Carvel Ice Cream had Hug-Me the Bear and Cookie Puss Dolls

Carvel is a chain of ice cream stores that was very popular with my family. We not only stopped in for the occasional ice cream treat on the go but would also go there for their crunchy-heavy ice cream cakes. For a while, my Grandmother, who lived near a Carvel, would pick them up as our birthday cakes and I couldn’t be happier about it.

There is nothing like sitting at the dining room table on your birthday and hearing your family singing “Happy Birthday” while your Grandmother, cigarette in mouth, delivers a Cookie Puss lit under a pile of birthday candles. I guess my excitement made an impression because for my next birthday, she got me the same cake and with it, a Cookie Puss stuffed pal, like the one featured in this mid-1980s commercial.

These commercials ran a lot in my region and I cannot tell you how thrilled I was to have something that I saw on TV in my hand. I might have even asked my Mom if next year I could get a Hug-Me the Bear. He never came, because that summer the Carvel we went to closed its doors, and from that point on it was back to store-bought mix cakes for birthdays.

Sadly Cookie Puss did not last long either. Like many of my stuffed animals, he found his way into the mouth of one of our many dogs. Still, even though I don’t have him anymore, the memories of getting him are still with me.