ALIENS AND STRAWBERRY ICE CREAM: A MEMOIR
A few days ago, my debut science-fiction novel, “Scavenged”, was published. Alien abduction is a prominent theme in the story, and a friend gave me a pint of strawberry ice cream, accompanied by an origami flying saucer, as a celebratory gift. And boy, she really hit the nail on the head.
When I was young, I remember watching a TV show--I think it was "Unsolved Mysteries" or something like that--detailing a woman's Close Encounter of the Third Kind. This was a supposedly true story that stuck with me for quite awhile.
In the midwest USA, a lady lived in this farmhouse out in the middle of a field. One night, she was home alone, with no one around for miles. Out of nowhere, unearthly lights bathed the farmhouse, and eerie noises and vibrations alarmed her. She opened the front door to investigate--and saw two Grey aliens standing on her front porch. Horrified, she froze, preparing for the worst...but to her bewilderment, the visitors simply strolled past her into the house. She could only watch as they made their way to the kitchen, opened the freezer, and took out a carton of strawberry ice cream. In no time, the two aliens devoured all of it, leaving the empty carton on the kitchen floor. Then, once again acting as though she were not even present, the Greys walked right past the lady and out the front door. She never saw them again.
What a story, right? I’ve thought about it a fair bit over the years, and suffice to say that it raises as many questions as it answers. For one thing, Grey aliens are pretty short, and this is before they invented the refrigerators where the freezer pulls out like a drawer at the bottom. How did they reach the ice cream? Well, maybe the homeowner had a side-by-side, or maybe she conveniently kept a step stool in the kitchen. We weren’t told that the aliens used telekinesis or some other power to access the frozen treat, which is a detail that I certainly wouldn’t have omitted if I were telling the story.
Also, the aliens were clearly there for a specific purpose. They went straight to the freezer and got what they wanted. Let’s say they had appropriate scanning equipment on the spaceship (although a UFO wasn’t exactly witnessed, just inferred) to lead them to the coveted dairy product. Does this shed some light on the Greys’ intentions toward Earth and human society? I’ve heard a lot of stories of aliens abducting cattle, and cutting them open with lasers and so forth. They know this is the only planet that has strawberry ice cream, and they know it has something to do with cows. They’re trying to figure it all out.
And why strawberry? Well, a strawberry is basically shaped like an alien’s head, right? You just have to draw a couple of black almond-shaped eyes on it. Is their preference based more on the actual flavor, or on this apparent correlation to their race?
I also wondered how ice cream would affect an alien. I mean, besides the effect of the sugar rush on their metabolism and all that…are they lactose intolerant? Would they get brain freeze from eating a whole carton in such a short time? Their brains are even bigger than ours, so I’d expect an ice headache to be intense. And yet, our subjects seem to have felt no ill effects.
I’d love to hear your take on all of this. If you’re able to answer some of my questions, or have a similar experience of your own, please comment below! For me, after years of rumination, no answers are forthcoming. For now, the only thing we can be sure of is their affinity for strawberry ice cream. I’ve started keeping a little of it in the freezer just in case. You know, just so I don’t find out what would happen if I open my front door one night and there are aliens standing there and I have no strawberry ice cream to give them.