The Ice Cream Van

                       

   Ah!  Summertime - kids dressed in their Sunday best surrounding a cute white ice cream truck with a cleverly dressed ice cream man, the father in the corner doling out change to his son, and the mother supervising it all from the front of her nicely manicured lawn. I love it!  I will be honest with you, It's not my neighborhood at all, but I like to think that maybe, at one point in time, this is how it was.    

   Don't get me wrong, we still have ice cream trucks roll through our neighborhood, but the look, the feel is much, much different.  Since we've moved into our house some 10 years ago, the same truck (I guess) plays the same song over and over again and slowly passes our street in spring, summer, and some fall, often later into the night when the kids are getting ready for bed.  But instead of escorting the kids out to the street, or (what I remember from of old) racing the truck down with my bike to get a 3-flavor sno-cone or a rocket pop, or a bullet, we just watch the shady truck go by.  Luckily, our neighbor has no problem with the random, dented-in van because if he hadn't stopped him this warm, almost summer, night, I might not have snapped this picture.  

    I have a friend who uses this excuse with her kids (as to why they can't get ice cream):  "Those kids just don't have ice cream at home."  That cracks me up.  What happens when that logic falls through and you really don't have ice cream at home? What then?

    Maybe I'm being judgmental about the ice cream van. Everyone has to earn a living and what better job than supplying sugary frozen treats that makes kids happy. It's a good gig.  And while I grow old of the same jingle played throughout the night, I am glad some traditions haven't disappeared.  I just wish our ice cream man would paint his truck, wear a spiffy white suit and hat, and get a new play list.  Maybe then I'd let the kids rush out (like they so want to do), run down the ice cream van, and get their push-up pop. And who knows, maybe by the end of the summer, when our freezer is empty of Blue Bell and Flav-R-Ice, I'll bend.  Who knows?  A Rocket Pop with all it's 4th of July colors, sure sounds tasty right about now.