Water Ice

Almost a necessity, but definitely one of summer's hot commodities ? water ice ? has just a few more months on the market. Then it's good-bye for the winter. Since shops reopened for the season in mid-March, business has stayed busy, peaking in June and July. As the season begins to wind down for a close about November, owners have said this year was highly successful for sales of custard, ice cream and water ice. Lines of people flooded into the parking lots of Mister Softee in Pennsauken and Cherry's of Cherry Hill during the summer, said shop owners.

Even as you read these words, there are folks down in Florida, coming off the beach, getting hotter and sweatier by the minute. Don't you think they'd find a cup of water ice refreshing? Bob Tumolo surely thinks so. After watching his company, Rita's Water Ice, grow to more than 20 stands in the Philadelphia region, he expects franchisees to open 24 Rita's in Florida this year. Since 1984, when Tumolo and his mother, Elizabeth, opened their first stand on a Bristol Pike front porch - naming it after Tumolo's wife, Rita - the family-run company has become synonymous with water ice in many parts of the Philadelphia area.

Cooling out on a hot day, Jessica Donato (left), 6, and her 2-year-old sister, Mia, snack on some water ice from Cabana's on Haddon Avenue. A change in the weather is predicted to bring a more widespread cooling trend to the area today, with thunderstorms in some sections. The end of the week is expected to be sunny, with temperatures around 80.

Water ice, soft-serve, and pierogis? It's a Port Richmond thing. When Stanley and Lisa Kopertowski reopened the Aramingo Avenue food stand Hank's, they drafted chef Stan Pliszka (Hinge Cafe), who has a solid handle on the Polish foods he grew up on. Most of his food, from kielbasa to beef, is sourced to the neighborhood. You have to try his pierogi - homemade farmer's cheese, sauerkraut, and dough, which his mother, Kathy, and fiancee, Cheryl Guy, come in to prep. Pierogis ($10 a dozen)

They putter about just over the border in Philadelphia, wooing passersby with steamy scents and gaudy signs: Greek Lady Olga - "Specialties, Hoagies. " Pizzeria Express - "Sausage, Strombolis, Cheese Steaks. " The Mexican Connection. Bao-Hoai Chinese Food. Pushcarts. Trailers. Boxy trucks. Spiral air vents rotating in the breeze, gas tanks mounted on their hindquarters. John Messa, director of the Lower Merion Health Department, fears they may be massing for an invasion. A bill passed by the state House of Representatives, and working its way through the state Senate, would free state-licensed mobile food vendors from county and municipal licensing if they operate in more than one county, allowing them to rove from township to township preparing food without hand-washing sinks on board.

LIKE SO many transplants before her, Channel 10 meteorologist Sheena Parveen, a native of the Tampa Bay, Fla., area, has found herself falling in love with Philadelphia. As such, we asked her to answer some very Philly-specific questions: Phillies or Eagles? "I like baseball, but I could never choose one over the other. " Geno's or Pat's? "Uh-oh. I don't want to say. That's a dangerous question. No comment. " Manayunk or Old City? "Manayunk is really cool, and so is Old City, in different ways.

As the days of summer dwindled to a precious few, I found myself looking back, and laughing, at some of the things that happened. Like the water-ice cake - one of those simple ideas that spiral wildly out of control. We were having a large family cookout at my cousins' house. My assignment: bring Popsicles for the kids. In a flash of inspiration, I thought, instead of Popsicles, I'll bring a water-ice cake. The cake is made up of several solid, round layers of water ice (your choice of flavor)

Most people look at the corner of Lake Boulevard and Laurel Road and see the empty shell of a gas station, closed for more than a decade. Not Ed Hovatter. He looks at the old Puritan Oil station and sees ice cream. Lots of it. Water ice, too. "We're looking for the establishment of an ice-cream shop - window service, outside seating - and trying to bring a family business into the community at a location that has been vacant and deplorable for, what I understand, 15 years plus," said Hovatter, an entrepreneur.

Temperatures aren't the only things that have broken records in this scorching, humid summer. Despite yesterday's respite of rain, water ice and window fans have been selling like hot cakes, and the Black Hawk Spring in Middletown has become a mecca for thirsty travelers seeking its cool, refreshing - and free - elixir. Carl W. Suk, executive director of the Tyler Arboretum, which operates the spring, said what he considered to be record numbers of motorists and hikers had visited Black Hawk Spring in the last six weeks.

A crackdown is coming to Collingswood this summer. It's going to go down like this: A person of interest approaches on a bicycle. Appears to be age 12. A police officer moves in quickly and issues the tween a ticket. What did the kid get nabbed for? Wearing a bike helmet. The ticket awards one free water ice. Starting Friday, when school lets out for summer, borough police officers will be on the lookout for youngsters 12 and under who are doing the right thing: wearing their helmets while they ride their bicycles or scooters or while they skateboard or skate.