WHEN I WAS A KID

When I was a kid, we had an ice cream vendor come down our street in Norwood once in a while.

I thought of this when a saw one of those Mister Softee trucks the other day.  Those things were the bane of my existence for a few years when my children were very young.

Down the street they would come, blaring their familiar carnival song loud enough to wake the dead much less children if they were already in bed.  My kids had the hearing of watch dogs in those days.  They could hear that jingle before it registered on my old ears.   Then the chant began:  "Mister Softee!  Mister Softee!  Mister Softee!"  There ought to be a law!

Back in the day, in Norwood, the ice cream vendor had a cart with handlebars.  The man pushed it up the street.  The cart held a box that had doors on the top.  The man would open the doors and steam from the dry ice keeping the ice cream bars cold would escape.   Attached to the handlebar by a string was a bell he would ring to let people know he was in the area.  I'm sure it didn't have near the volume that Mister Softee put on us.  Those were the days.
*o*