The Ice Cream Man

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Joined
May 4, 2011
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Location
Arid-zona
So, we have unseasonably warm (hot) weather for this time of year. Normally it should only be in the 60's during the day with rain/drizzle. Not so right now as the daytime temps are jutting into the 80's with 90's predicted over the weekend! :shock: Normally we don't get this until July/Aug....

OK, so with that as a background I got home from the brewery in the early afternoon and lit up a pipe as I'm wont to do (Astley's No. 109 Med Flake iffen you're interested), and then started seeing what my brothers had posted on the forum. And then, with the windows open I heard...............

The unmistakable tinkle of the Ice Cream Man's happy tune as he traversed our 'hood. It was "Turkey in the Straw", and just the main melody without the refrain. Played as it was, on a child's toy piano...... again and again, over and over.......ad infinitum.............. :eek:

How he (or she) can manage to listen to this over and over, for hours on end,  is a mystery to me. But I digress.....

So I've been accustomed to hear when the Ice Cream Man was in the area. And it went on for 15 minutes or so, while he plied the streets around me.....

Finally saw the vehicle, which was travelling far too fast for his intended purpose IMO.

My recollection of the Ice Cream Man goes back to my childhood. Back then (in the late '50s/early '60's) he had a tricycle which was either powered by his own pedal power, and later by a Mo-ped. The Ice Cream treats would be in a box on the back, which was cooled by dry ice.  

I didn't know that at the time, only that as soon as he opened his box the vapours from the dry ice would envelop his head as he rummaged around in the box. It was all very magical to us kids.

I clearly remember popsicles being the cheapest, at .10, and he had Grape, Cherry, and Orange. When 7-Up became available we thought this was a great thing!

He also had push-ups, which were basically either Orange or Strawberry sherbet, at .15.

And also Fudgesicles, Ice Cream Sandwiches (vanilla Ice cream between two wafers of chocolate), Eskimo sandwiches (vanilla ice cream with a coating of chocolate), and especially Dream Bars (vanilla ice cream with an orange sherbet coating). All for .15. Not to mention the sugar cones dipped in chocolate with peanuts, think they were called drumsticks. That was a rare treat!

So we kids were always keen to get .15 from our parents to get the premium items, but usually got just .10. When we got .15 it was a treat beyond compare!

I myself favored Fudgesicles, followed by Orange push-ups, and especially Orange Dreamsicles! Although it was all good.

These days I can't eat sweets but have fond memories of what it was like as a kid. What are your memories of the Ice Cream Man?



Cheers,

RR
 
I hear an ice cream truck now and again,but like you I'm suppose to avoid sugar.I just ignore the music and let the truck go on it's merry way.Of course I think of younger days when I really looked forward to an ice cream truck coming down the street.
 
My tastes are similar to yours Rande. I also liked a good old eskimo bar as well!
 
My wife grew up in the hood, 1970's to early 80's, mexican neighborhood with the lowriders everywhere and old grandmas sitting out in the yards under big shade trees. There was a big icecream truck in the neighborhood, about the size of a modern day food truck, but old and solid white with big green and red lettering that said JESUS followed by "And Sons" in small lettering. Of course it was Jesus pronounced Hay Soos',not Jee' Zus, but the running joke in the neighborhood on a hot day when the ice cream truck was heard coming down the street was Thank God, Jesus is coming to save me! Gramma, can I have a quarter please?

Shortly after we got married I moved my wife out to the country. She went from the Barrio to the boonies where most spreads were at least 10 or 20 acres and the nearest little store was several miles away. It was horse and cattle country. About a week after we moved in our neighbor drove down the shared 1/4 mile gravel driveway to the road and found my wife standing there by the mailbox in the hot july air. He rolled down his window and asked what she was doing and if everything was alright, and with a big innocent smile she replied "Oh, I'm fine, I'm just waiting for the ice cream man to come by" :)

"Darlin, I think you're gonna be waitin a long time" :lol!:
 
Brewdude":5epm7j56 said:
So, we have unseasonably warm (hot) weather for this time of year. Normally it should only be in the 60's during the day with rain/drizzle. Not so right now as the daytime temps are jutting into the 80's with 90's predicted over the weekend! :shock: Normally we don't get this until July/Aug....

OK, so with that as a background I got home from the brewery in the early afternoon and lit up a pipe as I'm wont to do (Astley's No. 109 Med Flake iffen you're interested), and then started seeing what my brothers had posted on the forum. And then, with the windows open I heard...............

The unmistakable tinkle of the Ice Cream Man's happy tune as he traversed our 'hood. It was "Turkey in the Straw", and just the main melody without the refrain. Played as it was, on a child's toy piano...... again and again, over and over.......ad infinitum.............. :eek:

How he (or she) can manage to listen to this over and over, for hours on end,  is a mystery to me. But I digress.....

So I've been accustomed to hear when the Ice Cream Man was in the area. And it went on for 15 minutes or so, while he plied the streets around me.....

Finally saw the vehicle, which was travelling far too fast for his intended purpose IMO.

My recollection of the Ice Cream Man goes back to my childhood. Back then (in the late '50s/early '60's) he had a tricycle which was either powered by his own pedal power, and later by a Mo-ped. The Ice Cream treats would be in a box on the back, which was cooled by dry ice.  

I didn't know that at the time, only that as soon as he opened his box the vapours from the dry ice would envelop his head as he rummaged around in the box. It was all very magical to us kids.

I clearly remember popsicles being the cheapest, at .10, and he had Grape, Cherry, and Orange. When 7-Up became available we thought this was a great thing!

He also had push-ups, which were basically either Orange or Strawberry sherbet, at .15.

And also Fudgesicles, Ice Cream Sandwiches (vanilla Ice cream between two wafers of chocolate), Eskimo sandwiches (vanilla ice cream with a coating of chocolate), and especially Dream Bars (vanilla ice cream with an orange sherbet coating). All for .15. Not to mention the sugar cones dipped in chocolate with peanuts, think they were called drumsticks. That was a rare treat!

So we kids were always keen to get .15 from our parents to get the premium items, but usually got just .10. When we got .15 it was a treat beyond compare!

I myself favored Fudgesicles, followed by Orange push-ups, and especially Orange Dreamsicles! Although it was all good.

These days I can't eat sweets but have fond memories of what it was like as a kid. What are your memories of the Ice Cream Man?



Cheers,

RR
You said it all!!! We kids could hear that truck coming long before our parents!!! Drumsticks were definitely my fav, I could always scrounge up a dime or 15 cents somehow!!!! Our trucks had no doors on the cab. The driver would stop when he saw enough "customers," then he would get out of his seat, and turn right into an opening/door that led to the rear compartment. This compartment was open on both sides; the 'goodies" were in freezer boxes lining both sides of the compartment. He could serve from either side. There was a time when I thought this had to be the greatest job in the world!! :cheers: FTRPLT
 
ftrplt":lgigyu2f said:
You said it all!!! We kids could hear that truck coming long before our parents!!! Drumsticks were definitely my fav, I could always scrounge up a dime or 15 cents somehow!!!! Our trucks had no doors on the cab. The driver would stop when he saw enough "customers," then he would get out of his seat, and turn right into an opening/door that led to the rear compartment. This compartment was open on both sides; the 'goodies" were in freezer boxes lining both sides of the compartment. He could serve from either side. There was a time when I thought this had to be the greatest job in the world!! :cheers: FTRPLT
Ya, Drumsticks were very good, but the Ice Cream Man was frequently out of them by the time he got to my area. Guess they were his biggest seller. They also had a plug of chocolate at the bottom of the sugar cone, IIRC. That was worth waiting for!

Re: popsicles, they came in two halves with two popsicle sticks, one for each half. Sometimes the dry ice had made the paper on the outside stick to the popsicles such that it was hard to get it off before it started to soften up. But we kids were always too impatient to wait for that and sometimes bit into it and spit out the paper!

And even then, in the heat of the WI summer you'd have to eat it fast before it came sliding off the stick due to melting. In fact the Eskimo bars were notorious for melting chocolate and vanilla down your hand. I remember several kids bawling due to their half eaten treats which had melted and fallen off the stick onto the ground!

I also remember the younger little kids coming around with no money to spend, and sometimes we'd break off one half of a popsicle and give it to them.

Simpler times to be sure, and great to be a kid back then.

:drunken:



Cheers,

RR
 
Here's a pic of one taken in Salisbury, UK, today.  Very typical icecream van this; Ford Transit van base with sliding side window for serving.



Standard music in the UK is something like Greensleaves. Mate of mine told his kids that when the van is playing the music they've run out of ice cream. Worked a charm.
 
Do I remember the Ice cream man, yes in deed. Trying to hike myself up to the window so I could grab my ice cream on a hot summer day. Your not much older then me BD but, ours always came in those old milk delivery trucks with a window on the curb side. I think I do recall some without the window and they served us from the step of the cab. The only ones I remember with the tricycle was when we moved to Calif. and they were the Hispanic fruit Popsicle's, Pina Colada was always my favorite of them.
Dream sickles and Drumsticks are still my favorite and I have no problem gorging myself with them when I get the chance. Right now I have two boxes of Banana Split flavored Ice sandwiches in the ice box/freezer. Hmm Hmm!
 
Stick":wn2uaa9g said:
Here's a pic of one taken in Salisbury, UK, today.  Very typical icecream van this; Ford Transit van base with sliding side window for serving.



Standard music in the UK is something like Greensleaves.  Mate of mine told his kids that when the van is playing the music they've run out of ice cream.  Worked a charm.
Right, now that is both funny and a bit cheeky as well!

:rabbit:


Cheers,

RR
 
Periodically I would grab a snack from an ice cream man that would roam my childhood neighborhood. I was never a fan of root beer floats, but he had a root beer flavored popsicle with a vanilla ice cream filling that was my favorite.

When I used to visit my cousins in New Jersey there was an ice cream man that sold vanilla and chocolate frozen custard. That stuff was pure heaven. No store bought treat could beat the quality or richness of this stuff.
 
Unless you lived on a numbered road, i.e. A US Route you never saw the ice cream guy you folks are talking about.

We got the Tastee Freez Soft Serve truck, cheapest cone was $.10, shakes, frappes ( outside of New England you may need an interpreter for that one ) ice cream sandwiches, banana boats, sundaes all in your choice of two soft serve ice cream, vanilla and chocolate, later they learned to combine the vanilla and chocolate into a swirl, in my mind this never was ice cream.
banjo

ec8359444aef5f42ebdd2660dfc457cc105a3a4.jpeg


 
Drumsticks! Yum! And orange Popsicles!. And Eskimo pies! Floats!  And ... All that was when we lived in Pittsburgh.  Then we moved to a small rural town in northwestern PA where the houses were too far apart to have civilized services such as this. Woe. However, there were smoked fish houses just across the NY border, but they didn't deliver their treats, and I was too young to drive.

Then, much later, I moved to Connecticut.  Connecticut Yankees were known for being surly to visitors. They are still not a cordial lot. Several years ago, a Hartford resident was arrested for shooting out his window at the ice cream truck stopped outside on the street.  Seems he had worked the night shift, went home, and had just fallen asleep when the musical accompaniment rendered him wide awake for several hours at least. Well, what else was he to do?

Which reminds me, an ice cream truck does occasionally (and unpredictably) travels through my present suburban neighborhood. I sometimes see it while sitting on my bench under my Maple trees enjoying a nice medium English. There's nothing preventing me from becoming a customer. Now what chilly treat might go with Early Morning Pipe?
 
I loved Vanilla Popsicles, something I cannot find these days.

When we moved into the neighborhood where I live now, we had a truck that played Christmas music. There were always a lot of dads buying ice cream. My kids were older, and not as interested, so I wandered over. The young lady working the truck had a brief halter top, shorts and was incredibly gifted. She also didn't have vanilla, but that didn't matter. Watching the steam swirl around her was pretty interesting....
 
riff raff":o7lni285 said:
I loved Vanilla Popsicles, something I cannot find these days.

When we moved into the neighborhood where I live now, we had a truck that played Christmas music. There were always a lot of dads buying ice cream.  My kids were older, and not as interested, so I wandered over. The young lady working the truck  had a brief halter top, shorts and was incredibly gifted. She also didn't have vanilla, but that didn't matter.  Watching the steam swirl around her was pretty interesting....
Al, my Ice Cream Purveyors were usually older teenage pimply faced males. But then again I was a kid back then so what did I know, except that I wanted an Ice Cream treat?!

:pig:



Cheers,

RR
 
DrumsAndBeer":wva5ttdh said:
Periodically I would grab a snack from an ice cream man that would roam my childhood neighborhood. I was never a fan of root beer floats, but he had a root beer flavored popsicle with a vanilla ice cream filling that was my favorite.

When I used to visit my cousins in New Jersey there was an ice cream man that sold vanilla and chocolate frozen custard. That stuff was pure heaven. No store bought treat could beat the quality or richness of this stuff.
OK, so Custard stands (as we called them) were common to us in the Mil, WI area. There were a few that I frequented over the years, with Gillies Frozen Custard being the go-to.

http://www.gillesfrozencustard.com/

And there was also Leon's by the airport-

http://leonsfrozencustard.us/

And not to forget Kopp's-

https://www.kopps.com/

Frozen Custard ruled back then. Much creamier than ordinary Ice Cream.

:cheers:




Cheers,

RR
 
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