What Did You Get From the Ice Cream Truck?
Okay okay, I know it's not QUITE summer yet. But I for one can't wait for the sound of that magical musical sugar mobile - even if I don't visit them anymore...at least not without an unsuspecting niece or nephew as my beard.
So as a kid, what was your favorite treat from the ice cream truck? I myself was a Firecracker girl, but I sometimes opted for a Push-Up Pop, or one of those cookie ice cream sandwiches. How about you?
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40 Comments:
i live in NC and we've been listening to the ice cream truck for over a month now. my preference was the red/white/blue pops (we called them rocket pops), but a good ol' fudge-sicle would work nicely as well!
kristygarr at 3:26PM on 05/19/09
orange creamcicle/good humor truck
goodcooker at 3:32PM on 05/19/09
Ah! goodcooker beat me! I used to love me some creamcicles.
mollykate678 at 3:35PM on 05/19/09
Oo I think rocket pops are the same as Firecrackers...I actually called them rocket pops, but just got told by a friend that I made that up, and they're actually called Firecrackers. So HA, "friend," I was totally right, they're rocket pops.
embolini9 at 3:36PM on 05/19/09
ROCKET POPS UNITE! HA! :)
kristygarr at 3:39PM on 05/19/09
ice cream sandwiches! chocolate cookie outside with the little holes, and vanilla ice cream center... i could go for one right now, actually. :)
crispyscorpio at 3:41PM on 05/19/09
Cornetto! Hardened chocolate shell, salty peanuts, and creamy vanilla ice cream....
soyviz at 3:50PM on 05/19/09
I think it was called a nutty buddy? similar to what soyviz listed but in a regular (and usually stale) sugar cone.
sammie at 4:01PM on 05/19/09
Strawberry Shortcake Bar, or a Push-up.
Now I want ice cream!!!
sadiepix at 4:10PM on 05/19/09
depends how much money i had! If I managed to scrape up a dollar, it was one of those cookie sandwiches. Otherwise a regular ice cream sandwich or an orange push-pop.
Embackus at 4:26PM on 05/19/09
occasionally the ice cream truck will drive around campus - everyone goes nuts!! my all time favorite is strawberry shortcake bars. but my mom LOVES chocotacos...
listener at 4:30PM on 05/19/09
I usually got a Great White Shark(lemony popsicle) or a cartoon character shaped thing(with the gumball eyes!). Sometimes, I would also get FunDip
jo_wang at 4:31PM on 05/19/09
I agree with crispyscorpio- Ice cream sandwiches were the way to go! But I always splurged for the kind made with chocolate chip or m&m cookies instead of plain old chocolate wafers.
Also, I loved malt cups. Mmmm... I still treat myself to them during MN Twins games at the ballpark!
rdrnr44 at 4:40PM on 05/19/09
Wow, I feel *SO* boring, haha. It was always a vanilla cone with rainbow sprinkles. Occasionally I would go for chocolate, but I could get that at home more easily. The gumball-eyed character pops were always too messy for little OCD me. I was always the first one to finish (and without any napkins) because I was so overwhelmingly paranoid about getting sticky.
Now that I think about it, I was just a fun little kid, wasn't I ..
kfarrel3 at 4:42PM on 05/19/09
Chocolate Eclair! Occasionally a Fudgesicle or one of those ice cream pops with the gumball.
This wasn't the ice cream truck, but in my college food court they had one of those ice cream novelty freezer bins, and I was addicted to those Oreo ice cream sandwiches, the ones that are kind of like a chipwich, except it's cookies and cream ice cream between two chocolate wafers. Also I vaguely remember my mom buying these ice cream sandwiches around Christmas time...it was vanilla (I think) ice cream sandwiched between two sugar cookies shaped like teddy bears, but sadly I can't remember the name of them.
cycorider at 4:45PM on 05/19/09
when I am at school, there is an ice cream truck that comes around no earlier than 11:30 PM. There have been plenty of times my roommate has gone sprinting out of the house after a flinstone pushpop. Cant say I blame him
mcboomofdoom at 4:48PM on 05/19/09
@mcboomofdoom - I totally heard a rumor in college that those late night ice cream trucks sell more than just ice cream...it shattered my nostalgia a little. But hey I'm glad to hear that the Flintstones are alive and well!
embolini9 at 4:54PM on 05/19/09
Dada da da da dada da da da........(It's A Small World) over and over and OVER until my head explodes! The ice cream truck comes around all year long. Don't indulge any more but when I did it was always the Astro Pops, blueberry, cherry and lemon all on one stick. Wonder if they still have them. True story: DH was talking to a neighbor when the truck came around and he offered the driver $20.00 if she would play something else. She declined and laughed so hard she had to stop for a minute before driving again.
finsbigfan at 5:41PM on 05/19/09
Rocket Pop all the way!
smokey07 at 6:05PM on 05/19/09
oooh it's been along time since i was a kid .. and i was happy with anything my Grandpa would get for me (a little ol' country kid visitin' my Grandpa in the big city). But either a "skyblue pink*" popcicle, ice cream sandwich or chocolate cone..
aahh memories.
*don't know why those popcicles where skybluepink .. but even my husband a whole state away called them that.. is it a midwest thing (Ohio and Indiana)? But there are nights when the sky is indeed skyblue pink!
TeriN at 6:27PM on 05/19/09
The COMPLETELY undervalued Good Humor Toasted Almond! Oh my gosh, I can't even think about it I miss them so much.
Kerry Saretsky at 6:29PM on 05/19/09
I do not know how to call it in English, but I usually got an orange "Guarito" or "guarito de china"... it was those orange-flavored dual pops. Later on I sometimes got ice cream sandwiches, but not too often because I prefered chocolate ice cream to the vanilla...
In Puerto Rico there are two main ice cream cart companies - Payco and Nevada... I can sing both their songs from the carts... if you asked me to.
But when I was in elementary school, there was a Coco/PiƱa cart pushed by a guy which passed in front of my grandma's house daily... she would ALWAYS get us a cup of coconut ice cream... she even got one for my mom and kept it in teh freezer until she came back from work to pick us up... it's a Puerto Rican thing I guess.
Nowadays the carts have 3 flavors... Coconut, Pineapple and Passion Fruit... YUM!!
MadelynRodriguez at 6:42PM on 05/19/09
good humor used to make a watermelon ice that tasted good (back in the 60's) .... a vanilla pop with a plain dark chocolate coating .... though, ice cream sandwiches were good, too.
pooch at 7:39PM on 05/19/09
tamarind and chile paleta. growing up in the ghetto ;)
dmarina at 8:00PM on 05/19/09
mickey mouse on a stick or flinstone push pops.
xwafflesx at 8:33PM on 05/19/09
choco-tacos! My 70-something grandma introduced me to those bad boys!
mhurst826 at 10:59PM on 05/19/09
I loved the red/white/blue pops -- everyone seems to be calling them "Rocket Pops"...we knew them as "Bomb Pops" in Boston. I savored the blue part especially. I think I got those because they were one of the bigger things you could get -- even at age 5 I knew the value of getting more bang for your buck...or 75 cents, as the case was.
I still love the sound of that truck coming around the neighborhood, and seeing all the little kids running our of their houses and waiting anxiously at the ends of their driveways. It's what summer is all about.
juliebugsmama at 7:40AM on 05/20/09
Toasted Almond if it was the Good Humor truck. Sometimes Mr. Softee would be in the neighborhood, too. He didn't have Toasted Almonds, so I would get a soft-serve chocolate with chocolate sprinkles.
ceebee at 7:57AM on 05/20/09
@cycorider--I agree that Chipwiches of all varieties are QUITE undervalued.
Ice cream sandwiches--always a favorite.
As a tiny tyke, I liked the Flintstone push-up pops, and I also recall another kind of push-up pop in a pink and blue polka-dot wax tube.
However, as my palate 'matured' I began to like drumsticks and the like. In the UK I was always a bit weirded out by the 99 Cadbury flake cone, which is a soft-serve cone impaled by a curiously suggestive rod-shaped chocolate bar.
Does anyone remember those vanilla cup sundaes with the hard syrup frozen in the middle in chocolate and strawberry varieties?
HeartofGlass at 8:00AM on 05/20/09
Oh man, where do I begin?? I've always been obsessed with ice cream trucks. When I was little, I loved the pushup pops, Bubblegum Bill and rocket pops. In middle school, I advanced the the chocolate flying saucer (ice cream sandwich) with chocolate ice cream and chocolate sprinkles. Now that I'm older and live in the city, where you don't have to go chasing after the truck down the street, I usually get a cone dipped in one of those hard shells (I like all three: chocolate, cherry and butterscotch. It depends on my mood) or a chocolate malt milkshake. Man, it's a nice day and there is a Mr Softee right outside of my office...
meem21 at 11:45AM on 05/20/09
Honestly I don't remember ever getting anything from an actual ice cream truck. I guess they just never came through my neighborhood? But a few childhood favs are push-ups, ice cream sandwiches, Nutty Buddies, and my absolute favorite - the Mickey Mouse head on a stick.
kimberlymac at 11:51AM on 05/20/09
Sadly, my favorite ice cream bar can only be found in England - which is a hike from my hometown of MN! I like the chocolate/chocolate Magnum bars they sell at every major tourist spot. To quote RR, YUMMO.
And I agree with my fellow Minnesotans - malt cups at the Twins game = love.
TheCheapChick at 12:37PM on 05/20/09
Occassionally, Mom would give me a dime to buy something from the Good Humor truck and I would get a Purple Pirate...grape flavored ice pop...I really wanted a Strawberry Shortcake Bar
Bosmer at 2:29PM on 05/20/09
the ice cream truck only came around to my neighborhood once that I can remember. I think I got a choco taco. That sounds like something I would have done. Nowadays I'd probably get a Strawberry Shortcake bar or a vanilla cone.
Stufsocker at 2:37PM on 05/20/09
Hey there is an ice cream truck right outside my work right now and they are playing "It's a Small World" over and over and over...I always got bomb pops, the cone shaped one with the bubblegum at the bottom or strawberry shortcake bar.
@HeartofGlass - I remember those! Sundae Cups (I think they were called that) and they came with a little wooden spoon.
radley24 at 3:00PM on 05/20/09
Good Humor - nutty buddy or ice cream sandwich or orange dreamcicle
redvelvetrox at 3:08PM on 05/20/09
Oh, those wonderful Rocket Pops (we called them Bomb Pops).
I have always been one for variety, so I had a few favorites:
Strawberry Shortcake Bars
Push-ups
Big Sticks (those big red/orange/yellow swirled popsicles)
Ice Cream Sandwich
Orange 50/50 Bars
Drumsticks
Eskimo Pie
Bomb/Rocket Pops
I also liked the cool retro candies:
Cinnamon Fire Candies (the square ones)
Candy Cigarettes
Those sodapop wax bottles filled with sugary syrup
Candy Necklaces
Double Bubble Gum
These days, I would pass on the drumstick and most of the candy.
But, really, my idea of a grown-up ice cream treat is this:
The Lemon Sorbetto Cocktail
Cheers,
~ Paula
Paula Maack at 3:38PM on 05/20/09
Push ups! Those were great!
But oh the sadness to get to the end of the ice cream and realize you were licking clear plastic...
yayfood at 4:37PM on 05/20/09
@kristygarr and smokey Right on with the rocket pops!
chardonnay at 4:47PM on 05/20/09
I usually got ChocoTacos when the ice cream truck came around, which wasn't very often in my neighborhood.
CooksForOne at 12:55PM on 05/21/09