I grew up in a rural area… there was no ice cream man traveling on our dirt road.
I would go visit my grandmother in Nashville on weekends and some weekdays. She lived in the suburbs so we were surrounded by houses and pavement.
I remember the sound and excitement. That sound of the Ice Cream truck coming when I was a kid. I didn’t have anything like that at home. If I was inside my grandmother’s house…which was rare, I could hear that bell and that tune playing no matter what I was doing. Old McDonald or some song like that.
I would bum a quarter off of my grandmother with promises to do anything.
When I grew older and was a teenager and no longer cared about that I started to notice something strange about the new ice cream guy. He drove by ringing the bell to the tune of “Sympathy for the Devil” and 19 and 20-year-olds would stop him down the street… I don’t think a quarter would have bought what he was selling anymore.
I saw him a few more times pass by…ringing the bell to Jumpin’ Jack Flash…a true Stones fan… and then I never saw him again…He was selling a different kind of treat. So Cheech and Chong weren’t that far off…I heard a little later the police didn’t approve of his inventory.
I’m not a big Van Halen fan…but this one I like.
PowerPop... An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture 
That’s hilarious about the later ice cream guy! When I was little, we actually had an ice cream man who came in a horse and buggy and rang a bell as he came down our brick street. His wife was my 3rd grade teacher. I love ice cream.
There is an ice cream van that comes through the neighborhood where I live now, but the last time I ran out to get a cone from them, the choices were things I’ve never heard of, and the one I picked out was almost inedible. 😥
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Wow the horse and buggy thing is a great idea. Oh I love ice cream. It was the thrill of getting it like that.
They have so many flavors of everything now…that it gets confusing trying to choose. Like tea…I go somewhere and ask for tea…do you want Mango? Raspberry… I’ll say no…just regular tea… sorry we don’t have that.
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Don’t have regular tea? How stupid.
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It’s true
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Hahaha! Now that would have been an unusual flavour…! But you know, if I’d heard those tunes coming at me, I’d have been there looking for the ice cream…!
As a kid there was an ice cream van near my grandma’s place, too. But I think my dad or maybe my sister used to get them for me. And then there were the truly expensive ones in the tourist places in central London when I got older. When I was a kid I lived in a really quiet, private road and ice cream vans never came down it, but I’d always hear them in a parallel road at the back – a long, long way away, much too far to get to in time on foot – and it was sooooo frustrating! One day I’ll tell you in email something else about it… it’s a bit too weird/sad for this comment.
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