Gabe Martinez ’24
It’s a beautiful Wednesday afternoon, and school has let out at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School. Students hop on the bus, get ready for sports, and relax after a long day of school. But if they’re hankering for a sweet treat, they can go to the front of campus to Fred’s Ice Cream truck, where every day, Farooz Amini gives out delicious, sweet treats.
Amini has been selling ice cream since 1983, after immigrating to the United States after the Iranian revolution. Amini can be found in front of campus after school from 3:15 until 4, selling ice cream, shaved ice, and drinks to hoards of students and teachers alike. His truck is a vibrant orange and blue, with a picture of him giving ice cream to some penguins plastered on. In comic sans, the penguins proclaim “one smile, please.”
I had the opportunity to sit down with Amini to discuss his time selling ice cream around Montgomery County, and ask him about his thoughts on our patronage to his truck. Thankfully, he seems to think we’re good customers, recalling a particularly generous student:
“Everybody’s a billionaire, a kid gave me an 80 dollar tip yesterday.” Amini said that a student came by for ice cream, but told Amini that he couldn’t have ice cream until 6pm, when his father arrived, to which Amini replied that he’d be there. Upon the student’s return, his father gave him his credit card and told Amini that the kids could spend a maximum of 200 dollars, and that while the order did not reach 200 dollars, the student gave him an 80 dollar tip.
Throughout his 40 year career, Amini has experienced many ups and downs in the ice cream business, but a particular down was during the pandemic.
“Well, we didn’t work for a while, then we realized that we could work… we lost the business at first. The school was closed, parks were closed, but believe it or not it helped me alot because people couldn’t go anywhere, so they started hiring me to go to events.”
As it turned out, amidst the pandemic, there was one group which single handedly helped keep Amini’s business afloat, “Moms Group.”
Amini had no idea what the group actually was, theorizing that it could have been a group chat where mothers shared resources, or a facebook group. There are a few organizations that Amini could be referring to, there’s the MOMS club, which is an organization that provides resources and activities for mothers nationally, and there’s the Bethesda Potomac Rockville Moms, which is a facebook group that shares resources and kid-friendly events in and around Montgomery County, MD. Whichever organization it was, it helped Amini’s business to stay afloat, hiring him for birthday parties and school events. In one particular case, a mother called him citing that she heard of him from the Moms group, saying, “If Moms trust you, you have to be good.”
I also asked Amini about our shopping habits, particularly what kind of ice cream we tend to buy. He responded by explaining that while the classic ice creams, like the sundaes and vanilla bowls were incredibly popular, currently the most popular one is the Good Humor Chocolate Chip Cookie Sandwich.
It’s safe to say that Amini is an icon of our school, and the next time you wrap up school, be sure to stop by to buy some ice cream, and say “hi” to Farooz “Fred” Amini, the ice cream man.