Do you have memories of the Ice Cream Man when you were younger? The Ice Cream Man could always make my day a little brighter with his assorted yummies.
My favorite were the candy cigarettes.
My mom hated it when I bought those.
To my kids: Don't ever buy candy cigarettes just to make me mad. You will pay.
I even remember "borrowing" money from my dad's wallet when he wasn't around when I heard the jingle getting closer and closer. I think I can even track the beginning of my forbidden love affair with sweets back to the Ice Cream Man from my youth.
As I got older and started having children, I began to realize just how creepy the Ice Cream Man actually was. An aging, and often time balding older man (this is nothing against bald, old men), luring pure and innocent little children with fun music and yummy treats. Evil, I tell ya. I vowed I would never let my kids get even remotely close to an Ice Cream Man or his creepy van.
Fast forward to last week. I caved. My kids got so excited when they heard the little jingle getting louder and louder. They ran into the house asking for money for the Ice Cream Man. I never saw them more hungry for anything in my life. I actually was a little scared at what they would do to me if I said no. For the next few minutes I tried my darndest to scrape up enough loose change for my kids all the while cursing the Ice Cream Man under my breath. Regretably, I found enough change and gave them the money, and out the door they went.
Sadly, or happily depending on how you look at it, my kids came back defeated. Apparently I had taken too long finding money. The Ice Cream Man had come and gone. I walked with them to the corner to see if maybe we could catch him but he was nowhere in sight...and neither was Emma. This girl has such a love of candy. She can sniff out any candy I may be hiding in the house. I figured she must have tried to catch him. Me and the rest of the kids walked home and I tried consoling them by playing with them in the front.
Wouldn't you know it, not ten minutes later we heard the creepy little jingle once again. In fact it got louder and louder. We turned to see if the Ice Cream Man was in fact coming back. Hearts were broken once again when we discovered it was only Emma on her scooter rounding the corner. Wait!! It wasn't only Emma! The Ice Cream Man was following closley behind her!
Emma had found the Ice Cream Man and brought him back to us!!
Since that moment, the three younger siblings have looked at Emma a little differently...with a little more respect.
And I have realized that Rafael (I don't know if that is his name, he just looked like a Rafael) is just trying to make a living like the rest of us. Will I always think the Ice Cream Man concept is a little creepy? Yes. But Rafael seems harmless enough. Maybe next time I will buy something for myself.
10 comments:
Emma That is awesome! how fun. Love you guys!
Way to go Emma. I wish I would have had a big sister who would go to that extreme for me. We had the ice cream man too when I was young, but most of the time we weren't very interested, because my dad almost always had a hugh tub of ice cream in the frezer for us. We had a small dish of ice cream after school a lot of the time.
The first time I read this I thought it was Ella that went after the ice cream man and I was a little concerned!! Thenn I figured out it was Emma-you go girl!! I LOVE the neopolatin ice cream sandwiches and the big stick popsicles-yummy!! We must live over here in no mans land because we haven't heard the ice cream man once all Summer!!
I love this! What good memories!! So cute. Did you know that the ice cream man song in Taiwan is the garbage man song!! I learned that the hard way. I just thought it was a universal "ice cream" tune!
Emma and me are a lot a like. I've done much more than chase after a van to get my fill of ice cream. Cute story.
Hooray for Emma! She is so motivated by sugar. A girl after my own heart.
You can tell she has been well taught.
Cute Lara! I love how the ice cream man is so wonderful until we are adults, like you said, all the sudden he's creepy, the whole thing is creepy. Oh well I'm glad they got their icecream.
That looks like so much fun! Way to go Emma!
What a great story! Emma, way to go! I hardly ever let my kids buy icecream from the icecream truck because the icecream really isn't that good (Maybe it is just the ones that look like sonic the hedgehog that are gross. Jason would usually eat half and then throw the rest away- and I hate wasting food). There is a great life lesson here in going after what you want and not letting little set back stop you from reaching your goal.
Post a Comment