It's that time of year again here in Jersey...the time when your family is doing homework, or sitting down for dinner, when suddenly, you hear that familiar, satanic tune, followed by the screaming and panicking of little children. No, it's not a horror movie-it's my favorite pain in the ass...THE ICE CREAM MAN! (Or in our case-the ice cream LADY!)
We have a very persistent ice cream lady. She comes down our street at about 5:30 every evening and hovers around our block for about a half hour. If I say no to an ice cream, she keeps playing that horrible tune, over and over, while my kids whine and beg, and run around like chickens searching for loose change. I've got to give her credit...because while she is patiently driving up and down the street playing her hypnotic little ditty, my children, and all the children on our street, are slowly and methodically wearing their parents down. Sometimes I crack, sometimes not...but she doesn't make it easy.
Which reminds me... When I was a kid, in about 2nd or 3rd grade, we had an ice cream man in our neighborhood who was VERY FRIENDLY. Every day, my sister and I would run around the corner when my mom wasn't looking and climb in the truck with this dude. We would then proceed to drive all over town, waiting on our friends. After an hour or so we would get dropped off back around the corner. Mom never found out.
In hindsight, I can't believe none of our neighbors called my mom to tell on us!! Thirty five years later my sister and I are alive and well, and not nearly as enamored as we once were with that little white truck, chock full of frozen goodies. (Although you should have seen me when I was pregnant, I would waddle my big fat pregnant body down the street like nobody's business to beat all the neighborhood kids to the front of the line!!! But that's a whole nother post!)
Which reminds me... When I was a kid, in about 2nd or 3rd grade, we had an ice cream man in our neighborhood who was VERY FRIENDLY. Every day, my sister and I would run around the corner when my mom wasn't looking and climb in the truck with this dude. We would then proceed to drive all over town, waiting on our friends. After an hour or so we would get dropped off back around the corner. Mom never found out.
As an adult I am so horrified by this story. This was back in the day when kids just went out in the neighborhood to play until mom called them for dinner. Thankfully, this guy was just lonely, and he never tried anything. But he certainly could have...he had us alone in his ice cream truck!!! We were very lucky...and yes, we had a good mom who warned us about strangers. We just couldn't resist being so damn cool riding around in The Good Humor truck without a care in the world.
In hindsight, I can't believe none of our neighbors called my mom to tell on us!! Thirty five years later my sister and I are alive and well, and not nearly as enamored as we once were with that little white truck, chock full of frozen goodies. (Although you should have seen me when I was pregnant, I would waddle my big fat pregnant body down the street like nobody's business to beat all the neighborhood kids to the front of the line!!! But that's a whole nother post!)
11 comments:
How terrifying that story is of your own childhood! And how hard it must be to resist thirty minutes of that awful "music" (the ice cream man's or the kids').
Hilarious! Just so you can have your own little giggle: on the west coast (at least in Oregon) these Ice Cream People are almost always self-propelled (as in, on bikes with coolers on the front) so they basically avoid any neighborhood with the slightest incline. It's quite strange...
First of all, I thought Mom knew because before we moved(I was 5 years old)I think I remember her letting me go for a ride:)OUR Mom,MRS.Safety!I swear our ice cream people from our old neighborhood sell drugs out of it.
Our neighborhood truck plays the annoying kid hypnotizing music too. But then every so many seconds the music stops and the recording says "Hello" in a creepy voice and then goes back on the music loop. You can hear it from pretty far away too. Very weird.
That story is definitely horrifying!
We have an ice cream man here, he seems like a nice old man, but my kids aren't getting on that truck! Times sure have changed.
I'm just so glad that our ice cream man FINALLY got a new music track and stopped playing Christmas music! This happened, like, last week! Seriously!
Two things.... My mother taught my children that when the music is playing, he's out of ice cream (Brilliant) and second, when I was younger I was a latch key kid (do they have those today??) and my father would give the ice cream man money so that when he saw me, I could get a treat.
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I love an ice cream truck but never at 5:30 in my neighborhood. I'm lucky they aren't here. I have a good friend 2 streets over with 5 children and the guy comes at 5:30 through the summer. Drives her crazy because it costs her $20 a day to feed ice cream to the 5.
Boy, the things we did when we were young ... it's a miracle we're in one piece. My friends and I rode our bikes all over town and talked to anyone who would talk to us. We used to "hitch hike." I lived on a very busy main road. We would hold our thumb out and when someone pulled over, we would run away as fast as we could. Time have certainly changed.
Isn't it weird how much more guarded our children's childhoods are then our own? The loss of that innocence (and freedom) makes me so sad. We have a fenced yard and two huge dogs and I am still paranoid about letting the kids play out there while I'm inside cleaning/blogging/talking on the phone. They aren't allowed out without either myself, DH or the dogs with them.
I'm glad you story has a happy ending - but oh my - how scary in retrospect.
When I think back on stuff we did as kids, I shudder as well. Scary stuff. Thank goodness we are ok, right?
i hate the ice cream truck. we call him the "Ding Dong guy" cause he's creepy and a rip off. I think he sells out dated old stuff...your story is scary.how things have changed. I don't even let my husband take the baby sitter home, times are different.My 2 older kids walked everywhere or biked,we don't let Bird walk hardly anywhere. My Mom NEVER gave us a ride... can't believe I survived my childhood.
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