Monday, August 27, 2007

amscol


My family and I went to Adelaide in the summer of '73. I was entranced by two things: an apparent plethora of 50c pieces (I don't mean people were giving them to me, but that there just seemed to be a lot more of them around. My father must have commented on it or something) and the existence of another brand of icecream aside from (or instead of?) those I knew, Streets, Peters, Pauls (? did that exist yet?) and Toppa (the late, lamented). Yes it was AMSCOL. This ad was in the Loxton historical village, being all historical. I wonder if that makes me more historical than I thought.

19 comments:

Adam said...

Does that sign say "Bricks. It's a food not a fad"?

David Nichols said...

You could read it that way, but you'd have to include the stuff at the bottom about cans.
Funnily enough I had not 2 hours before been given as a present an early 20th century brick.

Ben.H said...

I grew up in Adelaide and Amscol rocked my cavity-strewn world, but that was because you had to drive two hours out of town before you could find anywhere that sold Golden North ice cream.

"It's a food not a fad" was their lame-o slogan pretty much until the end, with the dreaded corporate mergers of the late 80s. That foreign interloper Pauls took over a lot of their products, I think.

A friend of mine worked for a while at the Amscol factory in Hurtle Square. On his last day they pushed him into one of the ice-cream vats. Maybe that's why they closed Amscol down.

So, you didn't notice the Farmer's Union iced coffee, Dairy Vale, Woodies, or Menz Fruchocs then?

David Nichols said...

Farmers Union I choose to ignore for their foul advertisements. The other products you mention I - um - didn't notice, no. 'It's a food not a fad' is pretty bad, but is it any worse than 'Health food of a nation'? Not that it's a competition. (Actually claiming icecream as a 'food' is probably better than claiming it as a 'health food'.)

Anonymous said...

"Amscol", to the untrained, non-Adelaidian ear, sounds like something you'd rub on that rather embarrassing rash.

David Nichols said...

Worked for me

Anonymous said...

I also had the fortune of being brought up around Amscol ice cream and just looking through this page has brought back many happy memories plus the mouth watering taste of Twin Choc's. Out of town as has been said Golden North had some awesome flavours of ice cream including "honey". Does anyone know when Amscol ceased?

Anonymous said...

My Grandfather was one of the five founders of Amscol Icecream

Anonymous said...

I too was brought up on Amscol ice cream, my grandfather use to do the milk round in the city with a horse and cart, when my mum was a little girl, my grand father worked there for many years until it closed down, i rmemeber as a child, we use to go to the factory and poppy always gave us a twin choc yummm and we always had a icecream birthday cake

Leo. Cor..... said...

My uncle & mum used to work at Amscol. I remember going on a school excursion there & seeing my uncle working in the cheese section & then a little later bumping into mum working in the milk section, I was the envy of all the kids on the excursion. We always had a good stock of icecream, milk, cheese & even iceblocks. What a shame it's all just a memory now.

JasonT said...

Yeah that does say bricks. When I was fairly young (I was born i 1969 so I'd guess this was like early 70s) Amscol sold icecream in rectangular blocks, wrapped in waxed cardboard like that used to make milk cartons now. I'd say that was what the sign meant by bricks.

I was actually googling for a picture of one of tose bricks which was what bought me here to this site.

And I also remember seeing metal tins of it, square an I think bigger than a 2L ice cream container of today, I'd say that's what the cans were.

naughty nephew !!! said...

I was born in 1941 and lived, most fortunately, all my growing years in Adelaide, in the home of AMSCOL.
Googling for the origin of the name, I came upon Ms. Crescent's blog and that started things rolling.
As a child our family was not endowed with a lot of money, but somehow mum always found enough to take us to the Royal Adelaide Show each year (our special once a year outing).
An Auntie (no name) worked on the AMSCOL counter in the entrance to the Hall of Industries. So our first of numerous stops during the day was, of course, the AMSCOL for the advertised 'It's a food and not a fad'. We would often get change for a shilling, having paid over only threepence or sixpence.
A naughty auntie but what wonderful memorys for an 'old bloke'

Anon said...

AMSCOL stands for Adelaide Milk Supply Co-operative Limited and a brick was one way the icecream was packaged.

Unknown said...

My twin brother actually played a role in the Twin Choc Adverts in that era. Does anyone know where I could obtain a copy of the TV commercial

"Twin Chocs Double the Fun"

Unknown said...

My twin brother and I were in the Amscol Twin Choc Ads in approx 1976. Can anyone assist me in obtaining a copy of the advert

"Amscol Twin Chocs Double the fun"

IanKershaw said...

Who else remembers AMSCOL ice cream before it was presented in a brick? It was in a green and white cardboard cube! The smaller cardboard cups were called dandys and sold with a wooden spoon. There were two sizes! It is a pity that this company folded, as they did make the best ice cream. It is nice to see that Golden North honey ice cream is still available and it has spread to other states, but not Tasmania.

Rosemary Warland said...

I was brought up in Mount Gambier which seemed to teeter on the edge of South Australia and into Victoria with a lot of the local grocery items coming from Melbourne with many brands not available in the Adelaide area - Arnott's Teddy Bear biscuits for example, were impossible to find anywhere else in South Australia until recent years. Not to divert too far, I was always a huge fan of Amscol Icecream in ALL forms, I remember the 'brick' wrapped in a rectangular waxed cardboard carton and how my Mum would open up the carton and cut us each a 'slice' from the brick and try to keep the remaining icecream from melting, by putting it in our ice-chest. And I think my ultimate favourite would have to be the Berry Bar, a mixture of strawberry and other berry fruit icecream with white chocolate coating, not unlike the Eskimo Pie. It's quite amazing how these 'tastes' can stay with you for more than 60 years - shame they are only memories......................

LynR said...

I was a lucky kid, born in the early 50s. Being unable to drink milk (which is now known as lactose intolerant), I was bought up on Amscol ice cream. My father bought it in the commercial cans, 1 gallon, it was also available in half gallon. Flavours were vanilla, chocolate, strawberry and Rainbow now called neopolitan. I was always allowed to have ice cream when I wanted it and eat as much as I wanted. I was an only kid and it was my main source of calcium. The bricks were available in two sizes, one pint and half pint. The same with the Dandy, they came in small and large cup. One of the Golden North ice cream factories was on the Grenock Road, half way between Nuriootpa and Grenock, in the Barossa Valley. There was never ice cream as good as Amscol's ice cream and Golden North's Honey ice cream.

Can any one remember the foot long ice creams you bought at the Royal Adelaide Show. They were made in fruit salad with real chunks of fruit as well as strawberry, made on a foot long ruler which you kept for school. We may not have been spoilt with material things but we always had friends to play backyard cricket and footy with, out on the road, along with the billy cart. We also have some pretty wonderful memories of growing up. Baby Boomers were really the lucky generation. Tadpoling was also a cherished memory. I ended up here as I was thinking about Amscol ice cream.

Unknown said...

I worked out of the Ethelton depo, my dad worked their each summer we helped deliver ice ream, dairy chocks, hitops, twin chock, etc, we worked long hrs and made huge wage for the time, Albert and his brother Loyld drove the v8 trucks, we delivered to shops from semaphore to outer harbour, was fantastic times being 16year old was very nieve we just lived day to day with not a worry in the world, money meant nothing to me at that time spent everything on motorbike, surfboards, realise now how privillived I was Mark Draper

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