Posted on 07/08/2021 6:17:37 AM PDT by mylife
Surely you have already heard the siren call of the ice cream truck as it makes its rounds this summer. Over and over it plays its slightly out-of-tune glockenspiel (?) song, calling children and adults out of their overheating apartments to purchase a treat that will spark their imagination, remind them of the fleeting nature of pleasure, and imbue them with a caloric and spiritual strength that they do not deserve but so desperately need. Its song is a Pavlovian haunting, a call to frivolous vice, a reminder of a childhood to which we can never return. Will you resist it, turn up your air conditioner, and suffer through another obligatory glass of water—or give in to the song of the ice cream truck?
Recently, the vast assembly of “The People on the Internet,” an unwieldy and unknowable communal force across social media platforms that is more cacophonous and ridiculous than a meeting of British Parliament, was puzzling over this meme, which questions us to do the unthinkable and choose, once and for all, the best ice cream truck treats. What seems like a simple question is undone by the very subjective nature of ice cream choice, but please allow us to try and rank them once and for all.
(Excerpt) Read more at thrillist.com ...
It is true that the kids in my suburbs never go outside - that’s because people have retreated to their backyards and built wonderful play areas and swimming pools for the kids and grandkids - behind high fences. Much safer that way.
That said, an ice cream truck heads through our area once a day during the summer playing Christmas music. One often comes later, after dinner - that one plays The Chicken Song.
Drumsticks were my favorites as a kid. Had to eat them quickly in those hot Memphis summers.
drumstick, all the way.
I keep hearing that as a reason suburban kids don't leave their yards but I've been walking those neighborhoods for decades now and have never seen anything or anybody that could be construed as dangerous to children.
I grew up in a bit of an urban jungle yet was outdoors pretty much every daylight hour during the summer, riding my bike, playing pickup ball, and just generally hanging out with my peers with no parents around and getting into the typical juvenile (minor) mischief. And yes, I did get picked on or even beat up from time to time from the bigger kids.
I don't thinking walling children off in their backyards is very healthy. When they grow up, they tend to be super-sensitive, easily rattled and in the case of boys, very weak and effeminate (at least by the standards in which I grew up back in the 1970s).
During the school year, as I take my walk around the neighborhood, I see most parents driving their kids to the bus stop - sometimes even to the end of their driveways. The kid doesn't leave the car until the school bus is stopped. Then when the school bus returns, the parents are right back there waiting for the bus to pick them up. I'm not talking first graders either. These are kids probably in sixth or seventh grade.
it took the silver medal
Personally I prefer the original Bomb Pop, not the knockoff Firecracker.
You don’t see those on ice-cream trucks.
I heard that horrible music from one yesterday for about an hour , LOL
That is really cool! What a nice memory to have forever.
Nutty Buddy....Creamsicle....
There’ya go...
Rocket pop.
Air Conditioning.
We are all so used to being inside at 75 degrees and isolated from the outdoors and the heat.
Back when I was a child few had A/C and to escape the heat and stuffiness of the house we’d all spend time outside on the porch or in the shade.
So a person could actually hear the ice cream man coming.
Gotta love VH and DLR.
Oops, scrolled too fast or not far enough. Thank you.
They call those “bomb pops” around here.
I stopped buying anything from the ice cream truck when the least expensive popsicles went over $3. (But, we are pretty close to a grocery store and other options...)
We do actually get them in our suburb area.
When I was a kid, you could even get “real” soft-serve ice cream/custard in a cone, from the truck.
Nowadays, it is just something pulled from a freezer.
When my sister was about 20, she was going to do a part-time summer job in Washington, DC, which was to ride a bike for Good Humor, and sell frozen treat products. I don’t think she ever actually did it, but seems like it would have been fun (for a short while, at least).
Never heard of chocolate eclairs or half the list. I can count on one hand how many times the ice cream truck came down our street.
My #1 is a creamsicle.
I agree with everything you said. The perception of danger is far worse than the danger itself. I walk my dogs twice a day in my neighborhood and work often in my front yard and have never seen anything that was a threat to kids - except drivers driving too fast on our street. I never see children playing in the street on in front yards here as I did when I was a child. No kids walk to school by themselves. Ever.
It’s a different world now, very different.
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