Let's go back to the mid 1980's and the small
coastal California town of Carmel by the Sea.
Two business partners applied for a permit to
open an ice cream shop. The permit was denied
because one of their products would be ice cream cones.
Ok, so now you're saying
"What? They banned ice cream cones?"
Well, yes and no.
The problem lies in dealing with a
bureaucracy, whether large or small.
The partners could sell tubs of ice cream
and they could sell boxes of cones, but
they just couldn't put them together
to sell ice cream cones.
The glitch they ran into involved a local
packaging ordinance that stated all take out
foods must be either properly packaged or covered.
Now, unless you freeze the ice cream to a point
that it's as solid as concrete, and then the cones
get all rubbery from thawing like those sold
at supermarkets, there's really no good way to
box up a semi-soft melting ice cream cone.
In the midst of this, another entrepreneur applied
for his own ice cream store permit, but he stipulated
his store would sell take-out only, and that really
threw some fuel on the fire.
Now enter actor/producer/director/writer Clint Eastwood.
Ol' Clint had just purchased some land in town, and
heard the story about how the ice cream folks were not
allowed to sell ice cream cones. It probably made him
wonder how an oceanfront resort town could not have
anywhere to get an ice cream cone, and he decided to
run for mayor. One of his platform items was lifting the
ban on ice cream cones by revising the packaging clause.
He won... and he did.
