"That tiny bit of magic one terribly lost ice cream truck gave me on a summer day"

[bigtree]

Amy McNally 🇺🇦 @infamousfiddler
Who needs a quick wholesome story break?

So I grew up in the middle of nowhere, Ohio. My house was in the center of a bunch of neighboring cornfields.

We didn't get girl scouts, encyclopedia salesfolks, knife sharpening, or proselytizers.

Amy McNally 🇺🇦 @infamousfiddler 13h
I read about some of the door-to-door stuff in books, but I had never seen an ice cream truck.

One day, I heard music, and my mom looked out the window, and did something strange and rare (we didn't have a lot growing up).

She handed us money from her purse and said, "RUN."


So, my sister and I ran.

I don't even remember what I got. I remember it was sweet and cold. I remember my bare feet pounding on the grass in the front yard. I remember panting in the sun.

But I have never, ever forgotten the magic of that day.


Well, now I live in a big town! In a neighborhood! And I have heard ice cream trucks go by in recent years.

But none this year.

So I called an ice cream truck that I googled, asking if they ever came by.


"We're not out at a lot of places, gas prices being what they are, but we are doing events."

"Events like... birthdays?" I asked.

"Yeah!"

"Y'all free for an hour on June 27?"


Today, we had a small and careful outdoor party.

And I asked them to tally up the ice cream at the end, and I'd cover it.

It was great fun, and my inner child was greatly pleased.

I had a snocone and a TMNT Raphael with bubblegum eyes and a blue raspberry Icee pop.


but my favorite part of the day.

My favorite part of the MONTH.

Was the neighbor kids coming by. Running. Bicycling. Money tucked tightly in their fists.


And I'm not like a wealthy person. I'm a musician.

But I have never felt richer than when I gestured to the kids who followed the music and said, "The ice cream is free."


Nobody abused my hospitality, and it'd honestly probably be okay if they had.

But I got to give some kids a tiny bit of the magic that that one terribly lost ice cream truck gave me on a summer day when I was a kid.

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[Ocelot II]

1. Just heard an ice cream truck in my neighborhood the other day.

It plays Für Elise, for some strange reason, but it's been around. I don't chase them any more but it's nice to hear.

[geardaddy]

18. We must hear the same one

It's funny that they play Für Elise, because that's what the garbage trucks in Taiwan played. They would go down the streets with that music blaring and people would come out of their homes and toss their garbage bags in the back of the truck.

[House of Roberts]

20. We had one in Marietta that played that song too.

We were there 1987 to 1988, and it would come into the apartment complex regularly.

[FM123]

2. Thank you. My heart so needed to hear that story.......

[WA-03 Democrat]

3. Great story

The ice cream truck was magic. My Mother never gave us money for the treats so we had to watch the other kids blast off to sugar rush land. My Mother gave us other things but on a hot summer a bomb pop was all i craved. I am going to buy a box of bomb pops and take one to my Mother today and sneak up with ice cream truck music into her room

[Mme. Defarge]

4. Now

I’m actually glad I got out of bed this morning!

[MLAA]

5. I loved the sound the ice cream truck when I was a kid in hot, humid north Florida.

A few years back I moved to Shanghai for a few years for work. I was in a conference room on the 13th floor and imagined I’d heard the faint song of an ice cream truck. Must have been day dreaming. A few days later I heard it again. This time it was clearer and I could make out the familiar, tinny, tune. It was playing happy birthday! Turns out the street cleaning trucks all played happy birthday to warn pedestrians they were coming. 😬

[lucca18]

6. I love this story!❤️

It brought back childhood memories.
Lazy summer days.
Hearing the bells of the ice cream truck.
The “Good Humor” ice cream truck.
What a glorious sight!
😍😁🍦

[housecat]

23. Yes! Good Humor! I remember those perfect summer days playing outdoors

[TygrBright]

7. Need these more than ever. NEVER forget, evil only wins when we give up. n/t

[FloridaDAR]

8. Goodness..

Did this ever bring back memories!!

I lived in a small town in South Carolina as a child in a neighborhood with small brick houses. An ice cream truck came by every afternoon. We could hear the truck from a distance, so there was always time to grab the money my mom left on the table by the front door and run. I lived for creamsicles, especially those in a cardboard push-up contraption, which was my usual daily fare.

My fondest memory was not only the ice cream truck but that of my first dog. A Chihuahua named Henry, and he LOVED ice cream. This was back when we didn't know ice cream was bad for dogs. I am still not convinced it is, as all my dogs have eaten ice cream all their lives and thankfully lived to ripe old ages.

Henry responded to the ice cream truck music before we did and would start whimpering, running to the door, pawing at the screen. We would grab the money and his leash from the hall table and run for ice cream together. I got a creamsicle, and he got a cup of vanilla ice cream. I am sure you remember those cups—paper and a paper lid with a little tab to pull it off and get to the good stuff.

I would carry our treasure back to the front porch, and we would sit on the steps and enjoy.

Those were good days.

Thank you so much for sharing this delightful story and the joy this woman brought to those kids and us!

[Texaswitchy]

9. My favorite was a Root Beer Bullet.

We had two ice cream trucks come thru the neighborhood.

One would stop at the park.

I always had a quarter on me.

My father would spoil me a little...

[crud]

10. We have Ice cream trucks come by several times a day.

Lot's of kids on my street, I know most of them (I have an air pump). When I hear the music getting close, I soon hear about a half dozen frantic voices yelling "STOP, SSSSSSTOOOOOPPPPP! I've even seen them come out of the house too late and yell, and the truck loops back. That is everyday on my street.

[IronLionZion]

11. They hang out at places with people

so for DC, it's the national mall on summer evenings.

[iluvtennis]

12. Aww 🥰 I'm a sucker for th we stories. n/t

[LoisB]

13. Where I grew up, the Mr. Softee truck came by every day spring through fall.

[moonscape]

14. In the early 70's I lived in

Manhattan but wanted a p/t job to supplement my f/t one. Long story how it came to be, but on the weekends I drove a Pied Piper ice cream truck on the Jersey shore one summer out of Belmar.

It was an old-fashioned truck, open in the front with the freezer door on the back. So I jumped out of it every time kids yelled out to open the back and sell.

One day a group of kids came out yelling to each other and chasing my truck, ‘It’s the ice cream man! It’s the ice cream man!’ I stopped, jumped out, and one yelled out in surprise, ‘It’s a lady!!’

Great, fun job.

[BumRushDaShow]

17. "It's a lady!!'

[justhanginon]

15. Great story, thank you. I am way too old for the childhood ice cream trucks but I do remember

my mom giving us each a dime and getting a Vanilla Dixie Cup at the little grocery store a few blocks from where we lived in a rural area. Sometimes splurge and get a large bottle of Vess Red Cream soda and make ice cream sodas with that. Pure heaven on the really hot days before residential air conditioning. Good memories

[SCantiGOP]

16. You'll probably think I'm 120 years old

But I used to get a dime to run out and buy something. That’s when fireballs were 1 cent and Tootsie Rolls were a nickel.

I used to wonder how many ice cream truck drivers went absolutely insane from having to hear that same 5 second loop of loud music over and over all day.

[geardaddy]

19. I always got a bomb pop from our local ice cream truck

[FalloutShelter]

21. You really touched me with this story.

[Pacifist Patriot]

22. That gave me the good kind of chills. Thanks!!!!

[Hekate]

24. 💖💖💖

[stage left]

25. Oh, my.

This story made me feel so good! Thank you!

[Higherarky]

26. Such fun!

Remember the little wooden paddle "spoons"?

[FailureToCommunicate]

27. Wonderful story. I always got the "raspberry one stick" not because I liked it as much as it stayed

unmelty the longest!

One time when I was coaching first graders soccer, the ice creme truck pulled up next to the field, and half my team went running over off the field...DURING the game!!
The other coach and I laughed, threw up our hands and went over to pay for the kids' ice creme.
We both remarked we wish WE could command such immediate attention from our young players as that little tune "Turkey In the Straw"

[niyad]

28. Thank you. Sharing this!

[live love laugh]

29. There's something in my eye. ❤️

[Marthe48]

30. Lots of good memories

The Uncle Marty truck would come down our street. As soon as we heard the music, my sister and one or 2 of my brothers would race down our long driveway to get ice cream. We were good customers. We gor to know his schedule and would wait at the end of our drive with our grubby little hands full of coins. One day, it was rainy, so we didn't go to the end of the drive to wait. The windows were closed, so we didn't hear the truck on the street. We were all surprised and delighted when Uncle Marty pulled up to the back door! lol

[Wicked Blue]

31. I drove an ice cream truck during the summer of 1970

and was probably the first female ice cream truck driver in NJ

Great fun, but I ate and gave away too much of my meager profits to poor kids.

[nolabear]

32. Gosh. I teared right up.