Ice Cream trucks

[Gaseous Anomaly]

All through my childhood, I had heard about ice cream trucks, but never seen one, aside from ones parked at special events. They sort of became a myth and legend, to the point that I thought they only existed in movies and games like the GTA series.. I had only ever seen the pedal-wagons until a few years ago when I stopped seeing them at all. This year though, there's been an ice-cream truck roaming the neighbourhood, its tunes piercing the air in such a way that they can be heard from anywhere. A new sound of summer, around these parts.

Today, it had stopped on our street and bought myself some soft-serve. I couldn't resist on a nice day such as this.

I can't remember a summer where there wasn't an ice cream truck. I hear it multiple times a day in my neighborhood. He started driving around in April!

There's one that drives around here playing the most obnoxious sounding cartoon type noises. It's enough to put me off ice cream entirely.

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

Turkey in the Straw

Red Wing

The Entertainer (later re-popularized as the theme to The Sting)

Mister Softee Jingle (based on The Whistler and his Dog)

Little Brown Jug

Sailing, Sailing

Camptown Races

Brahms' Lullaby

La Cucaracha

As a person who has worked nights for much of my career, I say DEATH to the ICE CREAM TRUCK and DRIVERS! Why must they park in front of my house for 45 minutes?

If I never hear The Entertainer or Turkey in the Straw again it will be too soon!

 

[scotpens]

If you are parallel to Minnesota, and I look at a map, never in a million years would I consider that “northern” Canada.

Yes, a sizeable chunk of Canada lies south of the 49th parallel. That’s southern Canada. Actually south-eastern.

Neopolitan ice cream sandwich, anyone? My treat.

 

[Spot's Meow]

I was always partial to the chocolate malt or fudgesicle. Though the orange and red popsicles are awesome as well. I wanted to like the character faces but they usually had gumballs for eyes, and I don't like gumballs.

 

[scotpens]

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

For a business selling sweets, maybe that’s not really so strange, considering the line about “marijuana que fumar.”

 

[Finn]

When I lived in Cincinnati, ice cream trucks were a rare sight, because they weren't allowed in many neighborhoods. There were concerns about children running out into the streets and getting hit by vehicles when they hear that music.

 

[indranee]

I can never say no to ice cream, much less an ice cream truck. A fixture of my childhood and youth....

 

[MLJames]

As a person who has worked nights for much of my career, I say DEATH to the ICE CREAM TRUCK and DRIVERS! Why must they park in front of my house for 45 minutes?

If I never hear The Entertainer or Turkey in the Straw again it will be too soon!

AMEN!!!!! It got so bad in my apartment complex that I had to get my manager to tell the driver he couldn't play the music anywhere in the complex. He used to park right outside my bedroom window. Even more annoying was the clown selling tamales who announced his presence by constantly honking the horn on his bike. It was like being trapped on a chain gang with Harpo Marx.

 

[scotpens]

Even more annoying was the clown selling tamales who announced his presence by constantly honking the horn on his bike. It was like being trapped on a chain gang with Harpo Marx.

Sounds like the greatest Marx Brothers movie scene that was never filmed!

 

[MLJames]

May be good in the theater, but not so much when you're trying to sleep and the SOB wanders through the neighborhood for an hour and a half, honking non-stop.

 

[RevDMV]

Eddie Murphy says it best....


[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JfMCBh1sJQ[/yt]

 

[RJDiogenes]

I don't think I've seen an ice cream truck in over twenty years. We had them all the time when I lived in Dorchester back in the 60s. When I moved to Weymouth, we lived on a little dirt road that nobody knew existed, but I used to see them at friends' houses frequently. I vaguely remember seeing a couple around Bushnell Park in Hartford in the early 80s. I've never seen them around where I live now, though.

However, we had one ice cream truck that, though it was the same vehicle model, differed from the others in a few terrifying ways. Firstly, instead of the cheery orange creamsicle paint job this truck was entirely black, and not just any black but a flat primer black. It was dinted and dinged, and the recording of "Home on the Range" that blared from it's speaker was warped. It was like an ice cream truck on a bad acid trip! I never bought ice cream from that truck.

That's okay. It wasn't selling ice cream.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

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...

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've heard Bicycle Made for Two, Popeye the Sailor Man, and Pop Goes the Weasel before as well.

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

It's a revolutionary song, sort of the Mexican equivalent of Yankee Doodle, although variants of the song predate Mexico as a nation and date back at least as far as the Spaniards repelling the last of the Moors in 1492. The cockroaches are metaphorical and usually represent the most despised tyrants, political figures, and enemies of the era, with the lyrics being updated over the centuries.

Besides, the lyrics aren't important to a good ice cream truck song.

 

[Amaris]

When I was younger, there was one ice cream truck that came through playing "Crazy Train". That was the best ice cream truck ever.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

We hear them every summer.. they always sound like they are almost at our street. We wait and wait and wait and wait and it always sounds like it is just around the corner. Eventually we give up and then suddenly THERE IT IS and we kill ourselves running into the street to pay 3 dollars for some melting gelato.

 

[Spot's Meow]

After listening to this video on YouTube I realize that I do in fact recognize The Entertainer as a popular song that was used.

I am also a little disturbed that people sit in their homes videotaping ice cream trucks going by...the comments are pretty funny though.

 

[Gil T.Azell]

When I was a kid in Seattle the ice cream trucks looked like this:

...and were prolific in the summer. They usually played "Turkey in the Straw" or "Home on the Range," and they were always orange and white like the one in the picture. However, we had one ice cream truck that, though it was the same vehicle model, differed from the others in a few terrifying ways. Firstly, instead of the cheery orange creamsicle paint job this truck was entirely black, and not just any black but a flat primer black. It was dinted and dinged, and the recording of "Home on the Range" that blared from it's speaker was warped. It was like an ice cream truck on a bad acid trip! I never bought ice cream from that truck.

Santa at his summer job,

 

[RandyS]

I can't remember a summer where there wasn't an ice cream truck. I hear it multiple times a day in my neighborhood. He started driving around in April!

Yep, same here. There's always one around my neighborhood. And, now that it's summer, I've been hearing him at least four times a day.

 

[Finn]

That reminds me. I remember how when I first moved to Maryland five years ago, there was an ice cream truck buzzing around the neighborhood in November (it wasn't unusually warm).

 

[Holdfast]

Eddie Murphy says it best....

I knew someone would get round to posting that clip eventually.

I am also a little disturbed that people sit in their homes videotaping ice cream trucks going by...

I guess everyone needs a hobby. At least it stops them eating too much ice cream.

 

[Gov Kodos]

That reminds me. I remember how when I first moved to Maryland five years ago, there was an ice cream truck buzzing around the neighborhood in November (it wasn't unusually warm).

Winter is the best time for ice cream. I never think of eating it in warm weather.