowed and altered time, returned us to what was truly elementary, authentic and primal in our lives.
But there was also something else that helped rescue us from the abyss of despair. And that was ice cream. It trumped pizza and peanut butter, graham crackers and chocolate Hershey Kisses. It was stronger than Valium and late night numbing Johnny Carson shows. It was ambrosia, a sensational infusion of sweet oblivion, signaling that soon health and well-being would return.
Oh, for a sundae at Peppermint Patty’s! Patients saved their pennies, behaved to the utmost of what was called “appropriate,” and followed even the most meaningless of hospital rules to get outside passes to Peppermint Patty’s, a New York ice cream parlor on First Avenue. An ice cream sundae brought childhood to their palettes and all the comforts and freedoms of being a child again, innocence and hope: new beginnings. To eat ice cream was to remember a vital undamaged self and recapture its buoyancy.
Photo courtesy of The Vermont Country Store, http://www.t.vermontcountrystore.com
This butterscotch sauce recipe comes from the Schrafft’s chain of restaurants in New York City. Famous for catering to women, Schraffts’ spacious, elegant dining rooms situated in the respectable shopping areas of Manhattan allowed high class ladies to lunch and drink. In an interview in The New York Times in 2004, the owner’s great-grandson, Frank M. Shattuck said of the chain’s clientele: “Everyone wore hats and handmade suits. And if you were a lady, it was safe to sit at the soda fountain and drink gin from a teacup.” A dainty, ladylike sandwich — often, a chopped egg sandwich with the crusts cut off — was a common lunch choice for Schrafft’s patrons. Then the meal would be followed by this famous ice cream sundae, and often butterscotch cookies.
For those dark turbulent, unbearable states of depression — so frightening, so overtaking, so deeply steeped in sadness and hopelessness — I remember my Aunt Dorothy once told me, if all else fails, make yourself an old-time Schrafft’s sundae. I think it still works.
Leora Skolkin-Smith’s Guest Author Blog
Yield: 1 3/4 cups
A smooth, rich topping for coffee, vanilla, or chocolate ice cream, paired with HYSTERA by Leora Skolkin-Smith
Ingredients
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
½ cup light corn syrup
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/8 teaspoon salt
½ cup heavy cream
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- In a heavy, medium-sized saucepan, combine the brown sugar, corn syrup, butter, and salt over medium heat. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
- When the mixture begins boiling at the edge of the pot, stop stirring. Bring to rolling boil and allow to boil for 1 minute.
- Remove from heat. Pour in the cream and stir well. Stir in the vanilla.
The sauce may be served hot, warm or at room temperature. If it gets a little grainy or lumpy, reheat gently and stir vigorously with a whisk.
Notes
To make the classic Schrafft’s Butterscotch Sundae, Schraff’s recommends using Häagen-Dazs ice cream and Blue Diamond roasted, salted almonds. Chop the nuts coarsely and use about a heaping tablespoon on each sundae. Need I say that whether you prefer chocolate, vanilla or coffee ice cream, the sauce and nuts are a sensational topping for any of these flavors.