Monday, May 01, 2006

Stop the Insanity: Abolish Ice Cream Trucks

Ever since I moved, there's been an ice cream truck that makes its rounds through the neighborhood EVERY SINGLE EVENING.

I can set my watch by this truck. Blocks before it arrives on my street, I hear faint strains of "Turkey in the Straw" over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again and again and again and again and again and again...

I'm writing about this right this very minute, because I hear that dreaded song off in the distance and I'm hoping it doesn't stop on my street this evening. Last night, not only did it stop on my street, it continued to play its annoying Pied-piper tune while idling and selling its wares. Why, for the love of peace and quiet, can't the music be muted whilst transacting ice cream sales? WHY?!?!

I loved the ice cream truck as a kid, but it only came around about once a week, so it was like a special and unpredictable event. I also seem to recall that the truck had a reportoire of songs it cycled through and wasn't limited to just one endless litany of the same thing.

I don't begrudge kids the chance to enjoy a summer time treat, but for Pete's sake, does it have to be every evening? And could you please find a tape with a mix of Ice Cream Truck Greatest Hits, because I'm tired of "Turkey in the Straw."

Someone pass the Neopolitan, please...

6 comments:

Elaine Denning said...

Laughing over here...that was great!

Janet Kincaid said...

Do they have ice cream trucks in the U.K.? For some reason, I have a hard time picturing such an annoyance being permitted over yonder, but then maybe I romanticize England and the Continent as places where people are still civilized and courteous while we "colonials" are swiftly sliding into deeper and deeper mediocrity and rudeness. (Thank you, George W for that trend.)

Or, I'm just getting old and impatient with the inane. That's probably it.

Elaine Denning said...

Yes, we have ice-ceam trucks, though we call them vans. And civilized and courteous? Christ - I'm living in the wrong county. Where? Tell me...quick!

Anonymous said...

I haven't encountered an ice cream truck where I live.... In fact, I haven't encountered an ice cream truck since the 1970s.

However, in Taiwan, while there were no ice cream trucks, there were GARBAGE TRUCKS that played "Fur Elise" or "The Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet" and hearing the song was the signal to take your garbage out to the truck so that the women (the workers were invariably women) standing knee-deep in the garbage could add your trash to the stinking pile, then hand your garbage can back to you.

Merujo said...

There's a ice cream truck that drives down my street here playing a really bad version of "Music Box Dancer." Over and over and over again. The weird thing - I've never seen the truck, only heard it.

Anonymous said...

What are you complaining for...you could have the ice cream truck that plays The Entertainer incessantly while parking in blind spots to sell their wares. I don't begrudge children their ice cream, but it would be nice if their parents would teach them to look both ways before crossing the street. I've almost hit three or four of them at a time, and that was going at a slow speed through the neighborhood. And to make the gut wrenching feeling of almost hitting a child even better the kids give me the evil eye before I even have time to swear and come to a screeching halt! Ice cream indeed!