Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Remember the Ice Cream Truck?

Do you remember as a kid how you loved to hear the Ice Cream Truck driving through your neighborhood? I know I did. It would bring kids tearing out of their houses to try to catch up with it.

I'd thought it was a thing of the past actually, gone the way of the Milk Man, the Charles Chips Man and Drive In movies. It's not gone though. It's driving through my neighborhood.

At first it gave me a nice nostalgic flashback. Then, after it had been parked in front of my house for a bit the nice nostalgic feeling gave way to irritation. The old curmudgeon in me started to come out.

I suppose that it always played really badly recorded music realy loudly. I mean that is how we knew it was coming. But after listening to it for a good ten minutes (I guess the kids could not make up their minds) I know wonder if maybe our parents didn't look at it with quite the enthusiasm that us kids did. Possibly they even had thoughts of ripping the speaker off the side of the thing and stomping on it. I would no longer blame them :)

Just goes to show you how your perceptions can change over time. I was tempted to go out and see about buying something but I have a feeling the prices would shock me. I can't actually remember how much we used to pay for things but I know I always just needed some change, no paper money. These days you probably need a credit card to afford it.

The neighborhood kids still looked just as happy to see it as I remember being though. I never got to see my kid react to hearing it. At 21 now he'd be more likely to want to shut off the loud and truly horrible music than to get an ice cream...but maybe not.

Even the the old curmudgeon can step aside long enough to smile at the nostalgic thoughts of times gone by. Oh...and it moved on so it's quiet again which helps too :)

3 comments:

Robin said...

I always wanted to have those Charlie Chips delieverd to our house but Mom didn't get them. I would get so excited when I woudl babysit for a family that had them, I thought it was so cool.

We loved the ice cream man, I would get lick em sticks, or a chocolate eclair ice cream. My Dad loved the Bomb pops. I still get excited when I hear the ice cream man and I do from time to time...but the ice cream is much smaller and much more expensive and the ice cream man looks like Charles Manson. LOL

I'd die before I would let Gabby approach the ice cream man these days! LOL

Anonymous said...

Bill, I remember all the vendors you mentioned. There were several others as I recall in my time. I am 77 years old.We had an iceman, bread man, knife sharpener, and a produce truck. There were probably others but my memory is not as good as it was be. I even worked for the produce man for a while.
Let's not talk about prices but I recall working in a gas station in 1947 or 48 and it was 21.9 cents per gallon.Also worked for Walter Dzierzgowski (guess my memory is only spotty, I have not thought about Walter in years )who owned a corner grocery store.
Now I forgot why I responded to your post. I liked AOL better since you had access to the post when you responded. Take care I know I will Bill
Go Phillies Go Go Go

Liz in Virginia said...

Wow, Thanks for the memories.