![]() That’s the year that Christian Nelson figured out a way to get melted chocolate to stick to bricks of ice cream-and dubbed his invention the I- Scream Bar. This kind of truck would have had no refrigeration unit, and would have sold only hand- dipped ice cream made by a local dairy and carried around in insulated containers.īut 1919 saw the beginnings of the more creative frozen treats we all connect with buying from the Ice Cream Man these days. Here are pics of the earliest type of motorized Ice Cream trucks. It’s seeing her in my mind’s eye out the front window, running shrieking into the house from the front yard squealing “Icequeam twuck! Icequeam twuck!” that still makes me smile.įor all you fans of the Icequeam Twuck out there, I thought I’d pull together a little mini- history of this childhood treasure. It was her shivering excitement at age 3, hearing the ice cream truck in the distance, that I remember fondly. My Ice Cream Truck Memories are second- hand nostalgia of my daughter, who is now 40+. ![]() Our quarters there went to the local Dairy Queen. Nor, when I moved to the small northern Michigan town of Traverse City in the mid- 50s, did they have ice cream trucks. We went to the corner Mom and Pop grocery store with our quarter and bought our treats there. Well, actually, although I grew up in the 1950s I don’t really have any memories of my own of ice cream trucks! For some reason, they didn’t ply the streets of my childhood neighborhood in Dayton, Ohio. But what if on any given afternoon you didn’t WANT a popsicle … you wanted a chocolate- covered ice cream bar in the shape of a Mickey Mouse head? Being six years old and having the authority to make such an earth- shaking decision all on your own, on the spot, was … priceless. ![]() ![]() Yeah, maybe Mom could buy a big pack of popsicles and keep them in the ‘fridge so you could have one any time you wanted one. Hearing that first faint tinkle in the distance and estimating just where he was at the time in your neighborhood and how long it would take him to get to your block.Īnd it was about self- expression … about the freedom of having a quarter in your sweaty little hand and the power to dispense it for anything your heart desired at that very moment in time. Buying something from the Ice Cream Man and his Ice Cream Truck was never just about having a dessert! It was about excitement and anticipation. So why would anyone bother to buy from an ice cream truck?Īnyone who doesn’t know the answer to that likely had no childhood. All of these are sold at discount prices, so any family can have a stash of goodies in their own freezer. There are six- packs and 12- packs of Fudge Bars, Popsicles, Push- ups, Strawberry Shortcakes, Drumsticks, and much more. They’ve been at it for almost a century now, and you’d think they’d have gone the way of the milkman and his milk wagon delivering glass bottles of milk in the early morning to doorsteps.Īfter all, you can go into almost any grocery and find a whole frozen dessert section with just about any kind of ice cream treat you can imagine. Actually, this year it was amazing to me to think that ice cream trucks are still plying the streets in many towns and cities across the country. More often than not the song is “Turkey in the Straw.” If not, it’s likely “The Entertainer.” Beyond that, there’s a very short repertoire that some company in the ancient past created for the purpose. It’s a blaring loudspeaker playing a never- ending loop of an unidentifiable rinky- tinky musical instrument’s rendition of an aging song. It’s not a sound of a motor rumbling, or brakes squealing, or a horn honking. There is no mistaking the sound of any other vehicle for an ice cream truck. I knew it was summer because I heard the first Ice Cream Truck of the season! It was several blocks away when it first dawned on me what I was hearing. No, I didn’t pay any attention to the exact date on the calendar. Summer finally arrived here a couple of weeks ago.
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