I love ice cream. I love good ice cream. That’s why I love The Franklin Fountain in Old City. Delicious hand-made ice cream served in a beautiful, old-fashioned fashion parlor is just my cup of tea. But as I ordered my Broken Hearts sundae last night, I noticed something that puzzled me. 
What the heck is the “Southern Sympathizer?” Puzzled, I consulted my menu.
Okay. But what does a “sweet-talkin’ LOUISIANA GIRL in her Sunday best” have to do with the name “Southern sympathizer”? I can understand calling it the “Southern belle,” or “Southern Comfort” or something similar – but “Southern Sympathizer”! Are you kidding me?
I checked out the website. Hmmmm. “The Franklin Fountain aims to serve an experience steeped in ideals, drizzled with drollery, and sprinkled with the forgotten flavors of the American past.” My Confederate flag radar just went on high alert.
I Googled “Southern sympathizer.” Perhaps some sort of ice cream precedent I didn’t know about? Nope. A Southern sympathizer is just that - a Southern sympathizer. What (if anything) am I missing here? Help? Someone care to clarify?
I understand romanticizing the past. And certainly it shouldn’t be forgotten. At the same time, given Philadelphia’s history – I’d rather not frequent any place sympathetic to the losing side of the Civil War.
They have the right to do whatever they want.
I really don’t have problem with people in the south or from the south being “Southern Sympathizers.” Cause okay, their ancestors fought for States Rights. So… ehh, whatever. We are taught different historical perspectives.
But it is a little unsettling for it to be in an Old City, Philadelphia. For which I highly suspect that the meaning goes well beyond remembering the fallen soldiers of the South.
Let’s see…”drizzled/drollery….forgotten/flavors…SOUTHERN/SYMPATHIZER!!! Come on, PG, seems as if the friendly folks at the fabulous Franklin Fountain have a thoughtful thing for alliteration. Besides, there ought never be anything bad associated with good ice cream. It is an entity unto itself and rises above the rest of the world’s mundane concerns.
Hmm, am I over thinking this? Perhaps. How about “Southern Scrumptiousness” or “Southern Sweets”? Why specifically “sympathizer”? And you’re right, LT. They can do whatever they want.
I don’t think it’s completely innocent. I’m too jaded, probably. I’ve had enough blunt conversations with people, for me to just simply think it has nothing to do with exactly what the term means.
Like I said, I really don’t go up in arms about Southern organizations or their calling it the fight/war for Southern Independence.
And they may very well be just believing that it’s the fight for Southern Independence, so they have the right to have it up there. Even if not, it’s still their right.
But yeah, I don’t know that I necessarily buy it. That doesn’t mean that the people working there are the reason for the name. It in no way should be affiliated with the people at the counter, imo.
Is the owner related to Joey Vento of Geno’s (the South Philly guy with the “Southern roots” who wears his Confederate flag with pride)?
We are talking about ice cream, right?
Okay, I’ll bite (sort of pun intended): How about that the sound of the word “sympathizer” (particularly, I think, the ‘iz’ part of the word – apart from its imaginably baneful sociological implications – has a soothing sound quality about it. That it provokes a particular image in some may have more to do with the some than it does the actual meaning of the word itself.
One of the synonyms of the word ‘sympathizer’ (yes I’ve done some homework) is comforter, and sadly the phrase “Southern Comfort” has already been taken. I wonder if the folks who regularly – or irregularly – get wasted on SC, wonder, the next day as they are doubled over the toilet bowl, “I should have known that that stuff was part of a larger rebel plot to rot the stomach lining, not to mention the brain cells, of us damn Yankees.”
We are talking about ice cream, right?
And PG, “Southern Sweets”? Not nearly specific enough I think. Maybe Southern Sweetheart or Sleepy Sweet Southern Belle, or my personal favorite, Southern Spatterdock.
And all this coming from one who believes everything south of D.C. (with the exception of New Orleans) is culturally irrelevant.
Good eye!