It’s summer time!
II know it must be because I’ve just heard an ice-cream van chiming its melodious siren song.
I’m amazed that ice-cream van owners and drivers still exist. Anyone can buy ice lollies and ice-cream at shopping outlets large or small, and yet, every year, like returning swallows and chiffchaffs, out trundle the clunky-looking vans, with their improbable names.
Sir Whippy, Mr Softee, and others are heard long before they appear. Do children still urge their parents to let them rush to the van with coins in their hot, little hands to buy a Flake or a Nobbly Bobbly, or even a slightly dull ice lolly?
Have parents become canny enough to trick their children? Do they tell them the jingle only plays when the van is empty of ice-cream confections? Perhaps they say it’s a warning to steer clear of strangers.
Ice-cream trucks are often hired for events like school fêtes, sporting events, children’s parties, wedding receptions. I wonder, though, how much demand there is ‘out of season.’
Ice-cream tricycles or bicycles are less commonly seen, but for someone wanting to set up in business, they can be an affordable option, starting at around £2,000. A second-hand van, properly equipped, will cost around £40,000 and a new one easily £20,000 more.
Ice cream trolley with a bicycle would be pretty great but easily robbed ! Vulnerable. Ice cream may be worth jail time for some. (ME)
ReplyDeleteI think it would be vulnerable to attack, but by thieves intent on grabbing the cash.
DeleteI haven't seen an icecream van in decades! Even at events set up in the city, there are hotdog vans, burgervans, curry type dishes in vans, but no ice cream vans. Maybe I just don't look hard enough? I remember the Mr Whippy vans but soon enough got bored with the soft icecream, preferring the harder, scooped-into-cones version available at the kiosk down on the beach and in milk bars all over town.
ReplyDeleteWe have a Sir Whippy van in the locality which is more noticeable in the warmer weather. It's garaged in a very swish area of expensive housing. Perhaps I should have been an ice cream seller!
DeleteI want an ice cream truck for my birthday and I want to drive it around and surprise my grandkids.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if you could hire one for that very purpose. What fun that would be.
DeleteDB Stewart, I think they can be hired, you should check with your local council and ice cream companies. They get hired for events, so why not for you to surprise your grandkids?
DeleteI used to prefer the ice-cream vans because they had the widest range of icecream flavours imaginable. No competitition!!
ReplyDeleteShops have to fit in cold drinks, lollies, chocolates, cakes, coffees, bowls of berries etc etc as well as icecreams.
They certainly offer a wide range to tempt all palates. 🍦🍨
DeleteWe often have an ice cream van come down our street and it is the adults (mainly the ones without kids at home) who rush out to buy from it.
ReplyDeleteThat's wonderful - reliving their childhoods!
DeleteWhen I hear an icecream van, it usually does not take long for the dogs in the neighbourhood to respond to the chimes with barking and howling!
ReplyDeleteThat's surely enough to keep the vans at bay. I must admit that I get heartily sick of 'Greensleeves' played on repeat.
DeleteAn instant memory of my childhood; the tinkling sound of the ice cream van and all the kids rushing outside to see where it was.
ReplyDeleteIt was a special treat. I guess it's not quite the same these days.
DeleteI was in England last October and ice cream vans were still around then. We had a ninety-nine. Are you familiar with them?
ReplyDeleteThe 99, also known, to me, anyway, as a Flake, is probably my favourite ice cream - or was!
Deletewe even have those singing trucks here in Florida, but only in the summer when school is out.. and I have never seen one stop and sell anything, but we don't have many children on our street, I only know of 3 on our walk we take each day. Of course they could all be hidden inside with phones in their hands and we don't know they are there, I do hear the truck during the summers. we did not have trucks in my child hood, we always lived in the country but I saw them in movies
ReplyDeleteWe went through a phase of not having any young children along our road, but now there are four, which is pleasing.
DeleteAfter what week just experience tear in our neighborhood for the last few days I'd love to see an ice cream truck. We had 60 mph wind for 12 hours on friday. Our power went out Friday afternoon early and did not come back on till Saturday night. And since we're still well below freezing outside the house was actually freezing inside. So grateful to get up this morning and flip a light switch and have it work.
ReplyDeleteGoodness, what a horrible time you're having. I hope you're managing to warm up the house now. Being chilled to the bone is no fun at all.
DeleteIt's been a couple years since I've seen an ice cream truck. I remember one that used to come through the neighborhood regularly when my kids were little.
ReplyDeleteI guess the drivers have to learn to go where they're likely to get business. 🍦
DeleteThat's what I was going to say. The music plays when the van has run out of icecream. Parental cruelty, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteParental cruelty = survival. Clamouring children can be very wearing. 😉🤣😂
DeleteWhen I was a kid I remember the entire neighborhood racing from their yards when the ice cream truck came through. Sadly, we don't see that any longer.
ReplyDeleteIt is sad - people are becoming more insular.
ReplyDeleteYes, I wonder how kids think about these vans. I rarely see them here anymore.
ReplyDeleteThey do seem to be a bit of an anachronism in residential areas.
DeleteWe used to have a Tonibell ice cream van come to our estate when I was growing up, think it was a franchise. I’m still a sucker for soft ice cream with a chocolate flake stuck in the top
ReplyDeleteAlison in Devon x
Yes, I like those, too. Haven't had one for years . . .
DeleteIt's odd that they still exist, but I haven't seen one in a fe3 years in our town.
ReplyDeleteBe sure to photograph one, if you do.
DeleteOur dog loved the chimes of the ice cream van and jumped up and down by the front door, we both loved it!!
ReplyDeleteDogs like ice cream!
DeleteI rarely see or hear ice cream trucks (what we call them in the United States)but they were a staple of my childhood. In fact, when my Dad told me he was once a Good Humor man (one of our then major ice cream truck brands) I was so thrilled. It was such a treat to get an ice cream cup or a pushup or a double, not a single, ices bar.
ReplyDeleteDad became even more of a hero, then.
ReplyDeleteUsed to love the sound of an ice cream truck. I still like whirly soft ice cream.
ReplyDeleteI like soft ice cream, but don't often have it.
DeleteAs kids we called it the Ice Cream Man. I haven't seen an ice cream truck in decades. I'm glad they are still around.
ReplyDeleteThere seem to be plenty round here!
DeleteThey are not found in the rural areas, but they have them where my son lives. They are a special treat for the girls. Sometimes the answer is 'No. We have ice cream in the freezer.' No one is too disappointed. After all, they are having ice cream!
ReplyDeleteYes, ice cream is ice cream, wherever it comes from.
DeleteIt's too early in the year here, but soon the ice cream truck will be driving up and down the streets of our subdivision.
ReplyDeleteSomething to look forward to . . .
DeleteOh my, your post bought back lovely memories of my childhood.
ReplyDeleteAs soon as the tune/jingle from the ice cream van was heard , all the children would rush outside to see where it was.
Nowadays I think it's more common for ice cream or lollies to be kept in the home freezer.
All the best Jan
I should think most home freezers have a stock of ice cream or lollies for younger family members.
DeleteThe ice cream truck here that comes by is so expensive. The single ice creams are $4 a piece.
ReplyDeleteI always think the ice creams are expensive, too, but they have to cover their working costs.
DeleteAlways loved the ice cream truck!-Christine cmlk79.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteA happy childhood memory.
DeleteI hope it continues.
ReplyDeleteI remember my own childhood and my siblings and I would beg our mum and dad for ice-creams. We usually got them. But it was so exciting. 😁
It was an opportunity for children to experience 'shopping' on a personal level.
DeleteThat familiar chime really does feel like the sound of summer returning
ReplyDeleteIt does, especially if the sun is shining at the same time.
DeleteYes, every season has something to signal its arrival. Ice creams are typical for summer.
ReplyDeleteIt's good to mark the seasons.
DeleteI’ve never lived in a place that had ice cream trucks - I only knew of them from television and books and thought how lucky were the children who lived in a place that had them. Sitting here in the middle of this blizzard I would be pleased to see a truck of any kind come past. There has not been a soul on the road past here - not even a plow - since when I first got up 14 hrs ago?
ReplyDeleteMany of us like to think we would enjoy living somewhere remote, but the reality is much harsher and more isolating than we realise.
DeleteJust read 'CrankyCrow' above and I can relate 100%. We have a thaw today and at present a pea soup fog is wreathing our icy and pot holed road. I have a meeting scheduled here this afternoon and am wondering if anyone is going to make it. Yeah, isolating. We have a generator for when we lose the power ('hydro' here, even when it isn't), and we drive things called a 'Bronco' rather than a sedan.
ReplyDeleteI don't envy you the problems you encounter. We have a stand-by generator, 'just in case' - I doubt we've used it more than twice in umpteen years.
DeleteI loved the idea of an ice cream truck. Truly decadent.
ReplyDeleteFun for the children!
DeleteI remember 'the ice cream man' from when I was a child. Often it was a high school age student riding a bicycle contraption with a freezer cabinet on the front. He would ring a bell as he drove through the neighborhood. What a joy! Today we have food trucks parked around the city selling their foods. Often Mexican food. But sometimes other things as well. I have never bought from a food truck, I don't think....though they sometimes tempt me when I drive by and am hungry.
ReplyDeleteRiding an 'ice cream bicycle' must have been hard work, but a way of making a little money.
ReplyDeleteThey're heard around here for most of the year. The proper ice cream trucks are in summer, but there's gossip that the winter 'ice cream' trucks sell drugs.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't know, but I was always wary about taking bear to one of the local trucks.
I've never heard rumours of drugs, but it would be a perfect cover.
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