If it wasn’t for the flat tire on Tom Carvel’s ice-cream truck, the country may never have experienced the frozen treats that hail from one of the most recognized American institutions. When his ice-cream truck suffered a flat over Memorial Day weekend in 1934, the amateur dessert salesman set up shop in a parking lot. To his surprise, he sold all of his ice cream, even the flat tire, which it turns out, was made of ice cream. To keep up with the demand, he traded in the truck for a brick-and-mortar store, a decision that would eventually transform him into, as his online biography states, the “patriarch of the world’s biggest mom-and-pop ice-cream parlor.” By the early 1950s, he had opened 25 stores that proudly carried his name, signature equipment, and trademark Fudgie the Whale ice-cream cakes. Today, Carvel Ice Cream continues to dish up a pantheon of soft-serve flavors, cakes, and sundaes in 25 states and destinations around the world.