Is the ice cream man cute?

Maybe you could work out a deal with him.

*wink*

He parks there? There's got to be some kind of ordinance against that. I would be homicidal after a day of that.

Too funny! You could be like one of the baseball moms who went and yelled at the Ice Cream man because he was playing Christmas songs at high volumn during our son's games.

I laughed at her but we also gave her a round of applause. Go all "Cheryl" on his ass

AAAAAAAUUUGH!

Not "It's a Small World"!!!!

That IS evil. He'd be my nemesis too!

At least yours does not shout.
Mine plays some crazy circus song and also shouts "Hellooo, Hellooo" Makes one want to shout back "shut the F... up!" Yup - ice cream truck now equals "evil torture" around here in Fontana Ca.

We have evil ice cream trucks as well. At least three go through our neighborhood. The one that baffles me is the one that plays the them from The Godfather. Is that supposed to attract children?

We have evil ice cream trucks as well. At least three go through our neighborhood. The one that baffles me is the one that plays the theme from The Godfather. Is that supposed to attract children?

Honey, I think you live 2 streets from me.....
really.

the ice cream truck in my happy little neighborhood plays a song that sounds like the Halloween movie music. Wanna buy a popsicle from Michael Myers???? Run away!

I too have an evil ice cream truck. However, my roommate and I have dubbed it the "ghetto ice cream truck" because the stupid blaring song is punctuated with a bell clang. The bell clang makes the music sound remixed and rap-like. Its weird, as well as irritating. Every afternoon, from about 6 to 6:30.

Ours plays The Sting. But he flies through so fast you couln't catch him if you wanted to.

oh no...now that song will be in my head alllll daaaaaaay looooooong. I will have to pass this along to as many people as I know as perhaps sharing the OCD tune will lessen it's hold on my brain. I'm laughing, laughing, laughing.... However, I would also be homicidal and want ice cream at the same time.

Our ice cream man plays "Pop goes the weasel" and it's SO out of tune. He also has a very big turban and never smiles but the kids don't seem to mind... your video gave me a bad flashback of being stuck on the ride at Disneyland for 15 minutes, in front of the mermaids, listening to that song over and over and over!

There's an ice cream truck that drives up and down the main drag next to my law school - right next to the library! All day and night! Every time I hear that thing, I want to disable the stupid sing-songy music. I don't even know the name of the song, but it's lodged into my head.

Come on, hasn't Soba begun plotting the overthrow of the obnoxious ice cream truck bell thing? Doesn't she have any tips to pass along?

My father once yelled at the neighborhood ice cream man because, if I remember correctly, he was driving very slowly around and around the same block, playing a deeply annoying version of "Greensleeves" over and over and over again. My mother was mortified.

Someone recently wrote into an advice column about a similar problem and the advice-giver said to go outside with a HUGE Costco-sized stash of ice creams and give them to the kids for free. Evil and genius, and probably worth the investment.

My favorite was the orange sherbert with the gumball in the bottom called a Cannonball.

Years ago I lived with a roommate in a house just down the street from a school. Every afternoon the ice cream truck would park in front of our house, blaring music, waiting for the kids to get out of school. One day my roommate snapped and went out to the truck and told the guy if he didn't move she was going to get her gun and shoot him. She meant it. He never parked in front of our house again. He knew better. This is Texas- no jury would have convicted her.

Oh, we have one that drives through neighborhood and screams out "Hel-low!" between each song. It's is so terrible. And they don't carry Frosty Paws! Well, "Hel-low" but my doggie needs a ice cream treat too!

My family goes to a lake every summer for a week. Every night, starting at 6, the ice cream BOAT patrols the shore. It's charming.

The creepy Small World truck in your neighborhood? Not so much with the charming. I'd second the notion that he' should NOT be allowed to park there. Perhaps casting a few aspersion aroudn the neightborhood that the Ice Cream man might be giving a way some "Free samples" to some cheating wife in the vicinity might cause tongues to wag and him to vamoose.... come on, you're from the south (like me!), you KNOW how to start a good rumor!

"go outside with a HUGE Costco-sized stash of ice creams and give them to the kids for free. Evil and genius, and probably worth the investment."

Great suggestion. Make sure you're wearing a raincoat too. (eye-roll)

I went to a BBQ a buddy of mines old house. The Icecream truck FLEW by at about 45 miles per hour ignoring the multiple children playing in the yards. Three of my big guy friends attempted to chase the truck down in the hopes of Choco Tacos and Bomb Pops.
I think when you see three Big Tatooed guys running after you, even if theyre waving money you may be hesitant to stop.

Our neighborhood ice cream truck plays "Rock A Bye Baby". I never understood why anyone who wants children to run outside to buy frozen treats would play a lullaby to advertise. Maybe the parents are in on it.

Ours is "turkey in the straw" and the driver goes so fast you think he might be high on crack or doesn't want to be seen by anyone he knows.

OMG, I KNEW it was going to be "It's a Small World" even before I clicked "play". Yet I still clicked it? What's wrong with me? I must also be the person who smells something when their friend says, "Eew...smell this! It's gross!".

Thanks, once again, for the brain worm. There must be some kind of noise ordinance in your neighborhood, if not against "It's a Small World", against the decibel level?

I wish I had an ice cream man. Minus the song. There's nothing quite like strawberry shortcake on a stick to say 'SUMMER!'

the ice cream truck in my old neighborhood in maryland would park right next to my house and blare evil stylized christmas carols. in july. kid you not.

I can't see the movie but by everyones comments says it is "It's a Small World". Which reminded me of the time we took the boys to Disneyland and when we asked them what was the scarest ride they said "It's a Small World" because it was full of "Chucky Dolls".

From the eyes and ears of children....

I guess I've been living in a city too long. There are no icecream trucks here. I can't say I miss them. As a kid in the suburbs it used to scare the beejezus out of me to walk up to a cranky stranger in an enclosed truck and give him money.

And your icecream truck video is like the movie "The Ring." You have to pass it on to someone else in order to get it out of your head. hee hee.

I wish the ice cream man would park outside my house!

We have an ice cream man that drives down our street in the summer but he doesn't do it in a nice, casual taking a Sunday drive kind of way. He drives that ice cream truck like he's a NASCAR driver going for a first place finish. I'd have to be a marathon runner to catch up with him and actually get an ice cream.

Which might actually not be a bad thing...

I seem to remember hearing about a man that shot at the ice cream truck with a shotgun because of the annoying music. I can relate.

The rumor in our 'hood is that our ice cream man sells recreational drugs as well as ice cream. Bad ice cream man!

When we lived in Florida where there's maybe...2 months of winter? That %#@*ing truck would cruise our neighborhood ALL. DAY. LONG.

Robinv - ours is "Turkey in the Straw" too! I thought he had to be the only one!

Do you live next door to me, or is this too part of a Vast Ugly Conspiracy?

The other ones in this area mostly just play the usual Mister Softee song. Which is plenty evil enough, but nothing could be as bad as Small World. Whew, I'm glad I checked the comments first and didn't hit "Play"!

Love it. "It's a Small World" was one of my favourite songs (and rides) as a kid, and people used to buy me music boxes and toys that play it. I have no explanation - I also begged Mom to buy me the 45 of Dionne Warwick's "I Know I'll Never Love This Way Again" when I was 5, and I played it over and over and over. I loved that song. But it pleases me that I can still set my brother's teeth on edge with "Small World", even as we both push 40. I'll be sending him this link, because I remain a good little sister.

There was a commercial a few years back where an ice cream truck played "Take Five" and the guy was giving cones to the kids when they correctly answered a question about jazz. Every since then I've wanted that to be my ice cream truck. Don't remember what the commercial was for, though.

I can't figure out what our local truck plays - he whizzes by so fast that by the time I start to pick up the tune, the doppler effect starts to run interference. So I go around the corner to the Italian deli for gelato instead.

You have my empathy. There's an ice cream truck of evil that comes to my apartment complex and blares the tinkling version of "Maple Leaf Rag".

I'm plotting the death of that damn truck's speaker system.

Wow, I thought the ice cream man that blares The Entertainer outside our house was bad.

This is so much worse!

In Halifax, N.S., we don't have many, if any of those funky ice cream trucks. However, in Toronto there was one called Donkey Cone, with a huge ape on it. He had competition from one that was called (rather disturbingly) Mr. Nice Cream.

Perhaps you should remind the ice cream man that it is indeed a small world, especially in your neighborhood, and perhaps he could can the canned music!

When my kids were very small, I taught them that the truck that drove through our neighborhood every afternoon blaring the awful "pop goes the weasel" song was "The Music Truck." Yep, that's what it's for -- it drives through town playing a happy song as a public service. It wasn't till my oldest was 7 that she saw neighbor kids buying ice cream from the side of the truck. She came running into the house all excited and yelling, "Mom! Mommy! The Music Truck has started selling ice cream!!!!" To which I professed great surprise and amazement.

There's an ice cream man who likes to park right in front of my parents' house in Chicago who sits there for hours swearing and screaming and making violent hand gestures into his cellphone. It's actually kind of disturbing, especially since they live across from an elementary school

In Season 2, Episode 13 of Bones, Booth ends up having to see a psychiatrist after shooting at an ice cream truck. I say Go Booth Go!

OH MY GOSH you just reminded me....my friends Apartment there would be ice cream trucks driving around at seriously 2 am and I asked her "Why would they be selling ice cream at 2 am?
I never saw any children going up to them...only full grown adults.
Then the news did an Expose on ice cream trucks selling drugs...I was like DUH have you ever been by my friends house at 2 am in December...I'll bet there is no Ice cream at all in those trucks

Just think, he has to listen to it all day, everyday, as long as he's driving the truck and probably in his dreams. That's enough to turn anyone into a homicidal maniac.

To answer your burning question, the plural of nemesis is nemeses.

The Ice Cream Man does seem like a worthy nemesis. Although an ice cream treat sounds really good right now. Does the ICM serve treats all year in LA, or is it just a summer thing there too?

Park...did you say he PARKS??? no, no, no...call the cops. Seriously, that is disturbing the peace!! Just walk up to him with needles in hand and I think he'll get the point...blaaa. Point;)

OHMYGOD! We have an ice cream truck that plays the same song (albeit for fifteen minutes every afternoon, not as long as your truck!) only interspersed between the measures are disturbing cartoon sound effects (including a chain saw??? wtf?), clapping hands, and horror-movie-baby-doll-laughter. And then there is a pause at the end of the song, a woman says, "Hel-LO?" and then it begins again.

[shudder]

The ice cream trucks in our neck of the woods play The Entertainer from the movie The Sting. (used to like that song at one time) Somehow the music is tied to the speed of the truck. It speeds up when the truck speeds up and slows down when the truck slows down. Odd, huh?

My favorite was the Banana Bomb (or something like that). Mmmmmmm!

Oh no. How annoying!!!!

I heard about this new CD - Songs for Ice Cream Trucks - on NPR, and they are supposed to be far less annoying than "It's a Small World" and its ilk. Maybe a gift to the evil arch nemesis would save your sanity? :)

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10810961

We've got not one, but two of those ice-cream-trucks-from-hell that tour our neighborhood, playing the same damn song over and over.

It's enough to drive one postal. ("Honey, get my shotgun! Kids, hit the ground!")

I was just visiting my friend in Baltimore last week, and she lives in one of those row houses, you know where your living room is like 5 feet from the street. Every night the ice cream truck would come flying down her street, music blaring, and it didn't seem stop for anyone. I made a comment on its fast rate of speed and my friend said, "Oh, you mean the heroin truck?" which is when I noticed it was driving by at 10:30 PM. Ohhh.....(I'm a little unhip, I guess)

The ice cream trucks that we have in my town dont have such fancy music systems on them. They just have a bell on top of the truck. So we actually call them the "Ding Ding Man". I havent bought ice cream from the Ding Ding Man since I was a teenager.

And, now that I'm older, calling the ice cream man the Ding Ding Man sounds kind of weird, kind of like I need to check the Sex Offender website for my state and look for the guy's name before I buy any ice cream from him.

Someone mentioned Choco Tacos...the Ding Ding Man trucks here never carried the Choco Tacos, but a fast food restaurant called Taco John's had them...and the Super Target down the street from me has them!

I'm hungry for a Choco Taco now!! I think I'm going to Super Target!!

My neighborhood ice cream truck plays "Turkey in the Straw." Feel my summer pain.

Haha! I played that video and the cat sleeping on my lap woke up and is staring at the computer, totally freaked out. I don't think he will ever sleep again.

Uggh! Yes! I feel your pain!! Our neighbourhood ice cream truck plays "Music Box Dancer" and sits about 30 feet away from our door for at least an hour every dang night! I wish I could say that was the worst, but it also plays this silly, strange 'music' with lots of 'boings', 'clangs' and other weird noises, with some crazy person sing-songing "hello!!!" all through it, and it makes both my dogs crazy and they bark forever and one of them usually gets so upset he is incontinent! So while the miscreant youth and their parents on my street are stuffing their faces with ice cream, we are inside cleaning up after and taking care of our post-traumatic-stress suffering dogs.

Once when my sister was studying for exams and the ice cream truck was outside our house she went outside and yelled at the ice cream man to go park somewhere else. He never came back

"Turkey in the Straw" in my neighborhood, where the ice cream man thinks 9pm is a good time to cruise the neighborhood. That's right. NINE PM! Nothing like the ice cream truck to bring a kid from sleeping to shrieking in three tenths of a second.

When I was younger I think my dad used to call the company to get the truck to come through our Minnesota neighborhood because it didn't come on it's own (we didn't have a lot of kids on the street). I thank my dad for being such a great dad and getting it to come; however, now I'm haunted--no tortured by the ice cream truck in my New Jersey neighborhood playing the same damn song over and over. Think I could call the company and make them stop?

How does one get a job as an ice cream man/woman? How long could one work as said ice cream man before losing one's marbles after listening to tinny, out-of-tune music for hours on end?

ARGH! You should warn people *before* they click on that evil like!

Now it's stuck in my head, darn it!

of all the evil nemeses you could come up with, I did not expect this. But it is fitting.
Don't see many of them anymore. Maybe becuz they are parked in your hood.

I'm another "Turkey in the Straw" sufferer. I didn't think it would be such a popular tune!

Aside from that annoying song...don't evil little children swarm it, thus making the neighborhood noisy and children-ified?? Ugh.

PS - thanks, now the song's in my head.

I live around the corner from a school, and there are about 4 ice-cream men here, YEAR ROUND. If I wait until the afternoon to walk to the post office (which I do because I can't drag my lazy butt out of my comfy chair before the crack of noon...), they sit on the street, waiting for the kids who've gotten out of school and are on their way home, so I have to listen to the music and fight my way through the kids all hopped up on sugar. ARGH.

Laurie, I hate to tell you this, but Evil actually lives in Bushwick, Brooklyn, two blocks away from my old apartment. It was the ICE CREAM TRUCK DEPOT, where every ice cream truck in the five boroughs came home to roost. They tinkled down the streets all day, every day, going in and out of the depot, playing Pop Goes The Weasel, The Entertainer, and Turkey In The Straw. It was hell.

Maybe the ice cream man has a crush on you and is too shy to make the first move, so he's trying to lure you out of the house with his Astro Pops.

We also had an evil ice cream truck, and I said that if I had to hear Turkey in the Straw or Pop Goes the Weasel one more time....well, I don't think I should finish that sentence. It all ended well for us recently - he was arrested on p*rn charges and apparently had a little side business out of his truck. Just the kind of guy you want handing your kids something to eat...

"Small World" is annoying, but in the 'hoods east of the 405 the ice cream trucks play "Happy Birthday" -- top THAT for tear-your-ears-off irritation.

Plus, every time I hear the trucks I think of ice cream. Which is bad. No additional reminders needed . . .

Your just lucky you don't have any kids yet... Every time "It's A Small World" starts down our street, my son yells "ICE CREAM".... In fact, he comes so often, I now know that his wife knits, too... You can hear that annoying song 5 streets away... sheesh!

"Rock-A-Bye-Baby" was the song playing out of the ice cream truck earlier this week, ad nauseum. I alternated between wanting to kill something and being very, very sleepy ...

On a related note, my office had a "kick-off the summer" party in the lunchroom today and we all received one Grown Up Ice Cream (can you say Hagen Das?). Happy Canada Day weekend everyone!

It is a fact of life that the music coming from the ice cream truck will be annoying. The one in my mom's neighborhood mixes in a woman saying "hello" occasionally. The sound of this voice sent a 40-something male former neighbor to go running to the street once. Apparently the voice is the recorded voice of the woman who used to drive the truck when we were kids. She has since passed away. Twisted, huh?

At least your ice cream man plays a song that kids would know. Mine plays Fur Elise over and over.

"To answer your burning question, the plural of nemesis is nemeses."

Wasn't Nemeses an Egyptian Pharoah? If he wasn't, he definately should have been.

My husband can feel your pain. Where we used to live, the ice cream man seemed to enjoy driving through our NO SOLICITING condo community, blaring the evil music that we hated. And my husband worked graveyard shifts, so he was trying to sleep while the evil ice cream people paraded through the area. He hated it.

I feel your pain. I had an arch nemesis when I lived in Revere, Mass (aka Reveeyuh), and it played "Pop Goes the Weasel." I can hear it now, 8 years later. I was unemployed one summer, so we spent many an afternoon together. I wonder about the people who work in those trucks- they must all be sociopaths after working under those conditions.

A neighbor of mine - a highschool student - told me that her school has a special icream truck that also sells drugs to the students. "Step right up - get your Drumstick and your Dime Bag!" I told the cops and they said they had heard that rumor as well!

I have been lurking in your blog for months, and never felt compelled to comment until now. I live in a HUGE apartment complex that has THREE DIFFERENT annoying ice cream trucks come through every day. Two play the same annoying song over and over again, one of which has a little kids voice in it between repeats that says "hello!" The third has a litany of annoying songs, complete with Christmas music. Yes, Christmas music in the summer!

I just, wow, totally feel your pain!

I don't have an Evil Ice Cream story to share, but these are all great. I hate noise and songs that stick in my head, so they all seem thoroughly Evil to me. BTW, Uccellina, I think you win--one truck would be enough, but a whole depot? Eek!

LOL! Heather- I think your guy must have known a buddy o mine! Poor man- he was hired to run the ice cream route through Compton one summer during college, and he kept wondering why little kids were handing him $20 bills when they paid for their ice cream. Puzzled, he gave the kids $20 worth of drum sticks, whatever, and the KIDS were delighted!! Less so, however, were their parents who were apparently used to sending their kid over to buy their weekly supply of dope from the LAST ice cream guy....
(Marcus changed his route REEALLY fast!)

OMG!! That's the same "tune" my evil ice cream man's truck plays.

As a Disneyland Premium Annual Passholder (I'm a spoiled brat and want to go every day Pass) - "it's a small world" is one of my favorite attractions at the Park. My daughter and I can go on "small world" a bazillion times, and the song still won't get stuck in our heads (I've had this discussion on my blog a while back); however, "I'm Wishing" and "Hi-ho" is still haunting me from the first time I heard it, circa 1979-ish.

Oh good god... That ain't right.

Our neighborhood ice cream man is a tattooed and pierced goth guy! He has half his head shaved and the other dyed jet black. He plays "Pop Goes the Weasel" and scares the hell out of the little kids. My teens (and I, of course)love it!

Why don't you keep some Skinny Cow treats in the freezer and have one when you hear him go by??

It could be worse. Our ice cream man plays nothing but "The Entertainer". I don't think ice cream is supposed to make you want to gouge out your own eyes. . .

I hear you! My 3 year old asked me what that "pretty music outside" was yesterday and I LIED to her. "Just some other kid's music, honey" Sometimes you just have to fight evil with evil.

Here's a little food for thought - many ice cream men are pedofiles and in my area - one was a murderer who is now serving life - a little aversion therapy if I've heard anything ;)

And I thought my local one was bad!

New York has the right idea, with a new noise ordinance going into effect:

Here's the article (sorry the comment box won't let me make a shorter link for it):

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_New_York_Noise.html

"Even Mister Softee will have to keep it down: The ice-cream chain must now stop playing its maddening jingle -- the tinkling tune that gets stuck in your head -- when the trucks are stopped in residential areas."

Time for a petition in Encino-adjacent?

We don't have an ice cream truck where we live now. But when we lived in the apartment in the city we had one that flew around the neighborhood. Hubby and I always laughed because we could imagine kids getting excited when they heard the "jingle" and grabbing their money to watch him blow right past them. I swear, I don't think he ever stopped for anyone.

At least your arch nemesis parks for a while. The ice cream trucks out here zoom through so fast that by the time you tell the kids, "Run out the door and flag him down!" he's long gone, in spite of the little kids running behind him. No time even to reach for your wallet.

Sometimes you do manage to flag the truck down. Ask the driver how sales are and it's no surprise that he says, "Not so great." The guy needs a regular schedule so you know he'll be sitting on a certain corner at about a certain time and you can have the kids waiting for him.

LOL, I was reading the Postsecret stories about Dads on Father's Day, and one of them said that his/her Dad used to tell the kids that the ice cream truck played that tune to tell the neighborhood when it was out of ice cream.

NOT IT'S A SMALL WORLD! ANYTHING BUT THAT!!!

You have my sympathies.... what is UP with those trucks anyway? The one that always drove by me (Canoga Park-ish area) played The Sting but it was like the tape had been stretched-out and never played an in-tune note. With the advent of MP3 players you would think they would invest a teeny bit. :p

Not that blaring annoying songs at high decibels would be much better than hearing them in TUNE but still...

You got knitting needles... they can be pretty threatening you know... ;)

These stories are hysterical! We have two ice cream trucks. One plays Turkey in the Straw and shouts HELL-O! The other plays The Sting - this guy doesn't speak English - ordering ice cream from him is quite the challenge. I suggested Dueling Banjos to the Turkey in the Straw guy and he more or less growled at me. And they arrive precisely at dinner time.

The only thing that can possibly be worse is to have that accompanied by a child screeching
IIIIICCCCCCCCCCEEEEEEEEEE CCCCCCCCREEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAMMMM!!!

I swear to god I thought my oldest was going to stroke out on me when she was 4. It was terrifying. She'd be upstairs, hear the music, start screaming, run/fall down the stairs, while I was dashing for money and I swear, 9 out of 10 times the evil bastard would DRIVE OFF before we could get outside. Tears would ensue and I would curse him, his children, their children, anyone that knew him..etc, etc.

I agree. The summer ice cream truck is sheer evil.

For the LOVE OF Pete(who is Pete and why do we love him?) now I'm going to have that damn blasted song in my head for the rest of the day. I hate your ice cream man too!!!

I should also note. that we don't have an ice cream truck that comes through my town. How wrong is that?!?

The ice cream man who drives through my MIL's neighborhood must have gone to the same Evil ice cream man school as yours..... except, his plan is somewhat different.
He drives through the neighborhood not once, not twice, not even three times......
Try Five.....
Five stinking "Do Your Ears Hang Low" (the song he plays) times through the neighbohood.

Ours is awful in Brooklyn, NY too. We've moved to a place where we can't hear it as much as we used to, but it used to be that my DBF would pretend to load an invisable rocket launcher and blow up the truck (this was all pretend). It drove us bonkers on hot nights with no A/C to hear that song played over and over and over and...you get the point.

This post and comments are so funny today! I'm sitting at work, giggling and sharing the best stories with my boss (he's now hiding in his office to avoid me).

"What is the plural? nemises? nemesii?"

From the so-horrible-it's-awesome movie Mystery Men (Ben Stiller will never admit to having done it!), the answer is...

42.

(ok, it's Nemises.)

ours plays "the more we get together." But the kids think it is "the music truck", cause we live at the end of a road, and it stops about a mile from our house. But we can still hear it all over town. And I didn't click the video, I just couldn't. glad now that I didn't. ;)

I'm dying here with laughter! These comments are hysterical - who knew the ice cream truck was so universally hated.

And I agree, give a prize to Uccellina who lived near the ice cream truck depot - but also to Lynn for the description of her children's reaction. Lynn you made tears roll down my face!

I banished my evil nemisis from our neighborhood...thank the goddess for the housing association! Apparently, we are not the only two that can't stand the thing, all my neighbors joined in as well.

Hilarious!
I was fantasizing, last weekend, when our ice cream truck dude came forever and ever through our neighborhood...that there was a gigantic pothole that he accidently drove into. This pothole is so big that it eats cars for breakfast. Of course, in this fantasy, the pothole is at end of the road so I don't have to hear the damn song played from underground over and over again...until I have lost my mind.

This fantasy made me feel so happy that I dished out myself some more Ben & Jerrys (Cherry Garcia)!
Yummmmmmy Love ice cream:)

Our ice-cream guy just has a pushcart attached to the front of his bicycle. He rings a bell and calls out "Paletas, Paletas!!" (Spanish for popsicle)- I love him because it reminds me of the push-cart guys in my grandma's old East LA neighborhood.

I feel your pain. I lived in Austin, TX for several years. There were three different ice cream trucks that drove through my neighborhood. I f'ing HATE "Turkey in the Straw" and "Music Box Dancer" with an extreme passion. They'd start around 8 a.m. & would go until about 10 p.m. And since it's Texas and it's f'ing hot most of the year, they were in operation from March to Nov. I was just grateful that I didn't have kids.

When I was a kid we had Johnny the Ice Cream man, who, I am not kidding, wore the white uniform (sans hat) and drove a real Good Humour Truck. He would get out of the cab, and walk around to the group of kids (he always stopped at two spots on our street, to let kids gather)and dig out the requested treats though either the big door on the side or on the back. The truck was small, square, white, and the hinges and door handles were shiny chrome, and almost best of all, he rang a row of jingle bells to announce his arrival. They were mounted across the front of the truck. No stupid electronic songs, voices, or sounds.

He was anachronistic even when I was a kid, but it was so cool. (This was the 60's and early 70's I'm talking about, in Bridgeport, Connecticut.) When he retired one of the big van types took the territory, and it was not at all the same.

There's a song called "Do Your Ears Hang Low"?

LOL!

We had one that drove down our street every freaking day at 2:30, just when I had gotten The Child Who Wouldn't Sleep down for a nap. Just about the time said child learned to crawl out of her crib and pick the lock on her door and thus gave up sleeping forever, he stopped coming. It's really lucky for him because if I ever see him again, I'm going to kick his ass.

It's going to be a bad day in your neighborhood if the ice cream man ever discovers that trampoline.

Our ice cream man is back too. His one tune is "The Entertainer" mixed with a horse whinny and a woman who says "Hello!". Oh, my goodness. I want to hurt him so very much.

Ours plays Turkey in the Straw over and over and over and over again. It used to shout HELLO! between choruses until many a letter was written to the local paper complaining. Who says free speech is dead?

Huge, inappropriate, but sympathtetic hugs. Our ice cream man casts another surprising vote for his tinny and off-key version of "Turkey in the Straw."

Question to the Universe ... Why is there no Ben and Jerry's truck that plays old bootleg Grateful Dead concerts all day? Hmmm?

I am so not clicking the link to get the video going and that damned song stuck in my head.

When I first read the title, I thought you meant your "gardener" (I can't really give any man who just cuts things down to the ground an actual gardener, can you?) But I can understand both the desire to not have ice cream taunting you from right outside your door, or the desire to have THAT SONG drilled into your head constantly. We just got back from Disneyworld with our 3-year-old, her first trip, and we went on that ride easily 4 times a day. A DAY. Oh my god, towards the end, I was picturing those little automatons ripping themselves out of their endless circles and bludgeoning each other and tourists with their props. Like Chuckie visits It's a Small World. Anything to make that ride less tedious! My daughter loved it, though! Not the bludgeoning fantasies, just the ride.

The evil knows no bounds! I swear that about 30 seconds after watching that video I heard my own resident ice cream truck playing it's song of Pop Goes the Weasel. Hardly my arch-nemesis, but it does make me endlessly sad because in the seven years I've lived in this apartment it has NEVER ONCE actually come down my street. Such is life.

Ooh, I had one of those! I finally had enough of him parking directly in front of my home (which amounted to about 5 feet from my window) and stalked outside to have a few choice words with him. I think I may have scared him a little, because he never came down out street again! *lol*

ACK! I feel your pain. The one that drives me nuts calls out "hell-OOOHH!" in the most annoying, nasally childlike voice. Kill... killllll...

Ours quacks in between lines.
As in: Ohhhh, susannnahhhh? QUACK
doon't yoouuu cry for meee QUACK QUACK
etc.

I'm sorry:I clearly win.

Ursa

Um, the entertainer is from long before "The Sting." It's Scott Joplin ragtime piece. (stepping of my music teacher box here)

The ones around here seem to mostly play La Cucaracha, why somebody who sells food plays a song with that title, I'll never know.

Your ice cream man plays my ring tone!(ducks and runs)

OMG!!! You are soooo funny! Our ice cream man only rings a bell a few times. Your ice cream man may really be evil!

Ok, so I played the video of your nasty ice cream truck...my pets went crazy...looked at the computer, ears back and hissed.

There's a case in Hartford where the Mister Softee man and a local resident came to blows about the noise... (Also in Hartford there was a Mister Softee man selling dime bags.)

See if there's a noise ordinance. Or just call the police repeatedly and make everyone so sick of the whole thing that he finds another block?

It seems to be arch nemesis day in the blogosphere. Perhaps you could sic Stephanie's fleece-stealing squirrel on the ice-cream-man's music box. Win-win for the knitbloggers!

The ice cream truck in my neighborhood has the same sound to it but it plays the theme song from "The Sting". AAARRRRGGGHHHH!!!

quinn: the words are:

Do your ears hang low,
Do they wobble to and fro?
Can you tie them in a knot,
Can you tie them in a bow?
Can you throw them over your shoulder
like a continental soldier?
Do your ears hang low?

And now *that* is stuck in my head...

omg, I have the same problem.

Come to the Oregon Coast. It rains too much to have an ice cream truck. :) I always love visiting somewhere that has one because we didn't growing up. I would spend summers with my aunt in Sacramento so hearing a ice cream truck now reminds me of all those good times! Want to trade places for a few months. :)

NO, NO, NO, NOOOOOO! Oh. wow.

I couldn't handle it. I went on a high school trip to Disney World, and my group got stuck on the "Small World" ride. It broke down....for an hour....we were stuck in the middle, and it seemed that the only thing that was not broken was the music....It's a Small World....in surround sound...I've been out of high school for a while (hehe, we won't say how long) and it STILL gives me the shivers.

Laurie--

I know you're not going to believe this....but....

Oh, just come read my blog....

Lord, I love you people. I laugh at the blog and then I get to laugh another hundred times or so at the comments.
I had totally forgotten about the guy that used to drive around town on the bike with the big cooler thing on the front selling ice cream. Wow, the memories.
I had NO idea about all this ice cream truck madness going on throughout the country! I don't remember any weird ice cream truck incidents from my childhood, but maybe I'd better ask mom, it's possible that I was so focused on the ice cream that I just didn't notice.
Glad we moved far out into the country before we had kids, we're safe out here. I hope.

Turkey in the Straw = Do Your Ears Hang Low

at the last house we had, in typical suburbia, i heard a beautiful version of Fur Elise playing...eventually the ice cream truck came down our dead end street, but sadly never came back (mostly at work, or old folks on the block)...

i remember the panic we felt as kids, when we heard the icecream truck in the distance. we thought: how many blocks away is it? will it come down our street? do i have time to get home, beg money and get back out to find it? and so many times it just never came as far as the street we were on... ah the angst of children. tee,hee...life should be so sweet again!

OMG! i just showed my DH the video for a chuckle, and now he is in the kitchen whistling that damned song!!!! we're so messed up for the day now...i guess he's going to hum and whistle it until i find a new song for his subconscious to toy with....
thanks so very much LAURIE!!!! *groan*

"Wasn't Nemeses an Egyptian Pharoah? If he wasn't, he definately should have been."

That was Ramses.

"Turkey in the Straw = Do Your Ears Hang Low"

Hmmm...for Turkey in the Straw, I have the tune for "The Farmer in the Dell" am I wrong? *sigh* I just looked it up and alas, they are different!

In our sick little world, we have told our kids that when the music is playing, it means the truck is out of ice cream. Can't take credit for the idea...a friend grew up actually believing that. Wonderfully brilliant and a little sad at the same time.

Different note - why is it that I equate ice cream trucks with perverts cruising the neighborhood? Creepy.

Nothing to do with nemeses...but I am watching Victory Garden and am wondering about your peppers? Got any yet?

*
You must file a formal complaint.
Don't stop fighting.
This is criminal.

*

Like Jocelyn, I lived in a neighbourhood (Near Toronto, Ontario) where the ice cream truck played La Cucaracha and between that, and his very unfortunate habit of parking, either IN my parking spot or in such a way as to prevent me from leaving my parking spot, I never bought a thing from him. And I loooove me some ice cream.

Laurie...call the cops AND the offending truck's company. That guy's obviously up to something hinky if he's parking an ice cream truck on one street for long periods. Seriously, the police need to know.

In Rancho Cucamonga, it was "Turkey in the Straw". I told one loudmouthed neighbor that drugs had been found in the ice cream from the truck. Oddly enough, that truck was never around the following summers. Maybe a bad rumor would work?

We moved to the desert and never hear ice cream trucks now, thankfully. Why would I buy ice cream that the driver probably spit in?

OMG ROTFL!!! It's like getting on the ride and never getting off!!!

Our local Evil Ice Cream Truck plays an evil tune that my friends and I made up lyrics to:

Creep-ity creep-ity ice-cream man,
Luring the children into his van,
Driving away just as fast as he can,
..but wouldn't you like some ice-cream!

(bwa ha hah hah...)

Would you like to borrow my cross-bow??? or better yet, would you like to borrow me???? My dream job is assassin...the confiscated icecream would be payment enough.

I once had a nemesis in the form of a Dairy Queen so close to my apartment that I could walk there, get a hot fudge sundae, and get back to my recliner all before the commercial break ended.

That is evil! Our ice cream man drives around in a minivan with a cooler in the back while blaring "Turkey in the Straw".

My husband got stuck in that ride once for what he says was HOURS. At the age of 52, he's still traumatized!

Here in my neighborhood the ice cream man only rings a bell for some minutes- I am not quite sure why he stops, for nobody ever was seen buying his ice cream. There are no children living here.

But once a week there is somebody driving by with his pick up truck, who wants to buy crap metal, e.g. old bikes- he is playing a completely out of tune version of "Greensleeves". It took me months to identify the melody.

In my childhood the crap metal man had a cart with a horse to pull it, and played his tune on a pan flute. The man, not the horse.
There was also someone who sold potatos and groceries, coming along with horse and cart and crying "Good potatos- tasty vegetables".... but that was in the sixties, here in Germany, in a rather smallish town.

Laurie, you so crack me up. :-p *Runs off while humming "it's a small world"*

Ugh, mine too plays some stupid song then goes, "Helloo!" In my old neighborhood it playes a few bars of "The Entertainer" over and over again. Just think of the sorry-a$$ed clown who recorded those evil ditties! It's hard to imagine getting paid money for such a jingle. Maybe they get free Fudgsicles for a year!

Wow, I had no sound on my computer and I really want to hear that. Didn't want to check the comments for the song, I wanted the full experience. So I scrounged all over the home office for a hour looking for where I put the plug for the speakers, hooked them up and cranked 'em high. All I can say is JAYZUS!

they just passed a law out here in the wilds of Long Island, NY the ice cream trucks can no longer play music...yesssssss. we have been delivered from this nightly evil and horror or turkey in the straw...gahhhhd.

I was totally in agreement with you until I looked over at my 2 year old who was smiling and dancing to your video over my shoulder. So I had to play it again. And then again. So I guess that's who the ice cream truck is for. Children. Not us.

Bossy's community has an ordinance against that theme song.

Oh. my. GOD.

I'm pretty sure they used the same torture device in "Saw III". Not that I'd see go anywhere near that movie, but I'm just saying I think it might have been in the preview or something. HORRIBLE.

You poor woman.

You have my most heart-felt sympathy...no ice cream truck in our neighborhood. Lots of seagulls, though, which is a whole different kind of noise hazard.

HAH!!! The Other Dagby! 42!! hee hee I just finished the first Hitchhiker book last week.

Quinn and Angela - a few years ago up here in Canada an underwear company called "Fruit of the Loom" used the "Do Your Ears Hang Low?" song in a television ad campaign - only they changed the word "ears" to the word "boys" and as the song was sung by a mens chorus a clothesline with a bunch of different styles and colours of men's underwear was pulled past the camera on a white background. I always thought that ad was a bit daring. ;-)

Also - HAPPY CANADA DAY to all other Canucks out there!

Must be his cousin who terrorizes my neighborhood. Up and down all the streets all day, every day, but to the hideous chimes of "Turkey in the Straw." Really lovely for those of us who work at home. What happened to the olden days when they used to come by only once, in midafternoon?

The ice cream truck or trucks on my street are year round. And if that's not bad enough, they play Christmas carols... spring, summer, fall & winter. What's up with that?

That would be nemeses. It's Greek. Nemesis was the goddess of retribution. Someone probably already told you this, but I'm too lazy to read all the comments. It probably says something about me that I at first wanted to say "it's like crisis/crises or emesis/emeses." Emesis is the medical term for an episode of vomiting, or the product thereof.

Anyhow, I would be tempted to pay him lots of money to just go away without necessarily giving me any ice cream.

Heh. When I was a kid, my parents told me that the music (coming from the ice cream van in the street) was from the "Music Van", and in that van was a nice person who loved to drive around and play music for everyone.... a number of years later I found out the truth when my Dad walked me over to the truck to get an ice cream.

Well, that IS annoying...but if you think about the poor guy DRIVING the van who listens to that for 8 HOURS a day...well, if I were you I would watch out for the day he snaps because he is gonna be driving down the road throwing hard frozen icecream bars and anyone he can hit. That wont be pretty.
Farmgirlnow

I know how it is. The ice cream truck in my neighborhood plays the same song.

This must be my day - first I actually opened an e-mail I *knew* was BS (you don't hyphenate class-mate unless it's at the end of the line) and had to watch as my Norton Knight Protector saved me from a foul and dangerous Virus (talk about nemeses...nemesii...or wossname). Then I looked at your little film. Oy vey. However, the comments are worth it all. Pals o' mine, fellow Commentors of CAP...y'all rock!! I scared my cats into the other room my screaming in laughter, and I couldn't even pick a favorite.

I thought I was teh only one who hates Ice Cream Truck Season!!!!!!!!!!!

My guy/creepy person plays this one song ~
Do your ears hang low do they wobble to and fro, can you tie them in a knot, can you tie them in a bow, can you throw them over your shoulder, do your ears hang low. We have substituted boobs for ears, we have tried to make up new words, but it just doesn't work.
DO YOUR EARS HANG LOW!!!!! I think boobs work better but apparantly kiddy luring trucks do not talk about boobs.

I live across the street from a Little League baseball field. We have dueling ice-cream trucks that park in front of my house, blaring the music the whole time they're there. I FEEL YOUR PAIN.

oh, i feel your pain. our Nemesis barrels down our block, screeching HELLO HELLO interspersed with offkey children songs blaring from 2pm in the afternoon until 9:45pm every night. Or until the neighbors all flood the precinct with complaint calls (the noise is supposed to stop at 9pm.) my son's bedtime is 7:30p HA HA HA. We all haven't slept in weeks.

t

That is so evil! That song stuck in your brain and you haven't been anywhere near Disney World! We have to get stuck hearing Turkey in the Straw. Ours doesn't park though, he meanders around the neighborhood. I am so shocked that the Hitler HOA hasn't run this guy out of there already.