Who Can Take a Sunrise, Sprinkle it with Dew

Living in the country, I loose touch with what goes on in the City. Even though its winter, something recently reminded me of a regular occurrence when I was a kid and we lived on Blackwell. That was before we moved to the "other side" of town. I don't remember it happening on Parkway, but that could be because I didn't spend as much time roaming the neighborhood. The thing I remembered was the panic in the streets that would come over all the kids (who were ALL outside) when we heard the music of the Ice Cream Man from several blocks away. He would be cruising around in a beat up old cargo van with his carnival music blaring. Kids would run hysterically into their houses to shake their piggy banks for a few quarters. If just one kid could get him stopped, while the rest of us got our money, someone would promise to buy the kid who got him detained his ice cream. Looking back, I guess he wasn't trying to get away from us, but we couldn't let him get to those punks who lived on Palmer, or even worse, Don.

I could live in a world with only one flavor of ice cream, chocolate, plain old chocolate. However, when the Ice Cream Man came, I preferred Bananasicle. Mainly because that Fudgsicle with the ice crystals didn't taste as good as the Cabell's Ice Cream in the half gallon carton. (That was before BlueBell came to town.) Also, I think the Bananasicle also reminded me of the peanut butter and banana sandwiches Mom made me. She also made us peanut butter and honey, which was also tasty. We weren't much on peanut butter and jelly.

The Ice Cream Man's archrival was the Snowcone Man. He drove a similar even more beat-up truck, but I never thought he was as popular, although he was cheaper. I liked to get mine in that paper Dixie cup and poke a hole in the bottom and suck out the ice cold syrup. Red (cherry, strawberry, or other sugar water) and Blue (coconut) were my favorites. I never thought much of Icees. The straw always got clogged. The Coke always tasted flat, also.

Another thing Mom would make, I think as a tribute to the Fifties, was a Coke float (Coke poured over vanilla ice cream). When people were grossed out by Laverne (from Laverne and Shirley) liking milk and Pepsi, I always supposed it probably tasted like a Coke float.