When I was a girl, the ice cream truck would come down our street at the edge of town. Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star. It's a Small World....The man smiled as he handed us our cones. We sat on the edge of our driveway, licking as fast as we could, soft serve dripping down our wrists and onto our knees.
The little girl from next door - Kelly, hair cascading straight down her back like a golden waterfall, would approach the window and hold out her hand. Mr. Ice Cream Man traded her a cone for the handful of gravel, his grin never wavering. Who could resist those big blue eyes anyway?
How are you keeping cool? What's your favorite snow cone flavor?
There's a new vintage Adventures in Real Parenting here.
One of the downsides of living on a busy thoroughfare, lack of the ice cream man.
ReplyDeleteCool is a state of mind, man, ya dig?
I love that you're posting your pictures. They're beautiful!
ReplyDeleteThis weather is not for my skin tone. If I have to be out of doors, I gravitate towards the shade, iced coffee in hand, but it's never for too long. Otherwise I begin to melt.
The TORTUROUS Ice Cream man... he is pernicious... And Ice cream anymore is like $4 and if you have 2 kids... DAMN HIM!
ReplyDeleteAt my house I hide in my basement... there isn't much heat there and the sound of the ice cream man can't penetrate.
I was rarely anywhere near where and ice cream truck was likely to venture at a time when you'd expect to see an ice cream truck except on very rare occasions when some intrepid driver who probably just wanted to watch the skydivers up close would drive that truck, risking life, limb AND the contents of the freezer down a mile of rutted dirt road and park between the runway and the creek.
ReplyDeleteI can't say he was ever swarmed by skydivers and there were never more than four or five children on the drop zone at any given time but somebody was bound to buy my brother and me something out of that legendary freezer.
Good Humor - Toasted Almond eaten as slowly as possible, from the outside in without loosing any of it to the dirt road or the creek.
Snow cones were as rare as hen's teeth but lemon ice comes to mind.
I'm afraid my children are as cut off from this world as I was. More so even. I'll have to do something about that.
Aw! These are FANTASTIC pictures. And now I want some Rita's Ices!
ReplyDeleteI'm tempted every time I hear the bell for the ice cream handcart roll through the parking lot. I always wonder just how many miles the man walks and how many hills he climbs every day pushing that cart. We have an ice cream truck that comes around, too, but it's the guy with the handcart who'll get my money if and when I indulge.
ReplyDeleteSweet pictures and a very sweet little story. You rule.
ReplyDeleteAn ice cream sandwich--always. It's still my downfall, although now I generally acquiesce to the supermarket's Skinny Cow version.
ReplyDeleteAnd after we chased down the ice cream truck, we'd chase after the mosquito trucks, running happily in the spray of all those chemicals which will surely one day kill us. (Which is why we may as well drink, smoke and eat slabs of bacon.)
You guys are having fun! We also had Mr. Whippy trundling down the street when I was a kid. These days my youngest and I have a stash of mini-Magnums in the freezer for hot afternoons. And writing-madre here has a cask of excellent white wine for evening cocktails splashed with ice and Campari.
ReplyDeleteI loved the rocket pops!
ReplyDeleteAnd I love your daughter's smushed up face, "Enough with the camera! Mo-ooooooom!"
Ha!
Wow, these photos are priceless!! But the gravel story is even more priceless (I know, that's not even possible.)
ReplyDeleteB
Grape. Nowadays we have to worry if the ice cream truck driver is a pedophile or not. How times have changed. We used to have a milkman who delivered dairy products to our back door and a bread/donut truck that used to cruize the streets. Simplier times. Have a great day Lisa.
ReplyDeleteTrading rocks for ice cream?
ReplyDeleteLovely pictures, lovely post; a real nostalgia-inducer for me. But, yeah, @Saoirse in Spokane, you can't be too careful anymore. Not only could the vendor, ahem, like the kids a bit too much, but you have to wonder when (if at all) they last washed their hands... or worse:
ReplyDeletehttp://tribune-democrat.com/local/x1526182554/NEW-Police-Bottles-of-urine-found-in-ice-cream-truck
Oh we were like Pavlov's dogs when we heard the ice cream truck music in the distance. We rushed to Mom & begged for money.... Hurry! The truck is coming NOW!
ReplyDeleteNo time to think about it Mom!
We're going to miss the ice cream truck!
I'm sure we put on our most pathetic, and urgent faces. Because if she waivered the opportunity would be missed.
Mostly she caved & I think the Chocolate Eclair was a fav.... but probably tried most of them.
Occasionally we'd get the-- "we have popsicles in the freezer" response. Surely she had to know there was no comparison- to browse through the full color menu of choices, and to plop down on the porch steps & immerse yourself in ice cream treat bliss.
Fast forward to after having a baby, I remembered wanting to run out & personally rip the speaker off the ice cream truck because I had finally gotten the colicky fussy crying baby to sleep, and the truck's loud music woke him up. I was so sleep deprived, I might have handed off the screaming baby for a dreamsicle & a good night's sleep. I did NOT do that, just a fleeting thought from a sleep deprived frame of mind.
As for snow cones, I like the raspberry flavor-- why it is the color bright blue remains a mystery. When you are a kid on a hot summer day with a cool treat pending, you don't question these things.
Off topic: Hey! I went to visit our blog pal Liberality & got this message:
ReplyDeleteSorry, the blog at liberality-liberal.blogspot.com has been removed.
What gives?
Hoping it is a techno glitch.
Lib! Where are you??????
Do you remember getting soft ice cream cones dipped in chocolate? Yum.
ReplyDeleteI'm keeping cool by not living on the East Coast... Truly, I could not survive that humidity along with these menopausal hot flashes. Your post made me smile because there's a very amusing dynamic vis-a-vis ice cream trucks here in LaLaLand. The drivers are often immigrants, and so the tunes they play are unfamiliar to them. It's not uncommon to hear ice cream trucks playing Christmas carols in July. I find that charming.
ReplyDelete