CC Cohort dmala77 just posted this old Chevy ice cream truck. And it’s still hard, given that the electronic clock from the camera is saying that this was shot “47 minutes ago”. Fresh from the freezer! So this brings back memories, good and bad. Of course, as kids we loved the ice cream truck, and I’ll try to find examples of what we bought from. But in my later years, I learned to hate the obnoxious blaring music with which they polluted the quiet summer days.
In Iowa City in the early sixties, there was still an old-school Cushman trike that plied our neighborhood. But it had a fairing over the back end, and a little canvas awning to provide a bit of shade for the poor driver, who was a high-school kid.I seem to remember a scheme that my older brother and some friends had, of overwhelming him with simultaneous requests in an attempt to defraud him. “I just gave you a quarter, so where’s my change!”
In the last year or two there, it was replaced by a more modern Cushman trike, now with front steering. Business must have been good back then.
In Towson, where me moved to in 1965, the not-so-Good Humor grump drove only Fords; a ’62 or so, initially. No chance of any “discounts” from him.
Later, he got upgraded to a new ’67. Now I know these all just had bells (visible over the cab), with which to lure kids out to the street. But in more recent decades, the trucks started blaring the most incredibly obnoxious loud and repetitive music ditties. Here in Eugene, where we don’t have air conditioners, you could hear them many blocks away; half across town actually. If I remember correctly, I think I might have accosted one once, and told him never to come back in this neighborhood. Or maybe I’d just like to think I did. But for what it’s worth, they stopped coming a few years back. Realistically, especially in my neighborhood, parents mostly stopped feeding that Pavlovian response anymore. Good riddance. Unless they go back to using bells, anyway. And have better ice cream.
Love the last shot hot day huh.
The first ice cream truck I remember is the classic cowl and chassis version of the venerable Good Humor truck, Strawberry Shortcake all the way. The next year they were using a IH Metro.
When I moved to the Seattle area the trucks were Subaru 360s with an ice chest in the back and they carried the name JOE. Before I met my wife she actually worked for them for part of one summer and has recounted what a miserable POS they were w/o enough power to make it up many hills. Then one summer they never showed up.
After that at least in the areas I lived in there just weren’t any for decades and I lived in cities. About 10 years ago they started popping up again and it was always some random vehicle from an old mail truck, minivan, or even a Geo Metro with all but the driver’s seat removed. They are independents so it wasn’t uncommon for more than one to come by in less than an hour.
You mean, “What STILL prowls my neighborhood?”
Yes, there are still ice cream trucks in my neck of the woods. And the one that I see most is a Chevrolet Step-Van.
Although there is a regional ice cream maker in this state (Yarnell’s) that sends a beautifully restored Divco to fairs and community festivals. Alas, it’s a marketing piece, and not an actual vending truck…the driver goes by the name “Scoop.” Pretty clever, if you ask me…
Ditto for my neighborhood, the Chevrolet Step-Van playing obscenely loud and annoying music, multiple times a day. The absolute worse part is that they stop a few houses before mine every time and just sit there, music blaring. There are a ton of kids in that house, and they know that if they wait long enough, the kids will come. I’ve been sitting out on my porch many times, attempting to enjoy a nice summer afternoon, with that godawful music ruining it for ten minutes or more. I’ve come close to accosting them many times, I feel your pain Paul.
Other than in pictures, I have never seen an ice cream truck in the style of the “Good Humor” ones shown here, when I was a kid the ice cream truck was either an ex Postal AMC/International type panel van or shorty Chevy/GMC Value Vans.
Well…in the 1950’s in our old Walnut Park neighborhood in N. STL, before Ike took our house to build I-70, the sno-cone man just had an ice machine in a vehicle – don’t recall what and cruised the blocks. Later, after we moved to Jennings, we had a guy who drove an old 1950 Plymouth or Dodge or DeSoto with a gas=powered ice machine sticking out of his trunk. Rainbow sno-cones sure cooled off an un-air-conditioned summer evening!
An ice-cream truck? Mr. Softee, clean, white sort-of-step-vans. Also Bomb-Pops, same type of vehicle.
Nowadays? in West Chester, OH, sometimes we get a recycled, genuine ice cream truck operated by some independent entity, but sometimes we get a grafitti-laden, beat-up van -seemingly- driven by a recent out-of-prison ex-felon/child molester, dirty, bearded, greasy, slimy dude I wouldn’t buy trash from!
What’s worth, they play obnoxious, electronic “music”, rather, noise…
Suzy Chapstick, where are you?
The earliest one I remember as a kid in the ’80s was “Stan the Ice Cream Man.” At that time, they used late ’60s/early ’70s Econoline panel vans, with the side door replaced with a built-in counter.
They were a local company, and there were a fleet of those vans. I believe they are still around today.
This truck has been prowling the neighborhood every summer for the five years I’ve lived in Waltham, MA, and presumably a lot longer than that. It’s the only one I’ve ever seen like this, with the slide in freezer in a pickup. Most of the ice cream trucks around here are the more typical Step-Van style.
For the record, this one blares “The Entertainer”.
So did you really shoot that just minutes before posting it at the Cohort? Just curious.
Sadly, no. 🙂 I think the image had no timestamp, so Flickr just marked it with the time when I uploaded it to my account. It was actually about 24 hours old when I posted it.
In Sainte Claire Shores in the ’50s, we had the typical Good Humor trucks. Couldn’t tell you what they were driving, but the cherry popsicles were good. (Hey, I was 6 or 7). For a while in the western ‘burbs of Chicago, the ice cream concession was run by someone who fitted big coolers to pedicab-like trikes. Front steering, and a one speed coaster brake.
NW side of Chicago was a Good Humor haunt. Lots of parks and Kiddie Land, a small amusement park, and I think the GH trucks would hit the parking lots regularly. This lasted through the mid ’60s.
When I lived in San Jose, especially on the east (hispanic) side, they were Chevy Panel Vans usually playing “Turkey In the Straw” at max volume. “La Cucaracha” was saved for the catering trucks. (Never tried the food, but I appreciated the humor.)
What prowled our neighborhood? Uncle Marty’s Ice Cream. In a 1959 or ’60 Chevrolet step-side pickup truck, with the bed modified into an insulated box. The stock stepside fenders were attached to the insulated body; but interestingly, the doors were off the truck. The better for the driver to jump in and out, I guess.
It was kind of a losing venture, since there was an old-school Dairy Queen (rechristened Dairy King when DQ went upscale in the early 1960s) two blocks away, and a Baskin-Robbins a five-minute bike ride distant.
But Uncle Marty (his driver/subcontractor for that truck; there were a dozen Uncle Marty trucks) made a go of it up until about 1970.
As a boy growing up in a Pittsburgh suburb in the early 60’s, the Mr. Softee truck came around in the afternoon around 3:30 pm. My mother rarely gave me money to buy off the truck, due to the fact that she had already sent me to the corner store around noon to get our ice cream and treats.
Back then, Klondikes were .10, popsicles .05, and creamsicles and fudgesickles .06. I asked my mother if I could buy the cheaper varieties and pocket the change. She had no objection as long as I bought something. Misering money was a no no. So I bought the cheaper varieties to pocket the .04. After a week or two, a cheap squirt gun or caps were purchased with the proceeds. I can recall even buying a cheap tin cap gun for a dime. I think those lessons on thrift helped me my entire life.
In my current neigborhood, a very beat up ice cream van used to visit, up to a couple years ago. I grew to hate the bell rendition to the theme from the “Sting”, and the ending childish female voice saying “Goodbye”. I guess I’m just getting old.
Ice cream vans in my childhood (1980s Yorkshire) were always converted late 60s/early 70s Bedford CFs (like the attached, only usually less tasteful). These days the mantle seems to have been taken up by 5th gen Ford Transits, which I suppose are the modern equivalent (the model of large commercial van that was ubiquitous 10-15 years ago).
Along with the mind-numbing jingles, one of our local vans hit on the genius strategy of parking by the school bus stop at home time. His cheapest cone was always suspiciously priced at exactly the same as our (subsidised and very cheap) bus fare. Unsurprisingly on sunny days we invariably “missed” the bus and walked home with ice cream.
I think that the ice cream trucks that I remember in Fort Wayne, Indiana were International Metro vans. As I think about it, I also think I remember at least one Studebaker Zip Van. Orange Push Ups or Fudgesicles were the treat of choice.
The only ice cream trucks I see anymore is an occasional ratty looking 1980s era Chevy van done in yellow and white stripes. It sounds like the same kind that Zackman describes.
I used to work with a guy who drove an ice cream truck as a summer job during college in the early 1960s. The owner would instruct them to go into the poorest neighborhoods around dinner time and he would sell all kinds of stuff. He said that the endlessly repeating song drove him absolutely crazy.
Back in the day, the sno-cone and ice cream man were ubiquitous, along with all sorts of other drive-around and home-delivery vendors: in the St. Louis area, coal delivery men because we had a coal furnace, Quality Dairy milkmen, Charles Chips/Cookies, Vita-Cee juice trucks, a scissors-knife-all other implements sharpener that occasionally came around in an old Divix-style truck which had for alerting possible customers, a twin wrestling-ring gong in two sizes that he would ring in rapid succession. Heard him blocks away. Also the occasional sound car whenever local elections were near or for some other reason…
Most of that stuff disappeared by the late 1960’s-early 1970’s.
In the mid-1950’s, while still living in STL city proper, all us sweaty, dirty, hot, shirtless boys would sit on the curb (we had those!) and wait for the milkman. When he arrived, he would give each of us a large chunk of crystal clear ice! And we thought we were dirty before!
Good times to grow up in…
Now we get UPS and FedEx trucks…along with the obnoxious ice cream trucks detailed earlier.
Played golf this morning after I made the comment regarding the “Sting” jingle. That jingle had been playing in my head all day. It finally left me, thank God. The 50-60’s were a much better time to grow up. A simpler, more innocent time. No cell phones, computers, cyber schools, terrorists, and other social maladies.
There was real joy in buying a 10 cent ice cream cone, or having a quarter in your pocket. I was always warned about the danger of eating ice from the milkman, or drinking water from a spring in the woods. I wish kids today had only that kind of stuff to worry about.
In my neighborhood in Baltmore, pre August ’67 we had the traditional Good Humor trucks. We moved to a development outside New Brunswick, NJ that August and the truck had followed me.
I got my first lesson in inflation that year. In Baltimore, the single-stick Good Humor popsicle was $0.05, when I got to NJ, the same thing was $0.10. My 8-year old self used to tell the driver that it was cheaper in Baltimore. He had no sympathy.
Good Humor kept coming around for a few years, always with bells. Now we get some guy with a beat-up nondescript truck with one of those damned recordings.
We had the mid-60s Ford Good Humor trucks too. Maybe it was only being 5 miles from the beach in Inglewood, California and the sea breeze that usually started cooling things off about the time that we got out of school, but the Helms Bakery truck was always more popular on our block than Good Humor.
And, yes, in my neighborhood in Phoenix, there’s still an ice cream man on the streets…an old Chevy van, recently repainted…playing the “Popeye The Sailor Man” theme over and over and over….
Saved a fortune when the kids were little telling them it was the Spinach Truck…
The classic one is “when they’re playing music it means they’re sold out!”
The Helms Twin Coaches look to be awfully heavy-duty to carry bread.