HERE’S A FUN STATISTIC I found in a recent issue of Dairy Foods magazine: Frozen novelties—a sector largely controlled by two companies, Nestlé USA and Unilever—bring in almost $5 billion in sales a year.

One can only wonder what Frank Epperson would think. In 1905, the 11-year-old Oakland, California, native mixed up a sugary drink powder and water with a wooden stick, then left it outside to freeze. (Cultural and legal scholars consider this the prototype for the first Popsicle, even researching how often temperatures in Oakland dipped below freezing in 1905 to bolster the claim.)

Originally called Epsicles, Epperson began selling his frozen drinks on sticks at Bay Area events and amusement parks in 1923. His children insisted he call them Pop’s Sicles, so he changed the name and, on June 11, 1924, Epperson filed for a patent on the process for making Popsicles. (Unilever now owns the trademark on the entire family of frozen pops ending in “sicle.”)