who will rid me of this afflictive ice-cream truck?

[truepenny]

Ice-cream trucks were not a part of my childhood. Possibly this is why I find them hostile rather than charming. But I can tell you one thing. If it was my job to drive that thing around all day while it played the first four lines of "Pop Goes the Weasel" over and OVER AND OVER, I would be a gibbering lunatic inside of a week.

Stark. Barking. Mad.

::listens apprehensively::

... I think it's gone.

Which means, of course, because I watch horror movies, too, that it's IN THE CLOSET! AIEEEE!!!

Comments

[hooveraardvark.livejournal.com]

i personally enjoy the ice cream truck, because in my neighborhood hordes of screaming children run after it until it stops. it's the highlight of my day.

[arkessian.livejournal.com]

Think yourself lucky. The one around here (which I suspect does fish-and-chips, not ice-cream) plays the theme tune to Match of the Day. (British reader and ex-pats will understand the true horror of this).

[aedifica]

I realized yesterday that I'm very glad I'm not a bus driver, because the new bus pass system makes a loud and annoying beep every time a person waves their pass in front of it.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Our local terrorist plays Scott Joplin.

[hominysnark.livejournal.com]

I'd rather have Joplin than endless repeats of The Arkansas Traveler/Turkey in the Straw.

Or, heavens forfend, Music Box Dancer.

*shudder*

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Fourth of July evening, we had Turkey in the Straw. My first thought was auditory hallucination.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

We have had, in the past, those as well. Believe me, Joplin gets just as wearing.

[clarentine]

One of our local lunatics plays Michael Row the Boat Ashore. Augh!

[slimequeen.livejournal.com]

I was raised with ice cream trucks around, but was never allowed to buy anything from them.

The thing that gets me is that the truck in my neighborhood here ALWAYS plays "La Cucaracha." Why would I buy food from a truck that plays music about a cockroach? Ew.

[pianodan.livejournal.com]

"Ice cream truck in the closet" would be a TERRIBLE name for a band.

[shadefell.livejournal.com]

Ahem.

The ice cream truck that came to MY neighborhood was really a front for drug deals (or else the driver was an ice cream man who also dealt drugs in my neighborhood).

Nothing is less suspicious than an ice cream truck that parks on the end of the block for TWO HOURS, "pop goes the weasel" playing over and over endlessly, while adult men walk furtively up to it and exchange cash for brown paper bags which they then shove under their t-shirts or hold behind their backs as they walk back home. NOTHING I SAY.

[michaeldthomas.livejournal.com]

At least there wasn't a clown driving it.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

In the interests of accurate reporting, I feel that I must tell you that I don't know if there was a clown driving or not. I did not go check.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

My cousins call him the dingding man, even though he doesn't go dingding any more. That's all it used to do, though. Dingding. Dingding.

Which would still probably make me a bit nuts.

[hagsrus.livejournal.com]

Heh -- I'd take Turkey in the Straw or Joplin over the dreary little anonymous jingle our local one plays.

It must be dispiriting to spend the day as a self-proclaimed Mister Softee. I wonder if kind people offer Viagra samples?

[cschells.livejournal.com]

I am so irritated with our neighbors for buying something from our local truck--I swear he cruises our street twice as much now. So creepy. As someone said above, the only thing worse would be if a clown were driving it.

[allichaton.livejournal.com]

The one that drove around my dad's house played "It's A Small World", which was sporadically interrupted with "*knock, knock* HELLO!" and used to scare the bejeezus out of me.

[fadethecat.livejournal.com]

Ice cream trucks were not part of my childhood, and I have experienced far too many that play Christmas music--Christmas music, I tell you! Endless rounds of Jingle Bells and Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer!--in out-of-tune MIDI at high volume while tooling around the neighborhood. Endlessly.

On the other hand, ice cream carts were a cherished part of childhood, and I'll still go running with two bucks for anyone who comes by with a little push-cart (or bicycle-driven cart) and actual brass bells on the railing ringing away.

[malinaldarose.livejournal.com]

The one around here plays "Turkey in the Straw" (which, for all I know about song titles, could be the same tune as "Pop Goes the Weasel," but I don't think so). Fortunately, it's only around on Sunday evenings and lately, I haven't been.

[bookzombie.livejournal.com]

Our local one plays the first couple of bars of 'The Teddy Bears' Picnic'.

Even in the middle of winter. That's what I call optimistic.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

The one that haunts my neighbourhood plays the theme from Monty Python...

[girlpunksamurai.livejournal.com]

the local one around here plays a hip-hop ghetto version of Pop Goes The Weasel >.>

[saltypepper.livejournal.com]

We have Mr. Softee AND a Good Humor truck which plays a strange version of Sailing, sailing over the bounding main.

The sailing guy has been the ice cream truck man in this neighborhood for over 30 years, and I can only figure he's kept his sanity by playing the song just long enough for the kids to notice, and then turns the music off.

I am pretty sure it's not in the closet, it's under the bed.

The ice cream truck is a chariot to hell.

[spacecase133.livejournal.com]

I love this because a) the ice cream truck just went by here about 20 minutes ago and I told the dog to go get it (he didn't budge), and b) one of my coworkers said recently that he knew someone who told his kids that the ice cream truck was there to take bad kids off to hell or something of that nature...so they were terrified of it and its music for their entire childhoods. The father apparently never had to shell out any ice cream money.

[ellen-fremedon.livejournal.com]

My old neighborhood in Takoma Park was haunted by the ice cream truck of the damned. It used to cruise the streets at 1 AM playing that "A Rose May Bloom" song from Romeo and Juliet. I have no idea why.

[norabombay.livejournal.com]

I HATES them.

First, because they set the dog off. Nothing like a high pitched whine of a song to get a dog barking at nothing.

Second, because they create a traffic hazard, and for those of us who are not among the world's best drivers, an overload of children is not good.

And finally: because I live in the middle of chicago, and there are four places to get ice cream in a four block radius. It's needless.

The guys who sell fruit juice are worse, as they ring bicycle bells. Instant dog issue.

[miladyinsanity.livejournal.com]

Hey, didn't Booth from Bones shoot an ice cream truck?

I've lived in an apartment block all my life, so it was always a treat when one came around when I was at one of my aunt's places.

[slithytove.livejournal.com]

Never experienced ice cream trucks when I was a kid. Nowadays, though, the thought of ice cream trucks brings to mind A Heap of Trouble (http://www.stevesullivan.co.uk/heapmov.html), a rather disturbing (and NSFW) short film. (No horror or gore, just... disturbing.)

[alex51324.livejournal.com]

Growing up, we used to have the snowball man. He drove around in a jeep with a bell attached. (and, presumably, some sort of snow-cone making apparatus.) Not too loud, gave you just enough warning to grab your money and run outside. It said "Bob's Snow Cones" on the side, but I never asked if the driver was Bob himself or an employee. Where I live now, they have the pop-goes-the-weasel kind of ice cream trucks. I swear one of them used to stop in my neighborhood for the guy to have his lunch or something--it would just sit there and play and play and play. Gah. Now the little Mexican restaurant across the street has closed, and that doesn't happen anymore. Now the city works guys show up at 6 AM every weekday morning and rip up the street in front of my house. Every once in a while they'll think they've finished and pack up all their things and leave for a few weeks, but then they come back. I have no idea what they're doing out there. I guess I should be glad--I mean, if they were doing the sewer mains or something, I'd know. But I digress. In short, bob the snowball man = good, pop-goes-the weasel man = bad.

[sophielandon.livejournal.com]

High-end ice-cream truck around here, some kind of really fancy van with detailing and Superman on the side, playing, are you ready, the first couple phrases of "Fur Elise". I've never actually seen anyone buying from it, FWIW.

All my childhood memories of ice cream trucks are entirely positive and pleasant, except for the bits where I couldn't get ten or twenty cents together before the truck drove off.

[aiixael.livejournal.com]

Hahaha. Now you know why all the ice-cream truck men are psychotic. =]