Today while working the farmer’s market, I decided to get a popsicle (think “fudge bar” except cookies-and-cream) from the girl selling them over yonder.
The popsicle was real icy when I took off the wrapper, but I figured my mouth would take care of that fast. Immediately I knew something was kinda messed up when my tongue got stuck. I always thought this was a made-up thing from that movie “The Christmas Story”, but nope. It can actually happen. I unstuck my tongue and took another lick. It happened again. I just chuckled to myself and decided to try another tack by sticking the whole thing in my mouth. Bad idea, ya’ll.
After the first few seconds of fruitless sucking, I took the popsicle out of my mouth and saw that it was covered in red. Had I mistakenly purchased a strawberry bar? Then it dawned on me what it was. Blood! And my mouth was suddenly quite tingly.
Being the goofy person I am, I continued eating the damn thing, but I wasn’t really able to enjoy it. I kept thinking that the cold would stem the blood flow, but even after I was finished it continued. I looked in the mirror and saw that I looked quite vampire-ish. The inside of my upper lip (the part that was the most intimate with the pop) was (still is) red and blistery. I’ve got 2nd degree freezer burn all up and through my mouth. It kind of hurts now. Who knew a popsicle should carry a disclaimer?
I was tempted to tell the young woman about my ordeal, especially since kids were lined up at her cart. But I watched everyone as they walked around with theirs. None of their pops were covered in blood. No one was freaking out. Not even the wee ones. So maybe my popsicle just happened to be the closest to the dry ice. That or I have a really sensitive mouth. I don’t know, but now I am reluctant to ever buy another.
I didn’t want to be the “angry complaining customer”. Everyone else seemed happy, so why give the woman a hard time? But I’m guessing I should have told her to prevent it from happening to someone else.
What would you have done? I know this is probably too mundane and pointless for IMHO, but I’m curious what others would have done in my situation.
I think I’d have chalked it up as a learning experience and just resolved to let my popsicle sit for a little while before I ate it next time. Because, you know, you might reasonably blame that first tongue-stick on the popsicle vendor, but the rest of it is pretty much on you. Blaming the whole ordeal on the temperature of the popsicle is like complaining about getting an ice cream headache because you drank your smoothie too fast.
I drove an ice cream truck many years ago, and had this happen to a kid once. (Well, his tongue was stuck, he didn’t rip it off and go back for more a couple times.) It was a PacMan shaped ice cream. But anyway, we kept the ice cream frozen with blocks of dry ice that we just kind of sat on the top boxes. That one was on the top of the top box, with the block sitting directly on it for a while. So I’d guess that that’s what happened to yours.
It’s because of things like this that I got kicked out of the Brownies (for laughing at another’s unfortunate, but not lethal, discomfort.)
Sorry, I had to laugh.
But I hope it’s feeling better. Try holding a wet washcloth on your tongue.
Not just would have. Did. Many times as a kid. Getting stuck to your popsicle was pretty common when I was a kid and I can’t think of anyone who didn’t know how to get unstuck.
Yeah, I’ve gotten my lips and/or tongue stuck on Fudgsicles a few dozen times (oddly enough, never anything except Fudgsicles)…not hard to get unstuck (I lost some skin off my lips, once, but after that I knew not to pull it off before it thawed a bit).
T’other day, I was eating nachos, and jammed the corner of a chip into the roof of my mouth. Tore a big gouge out of the hard palate. Not too much bleeding, but, ow!
It’s like McDonald’s coffee! Food can be dangerous!
At the time of your injury, lukewarm water would have been good. Later? I dunno. What do you do to treat mouth injuries?
(Ever bit the inside of your cheek? What can you do, other than just wait a few days and try not to do it again…which is tough, because it’s now swollen and sticks out more and gets in the way of the bicuspids… Ow…)
And as if you didn’t do enough wrong things in this incident, sucking on it made it much worse. Saliva would have both warmed it up and provided a lubricant to unstick you.
Hey, why not require safety labels?
“WARNING!.. this tongue may get stuck to cold objects”
“WARNING!.. the roof of this mouth must be kept away from sharp nachos.”
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…"Warning! This penis may…(well, you get the idea… )
Yes. Refrigeration is often difficult in venues like a farmer’s market–limited or no access to electricity, insufficient space, or sometimes the vendor just doesn’t have portable refrigeration equipment. So they use dry ice to keep insulated cases of stuff cold, the way people used literal iceboxes before refrigerators came along. Since there’s generally no forced air circulation in the cases, stuff near the dry ice tends to get colder (and still more so if it’s actually in contact with the dry ice).
I hate when that happens. And not just with nachos, but any time I’m eating tortilla chips. Must be the sharp corners. I never hurt myself eating potato chips.
Jell-o Pudding Pops, circa 1985. Took off the first layer of my lips–and the same think happened to almost every other kid at the roller-rink birthday party.
Ate the whole damn thing once I realized it didn’t actually hurt all that much.
