When I was growing up, my school held an annual all-school musical. These events typically included a stage performance backed up by a 300 student choir. We would practice for months leading up to the big night. When the night finally arrived, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and REALLY good friends of the family would file into the school gymnasium. They would then sit through two hours of “acting” and “music” to struggle to see their child’s face as they belted out some silly song from in the dimly lit bleachers.

My parents did this year after year. The big highlight for me (and let’s be honest, probably for them as well) was going to Baskin Robin’s Ice Cream after the show. It was (well hopefully still is) a narrow ice cream parlor on the main street in town. I would stare into the big glass case and select flavors to “try” before inevitably selecting rainbow sherbet. With each sample, I was given a delicious dollop of ice cream on a tiny shiny pink spoon. I loved these spoons. They were so small and cute and pink…. (I also really loved the tiny tables that came in the pizza box to prevent the top from touching the cheese. What can I say- I was a weird kid)  but then I would get my ice cream cone and throw them away.

Fast forward 25 years.

I am still using these tiny pink spoons. But instead of a delicious frozen treat, I pour fly food into each individual spoon. Then I use them measure how many eggs each adult female lays under different conditions. Once I have the data, I take the food off of the spoon, carefully wash the spoon, and then wipe them down with ethanol. Because we only have one box of spoons. These things that I threw away for years are meticulously cared for here.

Every time I lay spoons out to fill or wash, I feel a little piece of my fond childhood memories of 31 Flavors slipping away… I kind of hate these spoons now. Don’t get me wrong, I love the data I get from the spoons. But I do wish seeing them meant rainbow sherbet and not two hours of counting fly eggs.