It’s a muggy morning at the Mister Softee headquarters in Runnemade, NJ.

While most New Yorkers are retreating to the temporary oasis of Rockaway Beach or a friend of a friend’s air conditioned loft, I am walking around workers assembling the next fleet of iconic white and blue ice cream trucks amid blasting loops of the pavlovian Mister Softee jingle. The stubborn New Yorker in me wants to be annoyed or make fun of it all, but it’s simply impossible in the presence of James Conway Jr., vice president of and heir to the Mister Softee empire.

Even though he’s spent his entire life in the ice cream business, Conway Jr. manages to express genuine wonderment for the legacy his family built. “I have seen trucks flip over and the ice cream machines and equipment always stays in tact,” he proudly points out while enjoying his daily vanilla cone.

He insists I eat a cone with him while we slowly stroll the complex and I am immediately transported to my childhood.