Ice Cream trucks

[Holdfast]

Which song(s) was the ice cream truck playing (audio clips in each link)?

That's a really fun set of links; I enjoyed playing them, thanks!

By the way, I'd never heard the original version of Camptown Races before; to most English people, it's undoubtedly better known with the lyrics used in the chant during any England-Germany football game: "Two World Wars and One World Cup, doo dah, doo dah..."

The less sung second chorus is the even more charming "My grandad killed your grandad, doo dah, doo dah..." Got to love those chants.

In the UK we have a whole different set of jingles on ice cream vans. Common ones I remember were Greensleeves, O Sole Mio (largely because of the Just One Cornetto ad), Yankee Doodle (won't bother linking to that one, but did you know it was actually originally a Royalist song mocking Oliver Cromwell?), Bicycle Made for Two, The Sun Has Got His Hat On, and I think I've heard Match of the Day a few times too.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

In the UK we have a whole different set of jingles on ice cream vans. Common ones I remember were Greensleeves, O Sole Mio (largely because of the Just One Cornetto ad), Yankee Doodle (won't bother linking to that one, but did you know it was actually originally a Royalist song mocking Oliver Cromwell?), Bicycle Made for Two, The Sun Has Got His Hat On, and I think I've heard Match of the Day a few times too.

The ice cream van who visited our house when I was working in England played the "Popeye the Sailor" theme. I can't remember what the ice cream van during my childhood played - in fact I think their music box was so garbled as to be unrecognisable...

 

[Gil T.Azell]

Which song(s) was the ice cream truck playing (audio clips in each link)?...



The Entertainer (later re-popularized as the theme to The Sting)[/URL]
...

That's the one that plays around here, there are times you want to go out and beat the loud speakers with a big bat, as the jerk always come around near dinner time, plus he does have that come here little girl/boy appearance about him.

 

[Owain Taggart]

^Well, that's just what the ice cream trucks in Seattle looked like. In NYC they're much bigger, and no one I know from anywhere else has seen ice cream trucks like the one in the picture. I was just using it to illustrate the story.

Oh, no worries. I was just using your picture as a reference. The one over here is a bit more like the one in the video Nerys posted. Your truck looks cute though

 

[scotpens]

All through my childhood, I had heard about ice cream trucks, but never seen one, aside from ones parked at special events.

Jeez, man, where did you grow up -- on some remote island in the Pacific?

When I was a kid, there were always ice cream trucks in the neighborhood, in summer and winter. (Or what passes for winter in Southern California.) Many of them carried the Good Humor brand and played the Good Humor music-box jingle.

And there were the Helms bakery trucks, which I used to buy donuts from.

The ice cream van who visited our house when I was working in England played the "Popeye the Sailor" theme.

Ah, the schoolyard variants on that timeless ditty . . .

I'm Popeye the sailor man
I live in the garbage can
I eat all the worms
And spit out the germs
I'm Popeye the sailor man.

(That's one of the cleaner ones I remember.)

 

[Zulu Romeo]

The ice cream van who visited our house when I was working in England played the "Popeye the Sailor" theme.

Ah, the schoolyard variants on that timeless ditty . . .

I'm Popeye the sailor man
I live in the garbage can
I eat all the worms
And spit out the germs
I'm Popeye the sailor man.

(That's one of the cleaner ones I remember.)

I only know the dirty ones.

 

[Spot's Meow]

It was really hard for me to imagine the links to the songs posted above with the ice cream man tune, so I will just say that the song I remember being played the most is "Pop Goes the Weasel" as heard in this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcCxYoElBcs

I also heard Turkey In The Straw (or as I would call it the "Do Your Ears Hang Low" song): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZB6WXDuM1g

I can't remember hearing any others.

 

[Owain Taggart]

All through my childhood, I had heard about ice cream trucks, but never seen one, aside from ones parked at special events.

Jeez, man, where did you grow up -- on some remote island in the Pacific?

Uh no, just a Northern Canadian town. Just happens to be an area where there haven't been any of them until now.

 

[RoJoHen]

Northern Canada? Do they not have them because it's cold outside?

 

[Capn Flukie]

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0GHN9MKDrE[/yt]

I LOVE that scene!

I have an ice cream truck tooling around the neighborhood late afternoons, never buy any though, I have a better ice cream selection two blocks away.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Northern Canada? Do they not have them because it's cold outside?

No, now you're talking in stereotypes.

 

[RoJoHen]

Nope, just asking a question. Canada is north. Northern Canada is farther north. Depending on just how north you are, it might be colder than if you were less north. If it's cold outside, it stands to reason that getting a job as an ice cream man might not be the most profitable way to make a living.

But, ya know, thanks for the judgment.

 

[Owain Taggart]

No, it's not cold outside. It's quite warm, just like it would be anywhere else at this time.I don't live that far up north. I'm parallel to Minnesota.

 

[RoJoHen]

No, it's not cold outside. It's quite warm, just like it would be anywhere else at this time.

Not to give you too much shit, but there are plenty of places around the world that are quite cold right now.

I don't live that far up north. I'm parallel to Minnesota.

Parallel to Minnesota qualifies as Northern Canada? I need to look at a globe.

 

[Owain Taggart]

No, it's not cold outside. It's quite warm, just like it would be anywhere else at this time.

Not to give you too much shit, but there are plenty of places around the world that are quite cold right now.

And that relates to this, how? I realize there are places that are quite cold right now. Canada isn't one of them right now.

Parallel to Minnesota qualifies as Northern Canada? I need to look at a globe.

Yes, it does actually. I didn't say I lived in the Northern Arctic, but where I live is considered the north.

 

[RoJoHen]

No, it's not cold outside. It's quite warm, just like it would be anywhere else at this time.

Not to give you too much shit, but there are plenty of places around the world that are quite cold right now.

And that relates to this, how? I realize there are places that are quite cold right now. Canada isn't one of them.

You said, "anywhere else at this time." I knew what you meant, but I felt like being an asshole.

Parallel to Minnesota qualifies as Northern Canada? I need to look at a globe.

Yes, it does actually. I didn't say I lived in the Northern Arctic, but where I live is considered the north.

Must be a regional kind of thing to say that, because there are thousands of miles of Canada that are north of Minnesota. If you are parellel to Minnesota, and I look at a map, never in a million years would I consider that "northern" Canada.

Northern Canada, to me, would be parallel to Alaska.

 

[Miss Chicken]

Ice cream trucks would come around most summers when I lived in my former home. However that was a suburb where there was quite a lot of children. Where I live now most of the people are older and I have never even heard an icecream truck in the 3 years I have lived here.

 

[Owain Taggart]

You said, "anywhere else at this time." I knew what you meant, but I felt like being an asshole.

No comment.

Must be a regional kind of thing to say that, because there are thousands of miles of Canada that are north of Minnesota. If you are parellel to Minnesota, and I look at a map, never in a million years would I consider that "northern" Canada.

I live in a part of Ontario called Northern Ontario. At this point, yes, it does begin to start being called the north. It's more or less the northern division, so I think I do qualify for being called Northern. There are only a few more cities more Northern than mine in Ontario, like Timmins for example, but after that, there really isn't all that much. It does get very cold in the winter, but our summers tend to be very mild.

 

[Cutter John]

Want to know who to blame the the crappy tinny music that apparently hasn't changed since 1957?

http://www.nicholselectronicsco.com/

 

[RobertVA]

When I was a boy a truck came to the neighborhood selling a limited assortment of soft serve. Decades before digital tone generators were available the audio "call" used to get attention was a simple one note bell that rung at about a four or five second interval.

Sometimes a different truck would drive through the neighborhood selling produce.

I haven't done business with any of the recent ice cream trucks, but if the decals on their side is any indication their stock is limited to rather ordinary novelties that can be bought by the box for more modest prices in the supermarket's freezer section. The trucks are usually playing one of those digital music players.

For a business selling sweet and/or milky food products "La Cucaracha" (Spanish: "The Cockroach") strikes me as a strange musical selection.