Duppies vs. Sprinkles

It was a tradition in my family to go out to get ice cream on a nice summer night once in a while. We would all get our ice cream and eat together outside on picnic tables or in a nearby park. I always looked forward to these little ice cream adventures. My ice cream of choice used to be chocolate chip cookie dough with chocolate sprinkles. However, growing up in my family, we called sprinkles, “duppies.” Therefore, I had no idea that duppies were also known as sprinkles until I was about 11 years old. Some may say that is a long time to not know what the real name of sprinkles really was, but I truly did not know the difference. Besides, there was never a reason for me to question duppies.

Normally when we went out to get ice cream my mom was the one who ordered for me. One time when we went this was the case, but the ice cream people forgot to put my chocolate duppies on my ice cream. I decided that the ice cream just did not taste the same without my chocolate duppies. So, I decided to be brave and go up to the counter and ask for my chocolate duppies. I walked out of the picnic table area, into the playground, across the driveway and waited in the line. The line was not too long, but it felt like I was waiting for years. The ice cream in my dish began to melt and the cookie dough chunks were becoming very visible, and looking more and more tasty. My mouth soon began to water. To keep myself occupied I swirled the ice cream around with my spoon. I made it look like it was an ice cream castle, and imagined the chocolate duppies would be all the people who wanted to get into the castle. Finally, I had reached the window.

I placed my ice cream dish on the counter and looked at the ice cream man.
“You forgot to put the chocolate duppies on my ice cream.” I said. The man looked at me with a very confused daze, so I repeated my statement. “You forgot to the duppies on my ice cream.”
“What are duppies?” The man asked.
“You know, the little things that go on top of ice cream.” I answered.
“Oh, you mean sprinkles?” The man asked for clarification.
“Sprinkles?” I answered more confused than he was.
“Yeah, they come in rainbow and chocolate. Do you want me to put on some chocolate sprinkles?”
“No, I don’t want sprinkles, I want duppies.” I answered. I took my ice cream off the counter and walked back across the driveway, through the play ground, and too the picnic tables where my mom and siblings were sitting.
“Mom that ice cream man is crazy, he didn’t know what duppies were. He kept trying to give me sprinkle things.” I told my mom.
“Well sprinkles are duppies.” My mom answered. Thoughts of utter confusion ran through my mind and I had to ponder this. If duppies are sprinkles, then sprinkles are duppies, but why did I never know this?
“We call sprinkles duppies, duppies is just a made up name.” My mom said for more clarification. I could hear my brother and sister begin to giggle, and then I realized that for 11 years of my life I thought that duppies were duppies, but the whole time they were sprinkles. Why did nobody ever tell me this? I made a fool of myself asking for duppies, when really, duppies do not even exist to anyone but me. Because of this I confused that poor man at the counter and was brought up under false pretenses.

As a result, I will never ask for “sprinkles” on my ice cream nor will I ever put sprinkles on my ice cream in the safety of my own home. I was traumatized at 11 years old because what I thought was my favorite ice cream topping really was not a real ice cream topping. I now refuse to believe that sprinkles exist and are eaten as an ice cream topping. I only want to see them on cookies, but even there, they better be sparse. I will forever only eat hot fudge and whipped cream on my ice cream, because sprinkles can not be trusted.