A locally well-known signature treat at Peterson's Ice Cream in Oak Park, Illinois.
The schooner is not your ordinary ice cream sundae. It is served in a gigantic glass punch bowl, filled with 12 scoops of ice cream each covered with the topping of your choice. Three or four bananas are sliced lengthwise and arranged around the perimeter of the bowl, then the whole concoction is smothered in whipped cream, nuts and a cherry for each ice cream scoop.
It is served with three silver pitchers of homemade piping hot fudge. A common celebrational choice for entire tee-ball teams and the like, the schooner is rarely finished in one sitting by a group smaller than 5 people.
On a childhood bet, my friend Amanda and I attempted to consume an entire schooner ourselves and sat in the booth for hours, still spooning the milky, multicolored soup into our mouths long after it had melted, just to prove we could.
We were both sick that night but had won the $5, and the amazement of our peers.