Ice Cream Vans

[sf1378]

Re: Ice Cream Vans

My Mum once said that they probably also sell hot dogs and burgers these days hence coming out in bad weather and winter...

[Razed]

Re: Ice Cream Vans

Our 'regular' was an Italian man and I seem to remember him having really dirty fingers :/. He had the teddy bear's picnic tune. I lived in a cul-de-sac so we had extra precious time to leg it indoors when he came up the road. It was always a frantic dash to the house then hopping on the spot impatiently as you waited for your mum to dig some change out of her purse. Then the frantic sprint back to the ice cream van. It was always a tough choice but I remember the most expensive was the 'Oyster'. It was a shell-shaped cone full of icecream with nuts and sauce on it. That was a rarity as it cost £1.20! In the days when it was about 20p for a 'cone' that was unthinkable.

Unfortunately for me if I missed the van, that was it. I remember the van coming to my aunt's house though. She lived on a long straight road so it wasn't so bad if you missed his stop; you just might end up running half a mile down the road to catch him up.

Now and then a different van would turn up but Romano the Italian guy probably caught wind and saw them off .

Randomly I became friends with a guy when I was about 7 and both his parents were 'ice cream people' so I actually got to go out in a van one day. I remember they had 2 huge chest freezers in the dining room. Unfortunately we couldn't eat any scoop ice cream (it was delish) but his parents would always let us have a broken lolly each during the summer. Luckily they didn't have Whippy machines or I probably would have been caught with my mouth open trying to dispense it directly from the machine into my stomach .

Damn, a few years ago at Uni an ice cream van randomly stopped near the house I was sharing. All 4 of us 20 year olds got really excited and I found myself going straight back to the days of being a 7 year old, running round looking for change then running out on the street in my flip flops excited to get a lolly!

[Trickyvee]

Re: Ice Cream Vans

All the vans around mine played 'Greensleeves' without exception, so only that tune can really take me back to those hazy, hot summer days on the estate.

Most of the vans that came around my street had the usual fare of ice cream and lollies but there was one that I regarded as a mysterious cut above because a) it came around late at night, even in winter and b) sold stuff like pop and chocolate! The whole coming around in the dark thing and selling corner shop type goodies seemed very exotic, although I never got to that van because it only stopped at the cross roads way up our street. Too far to run, too late at night and too dark!

[Tortie]

Re: Ice Cream Van

Also, I remember a very scruffy ice cream man that always had his flies undone and he didn't wear any underwear .

Ewwwww!!! Made me laugh though

We had two ice cream vans come round. Steve's was a blue van with "proper" ice cream that he scooped out of a seemingly endless vat, then put loads of lovely raspberry sauce on. Steve was how you're imagine an uncle to be - very kindly, probably in his 50's, very clean-cut and wearing clothes your parents would wear. His van played "Oranges and Lemons." For some reason (probably because there weren't that many children...), he stopped coming up our street, so I remember my mum dashing out and running round the corner to the next street in her slippers, with a Tupperware tub for him to fill up.
The other van was the Rock Villa van, which was yellow and played "Greensleeves." That sold Mr. Whippy-type stuff, which my mum never liked me having, but I think it was more to do wth the guy in the van, who was much younger and more "rock-on" than Steve. He had long hair and a moustache, and he wore jeans & tee shirts & looked like a pop star of the day (early 70's). Mum said he was scruffy though, so it always had to be Steve's.

Mum was a bit funny about ice cream and where we bought it from - she kept steering me past one shop because she said the lady "didn't have her freezer turned up high enough," but it turned out she'd had a big falling out with the woman at some point. Also, she only let me have "proper" ice cream, so one day when we were on our holidays and we bumped into a family we knew from home on the beach, and the dad disappeared and came back with Mr. Whippy's for alll the children, I was thrilled, but Ill never forget the look of disgust on my mother's face . Funnily enough, that little kiosk is still there, and it's first port of call when I go back to Scarborough - and yes, the ice cream does taste as good!

We get an ice cream van coming round the village regularly, and it plays the Match of the Day theme tune, which always makes me laugh, especially when it seems to go out of tune as he gets further away. I'd had a really bad day a bit back, so when he came up the street, I thought "blow it," and treated myself to an oyster delight - it was HUGE!!! Well worth the £1.50 it cost as well.

[Trickyvee]

Re: Ice Cream Vans

Funny that you should mention a kiosk Tortie. I remember an ice cream kiosk near Tynemouth that I used to visit. It was basically a wooden hut but a well loved, permanent fixture. Sadly it was demolished a few years ago to be replaced by an ice cream van.

It's not a word you hear much of now - kiosk.

[Tortie]

Re: Ice Cream Vans

Lol, showing my age!!!
It's a shame when something you grew up with and have fond memories of is lost.

[sf1378]

Re: Ice Cream Vans

Had a lovely Mr Whippy style ice cream with flake yesterday - got it from my local kiosk - Tricky's right, not a word you hear much nowadays....hence using it again!

I was practically parched yesterday and it was so refreshing, though I don't recommend having a Coke for afters, as nice as a glass bottle of it is, I felt so bloated after...but it was such a scorcher of a day on Wednesday wasn't it...

[Tortie]

Re: Ice Cream Vans

I just missed our ice cream van, as I was in the shower when it came up the street; I could've really fancied on as well :cry:.

For some reason, it always brings a smile to my face seeing groups of leather-clad bikers standing round eating ice creams

[hazel]

Re: Ice Cream Vans

Oh my god, that's just reminded me of something I thought I'd imagined! Our local ice cream van was a Tonibell, and I had vague memories of there once being a cow on the roof...I remember I used to ask my parents if they remembered the cow but they didn't. I've just Googled it and yes, there really was a cow!

[Romany Jones.]

Re: Ice Cream Vans

Why ice cream vans chime time rules are being relaxed.

Ice cream van drivers will be allowed to sound their chimes for 12 seconds - up from the current four - after a change in regulations from this autumn.

But noise campaigners think the government has been wasting its time changing the rules, as Giles Dilnot found out at an ice cream van parked in Westminster.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23331467. Video.

[victorbrunswick]

Re: Ice Cream Vans

I remember Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer" was a favorite tune of the ice cream vans when I was a kid in the '70s.

[Powdered toast man]

Re: Ice Cream Vans

Our ice-cream man used to have a yellow and white Bedford CF van that only sold Walls ice cream. It used to play 'Teddy bear's picnic and the ice cream was soft-scoop stuff that came in vanilla, chocolate mint or Neopolitan(great choice) and used to have the full range of Walls ice lollies as well.

[the fox]

Have you guys seen Eddie murphy's ice cream van sketch from his legendary 1983 stand up show 'delirious' ? If not (and if you can tolerate the bad language), look it up on YouTube. He sums it all up so perfectly.

[DemonEyeX]

Re: Ice Cream Vans

Have you guys seen Eddie murphy's ice cream van sketch from his legendary 1983 stand up show 'delirious' ? If not (and if you can tolerate the bad language), look it up on YouTube. He sums it all up so perfectly.

Haha, I remember it well.
"The Ice Cream Man Is Comiiiiiiinnnnnnnggggggg"

[Jedi Knight]

Re: Ice Cream Vans

Haha, I remember it well.
"The Ice Cream Man Is Comiiiiiiinnnnnnnggggggg"

LOL yeah, remember it well, my local one was Mr. Rossi (which incidentally was also the name of a great T.V. show I liked).