Bon Ice Revealed

A few weeks ago a wrote the post "Makeshift Sprint Coach" in which I mentioned that one of my track stars, Esteban, went by the "apodo" (nickname) Bon Ice. I was intrigued by the combination of French and English words. I asked Esteban and all of his friends where the name came from and no one had a clue. But I had to admit that it sounded pretty tough when the kids said it with a Spanish accent.

On Sunday morning we were sitting in front of a church in Mexico City when vendor strolled by with cooler that said "Bon Ice." He had this hilarious sales pitch where he looked down and very nonchalantly listed at least 25 flavors of Bon Ice. You have to double the amount of flavors in Mexico because there is "with chili" and "without chili". My friend Naomi took these pictures incognito-style and I think she captured his mannerisms nicely. It ends up Bon Ice is a brand of Flavor Ices...you know those long colored tubes of frozen high fructose corn syrup that come in different colors. I have fond memories of eating them at little league games as a kid. I can still imagine the sensation on my teeth when I bit off the frozen plastic on the top and the sugary juice at the bottom. I was a red man myself.

I can't tell you how satifying it was to make this small connection. Maybe the world does make sense after all.