Hey — is this sanity I see appearing in the comments kitkhhnrek
on this post?A mom screams at the ice cream man to bug off and folks weigh in sounding like…us!
Feeling kind of positive! – L
Well, maybe THIS guy is a little creepy, but in general…Â
Hey — is this sanity I see appearing in the comments kitkhhnrek
on this post?A mom screams at the ice cream man to bug off and folks weigh in sounding like…us!
Feeling kind of positive! – L
Well, maybe THIS guy is a little creepy, but in general…Â
I’m not personally a fan of the ice cream truck. The one in our neighborhood tends to come by about 15 minutes before dinner, AND the ice cream is way overpriced.
However, I’ve never gotten the danger aspect. If somebody was going to kidnap a child, an ice cream truck seems like the most conspicuous way they could possibly do so.
Ours just were used as fronts for selling drugs…
I hate the ice cream truck, for exactly the same reasons as “a grateful mom” — it’s a tantrum-inducing machine from the frozen version of parental hell.
I always told my kids that the songs they played meant they were out of ice cream. 😉
TaraK, you are brilliant!
Great to see so many sane responses. 🙂
When we were kids a big part of staying at the beach was the ice cream truck. In my case because the snacks were prepackaged it was safer allergy wise than going to the ice cream parlor with the different toppings. As far as price my parents gave us a budget for treats and souvenirs that we got to decide how to spend. (And what kid at the beach in the sun and surf isn’t always famished)
My sister has a ice cream truck in her neighborhood. They moved a couple streets over and discovered he didn’t go down that street. Since niece was 3 at the time, Sis chased him down one day and gave the driver there new street. The money would be on a table near the door and if Sis was busy with nephew (infant at the time) Niece could grab the money and go out to the driveway. They have older neighbors — who told sis they loved seeing niece proudly buying her ice cream. It was prepackaged and went into the freezer for after dinner.
5 years later niece, nephew, and new neighbor kid sit on the lawn in the evenings waiting for the ice cream man.
Of course sis has the good kind of involved neighbors. They knew Sis’s family was out of town this weekend. When I went to feed the dogs, the neighbor came over to warn me the power had been out for several hours and had just come back on. Everything was still frozen in the freezer. I texted sis and at her request tossed the milk.
Our city just overturned a law that, for years, had forbidden Ice Cream trucks. I live in a gate community (by accident and I do NOT like that but the house that worked for us at the present time was here)…I have a good mind to give the gate code to the Ice Cream driver! Ice Cream trucks are a part of childhood….
We love the ice cream truck! We live in an area with only 2-3 months of decent weather, the rest is pretty much winter. I keep money on hand for the ice cream truck and we all run (me and my 5 kids) down the street barefoot to catch him. It is always terribly overpriced but it is a part of childhood I fondly remember and just means summer to me. We only catch him a handful of times each year.
Totally off topic, but I must ask. Why do we refer to packaged items as “prepackaged”? It’s obvious that ice cream from a truck is not in a cone…. no?
“Queen Mommy” yells because her daughter was asked if she wanted ice cream by the Ice Cream Man? Oh, the humanity!
I’m glad she didn’t get the validation that she was clearly seeking. Politely saying “No thanks” should have ended this interaction, but not when you’re dealing with a sanctomommy.
We also love our Ice Cream Man, Ivan. I introduced myself years ago when I noticed his route coincided with our dinner hour and politely suggested he’d get more business if he came by after 6. He gladly changed his route as our street has tons of kids and adults who appreciate a Mr. Softee on a weekly basis. Stopping and talking to people can actually be a GOOD thing. You may find out the Ice Cream Man is a hardworking immigrant who love kids.
Mr. Softee’s head and my memory tells me that he once had soft serve dispensers in the truck.
Because they are packaged before the sale, not at the time of sale.
And I vaguely remember getting ice cream cones from the ice cream truck. Since it’s a vague memory, I’d probably put that in the late-60s/early-70s timeframe (it would have been when I was staying at my aunt’s, since we were too rural to have ice cream trucks).
We have one guy around here that has an ice cream truck–for the entire town. He happens to be friends with people that live down the street from us so a lot of times he comes to our loop at the end of his day and sells the leftover ice cream cheap to the kids. He even gives away the popsicles.
I’ve never had a problem with the ice cream man because my kids don’t whine for it. They knew when they were little that they wouldn’t get any, mostly because we never had any money. The ice cream truck would go by and the kids would wave to him and continue playing.
Now that they’re older they take whatever money they might have (which is hard to come by since we don’t pay for regular chores) and spend it. Last Saturday, though, I did give them some cash. We were sitting outside eating and they heard the music but had no money. I had $10 on me so I gave my 11yo son $5 to get something for him, his 7yo sister and 2yo brother. I found the stuff reasonably priced. The popsicle was only fifty sense and the strawberry shortcake bar my daughter had was $1.
The only thing I don’t like about ice cream trucks is the music. It gets stuck in your head.
Any thoughts about the daughter’s reaction to her Mom yelling at this man and, likely, the daughter sensing that perhaps she had done something wrong by just standing where she was visible to the ice cream truck driver? I don’t wish to throw this parent under the truck (pun intended), but imagine if in a car accident and the child was hurt or in an airplane experiencing problems, would the child be reassured by a calm parent (while doing something to help in the case of the car wreck) or would the child be panicking because that’s what was going on around her?
The Weed Man. 😉
I bet they serve good brownies.
Was the guy supposed to be wearing a 3 piece suit to sell ice cream out of a truck? I flip houses and would hate for someone to judge me because I wear ratty clothes to work.
This mom needs to chill out. 😉
@AM–Way back in the dinosaur age (1970’s) Mr. Softee served Soft-serve cones from his truck dispenser. In our family, we were only permitted to buy Good Humor Prepackaged ice cream because my parents worried that the dispenser might not have been cleaned properly. To this day, I eat Soft-serve whenever possible. So far, no e coli or salmonella! LOL
In NYC, Mr Softee is still cones.
My only issue with I e cream trucks in my neighborhood is they park (sometimes all day) and play “the song” (all day).
I loved the ice cream truck that came to the town pond when I was a kid, and when the ice cream man did come around our neighbor hood, we felt so lucky! I still remember my mom telling me to order for my (shy) little brother.
Oh dear, we are still in the ’70’s, along with Taradlion, by the sound of it! Mr Whippy sells softserve icecream in cones – you have to go to the dairy to get the stuff that comes in packets. I still don’t like them, just because I prefer the proper ‘hard’ icecream that you have to roll and press down on with your mouth to keep in the darn cone, but it’s fascinating to think of trucks selling packaged ice treats. Why would you bother? You can’t get a face full of runny colour from the sprinkles when you buy packet stuff…..
On the OP, that woman was very rude, IMO, and it was lovely to see so many comments pointing that out to her. Maybe she’ll think next time before attacking some poor bloke just doing his job.
What a paranoid douche bag, the father. Not only was he rude and over reacted, he also (without knowing or knowing) teaches his daughter to be the same way. Some parents these days just can’t seem to grasp the very real notion, that their children learn what they see and hear from their parents. These parents may not intentionally want to, but they are. All because they are trying to quell their own fears and doubts for the most part. “Safety” of their kids is actually secondary to their own feelings. Your fears, demeanor and attitude do rub off on your kids.
The ice cream truck around here goes by so quickly that you’d need to be an Olympic sprinter to have a hope of catching it if you wanted some ice cream. I don’t get it.
That’s funny, Inara, our ice cream truck does the same thing! My kids never have been able to catch it, which is fine with me. 🙂 But yeah, you would think that would be bad for business.
It’s interesting that the original poster is seeking validation. Perhaps there is some doubt about whether yelling at the guy in such a way was really the right thing to do after all? I mean, if it was truly the right thing to do, why ask?
I think much of this Ice Cream Truck paranoia is fed by the sensational news media. Several months ago, I watched an “experiment” on one of 60 Minutes, 20/20 or Dateline where they had actors park an ice cream truck on the family’s street, then after having the parents brief their kids on what to do when approached by a stranger, sent the kids outside while the parent watched things unfold on camera. The guy with the ice cream truck asked the kids if they wanted to see inside the truck, and many of them got in, supporting the claim that your kids are in danger when out of your sight.
I read a book called “the Gift of Fear” in which the author talks about that gut feeling you get when something’s just not right, and he says kids have it too and we need to pay attention to it.
In light of this I would argue that in this “Experiment” those kids went into the truck not because red flags don’t ever go up for them, in which case mom and dad had better never, ever let them out of their sight. I think red flags never went up with these kids because they simply WEREN’T in any danger in this case, because the actors meant no harm. But the end result is now the sad fact that many parents fear the Ice Cream Man.
Over the top paranoid reaction.
As for the product being over priced, well duh…………it is coming off a truck, infront of your house…………
“As for the product being over priced, well duh…………it is coming off a truck, infront of your house…’
Yes, there is a reason you don’t get it as cheap as if you bought a box of ten at the supermarket. You don’t have to go to the supermarket, and you don’t have to buy ten at a time. It’s not “overpriced,” it’s priced for the product as well as the service.
“Perhaps there is some doubt about whether yelling at the guy in such a way was really the right thing to do after all? I mean, if it was truly the right thing to do, why ask? ”
Based on the OP’s continuing interaction with the commenters, I think she was looking to get patted on the back for being so on top of things.
Meanwhile here’s the local helicopter mom freak out where I am. Apparently the world will come to an end if a teacher has a beer on their own time to celebrate the end of the school year. We should all note that right away…and contact the school board if any of these adults over the age of 21 participate in any legal activities such as this.
To quote the local crazy helicopter mom”I am so frustrated with Fairfax County Public Schools and their employees, my son barely graduated last Friday, after having a difficult time his senior year. After graduation I happened to be at a restaurant near by with my family and witness several teachers get completely drunk*. I don’t think they noticed us but felt so insulted by their actions. These are teachers that made my son’s life difficult this year, no wonder “they don’t teach, they drink”. I will be sending a letter to the school board tomorrow with their names as I feel this is unacceptable.
Any thoughts?”
*Doubt it-sounds like over the top attempt at spreading vicious rumors
I’ve only 2 problems with icecream trucks:
1) they make a lot of noise in an otherwise quiet area, usually during dinnertime or the prime time movie
2) there’s very little control over temperature and other hygiene conditions with them, never quite trust the temperature to not be too high at which they keep their wares, allowing the products to spoil.
@Katie sounds more like typical blame projection. Kid failed at school because of constant boozing and partying, lazing around not doing his homework, so it MUST be because the teachers are not doing their job.
Now after school closes, the teachers get together for a beer, so they MUST be celebrating their success in failing the brat…
@JT
Where are you, because here chip trucks, street meat and ice cream trucks are all subject to health codes, inspections and certs like any food vendor, including restaurants.
Ice cream guy looks like Devo.
@Warren: And does that keep every single person from worrying about food poisoning? Exactly.
This lady was clearly rude and paranoid. BUT…
Something similar to this happened to me several years ago. I was inside and my preschool son was playing in the front yard. The Schwann’s man stopped and gave him a spiel about ice cream and then told him to get his mom and say, “Mom, would you like some ice cream?”
By the time my kid got inside he was half-crazed with anticipation (and apparently thought the guy was going to just give me ice cream). I was seriously annoyed about someone hard-selling (and misleading) a small child like that. I gave that guy a piece of my mind.
Yeah, he was doing his job. Selling is a tough gig and I wouldn’t want to do it myself. But good gravy, how about we stop using little kids’ impulses to sell stuff to adults.
@J.T.–I agree that the lady who wants to file a written complaint to the school board, because her son’s teachers were drinking on their own time, is in the wrong, but just because a young person struggles in school, doesn’t automatically make them a “brat.” For example, when I was in high school, I barely passed grade eleven math. Actually, my teacher gave me a mercy 50% (a pass in Canada), because he saw that I wasn’t planning to take grade twelve math. I took all my classes (including math, at my parents’ insistence) at the advanced level, I got good grades in pretty much everything BUT math, I was in multiple extra-curricular activities, and I excelled in music and writing. I was also fairly well-liked at school, among my peers, and also the teachers and administrators. So, just because I was bad at math, didn’t make me a “brat.” I tried my best, and my parents got me a tutor, and they originally wanted me to take math all through high school, but after they saw how I struggled in grades nine through eleven, they figured that their non-bratty, RIGHT-BRAINED daughter had suffered enough. Some kids aren’t good at math, others aren’t good at writing, and others just aren’t school kinds of people. That doesn’t make them “brats.”
I, too, really have to question characterizing a kid who struggles in school as a “brat” without knowing one other thing about that child.
@Emily – you don’t sound like the kind of kid anyone would have labelled a brat. Eccentric, maybe, nerdy, probably (and I am speaking as a nerd myself, so not in any way meaning the term as an insult) but bratty, no. If any child is labelled a brat it’s usually because they are displaying bratty behaviour, but that is as likely to be successful kids as those who are struggling. At least with the strugglers you can surmise that part of their ‘brattiness’ is to do with either diverting attention from their struggles or just plain embarrassment at having to front up every day to something they really are not coping well with. In which case you should be helping them out.
The other brats – well, sometimes they’re bored, sometimes they have struggles with home life or school social life, and then again sometimes they’re just little s#$%!
As for that mum, well, it is hard if you have a kid no one seems able to help, but what teachers do with their own time, provided it doesn’t involve maiming their students, is not her business. And anyway, soundsa a bit like another parent thinking their child is the only kid out there. What about the other kids the teachers have seen through successfully to graduation, and I bet there were lots. Who is she to think they shouldn’t be out having a good time celebrating them…?
Re: the mom complaining about the drinking teachers….
If her child has the same personality and outlook as the mother, I can fully understand the teachers needing to have a few drinks.
If a teacher pulls on a bottle during class? That’s a problem. If a teacher is on their own time, who give’s a crap.
@Hineata and Emily-
“Nerd” isn’t an insult anymore. Be proud of your nerdiness!
When I was in my late teens, I knew and befriended a young (college age) ice cream man who for some reason was living on the East Coast that summer ( he was attending Reed College in Oregon).
He, his nick name was Story, was actually fired from his job as he chose to give away the ice cream for free in a blighted urban community.
That was the early 70s.
Thanks for your comments everyone. I actually think they are all pretty good. Well I came back and saw them though because I saw another story on the local blog though that takes the paranoia cake from that one
Apparently these people also think taking a walk/run is a crime and that doing so must equal this person is going to rob them. I edited my own comments in:
See below “I live on a cul de sac in a suburban neighborhood. On two days out of the seven days in the past week I noticed that around 8-10 a.m. [So they are canvasing your house in broad daylight?]there will be a car parked on the cul de sac street pavement in front of my house. It is not blocking my driveway[so it really isn’t in front of your else], but it does not belong to any of my neighbors and its causing my wife and I a uneasy feeling. On the second day it happened I decided to walk out with my dog and investigate. As I walked over I see a 15-17 year old boy wearing a t shirt and shorts walk over to the car. I decided to try and strike up a conversation. “Hi, how’s it going?” “Everything okay?”
The boy said to me “I’m just taking a walk.” I told him “I know you’ve been doing this for two days.” [So is there some exercise limitation I’m missing]He then looked away from me and got into the car and drove away.
Third time it happened my wife and I were about to drive about to drive out of the cul de sac and take our son to court.[And yet your worried about some other kid out for a walk] The car was no longer there. But as we drove out I see the boy walking up the street towards our cul de sac[So he parked somewhere else to avoid you yelling at him]. My wife rolled down the windows and striked a conversation with him. My wife said to him “Hi, how’s it going. what are you doing?” The boy said “I’m just out for a walk, am I doing something wrong?” My wife said “Oh no sweetheart [that’s passively aggresively demeaning]we’re just wondering why you parked your car on our street and why do you always walk here?” The boy said “Well I like taking walks here in this neighborhood lots of hills, inclines, pavements, and sidewalks I can walk on.” “I did not mean to frighten or cause any harm to anyone.” My wife said “Oh no of course not, we just don’t like it when people who aren’t neighbors park in our cul de sac.” [why it’s not like you live in an areas with not enough parking]”There’s a park near here where you can park instead of in front of our house[but you just said he wasn’t parked in front of your house that day], do you live in this neighborhood?” The boy said “No I don’t live in this neighborhood but I enjoy taking walks here, thank you for teling me about the nearby parks.” My wife then asked him “So what’s your name your?” the boy said “My name is **** *****.” My wife said “Nice to meet you **** *****, sorry if this seems odd to you, we just are vigilant [more like paranoid ] when we see people we don’t recognize in our neighborhood.” We drove off.
So far no robberies, break ins have happened before, during, or after our encounter with him. [so there’s no crime committed]
Is this boy trying to case our homes in the cul de sac, should I report this, or is he just some innocent kid we may have jumped conclusions on?”
I think a lot of it has to do with judging people by appearances and only want wholesome looking people around children,
It’s not like child abusers or pedophiles would ever dress nicely?
That person probably thinks every poor or homeless person is a predator as well.
I remember as a kid one ice cream truck owner gave me a free ice cream bar for my dog.
Now they’ve gotten very expensive though,so it’s probably best to keep it as a rare treat only.
@Katie – I’m speechless. Just speechless.
@Natalie – thank you for that, LOL! Just wish I could money off of my nerdiness, like Bill Gates has managed (still, it probably also helps that he really, truly understands computers!).
@Katie: So the kid felt he had to DRIVE over to another neighborhood to take a WALK? Think that’s the real crime here…
@Papilo: Back when I had a car, I sometimes drove to a particularly pretty part of the city and walked there just because it was full of interesting houses. Sometimes my parents would visit from out of town and we’d all go over there to walk and look at the houses. This isn’t any different from driving to a park to hike – it’s just driving to a place where you enjoy exercising. Sometimes I biked around town instead, but the interesting architectural district was miles from my house and across several highways, so I figured that by the time I’d biked there, I wouldn’t really need a walk. Unless we’re disallowing all driving to get to recreational sites (which is a perfectly legitimate position, but let’s adhere to it – no driving to the amusement park, the state park, the swimming pool, etc.) there’s no particular reason not to drive to walk in a nice part of town.
You don’t know where the kid lives, either – he might live in some development that’s cut off from everything by highways where it’s difficult to take a long walk. (My parents used to live in just such a place.) He might live in an ugly area where it’s all strip malls – and I’ve lived in such areas, and taken my exercise alongside heavy traffic and parking lots, and it’s a drag. He might be getting bullied at school and feel that if he walks in his neighborhood he’ll be targeted – I know a kid that happened to. Or maybe he just likes the trees and houses and feels like he can take longer, more enjoyable walks in scenery he likes.
That woman sounds like an entitled, paranoid monster. If she doesn’t want anyone even looking at her precious house or parking near it, she should move to a secure condo and park in the parking garage.
I add that I actually live in a neighborhood with, sadly, a lot of crime – and it would never, ever occur to me to get all crazytown because someone parked on the public street.
@Katie
That whole cul de sac thing seems just as much about being snobs, as security.
In our city, the Ice Cream Man has us pegged. He sells coffee now. Now he is welcome everywhere.
@Warren, you do realize that many, many cities/towns/villages contain cul-de-sacs, right? And that someone might buy a house on a cul-de-sac because it’s the house they, well, LIKE, and want to live in for the foreseeable future?
I guess if that makes them a snob, so be it.
@Lark: The boy said he walked in that woman’s neighborhood because there were no sidewalks where he lived. The crime I meant was that lack of sidewalks, not anything that kid did. I’d feel locked up if I couldn’t just leave the house for a walk. It sounds so unlivable and hostile.
@Buffy
What the hell are you talking about?
My comment was about the people living on the cul de sac being rude and obnoxious to the guy walking in their neighborhood, in Katie’s comments.
“That whole cul de sac thing seems just as much about being snobs, as security”
Looked to me like you were blaming it on the fact that they lived in a cul-de-sac (though where I live they are usually called circles) and that made them snobby.
@Warren and Buffy–Rude and polite people exist on all socioeconomic levels, and in every possible housing configuration, or even none at all (i.e., homelessness). As a general rule, it’s impossible to make a statement along the lines of “All X’s are Y” without offending someone who is, or knows someone, who is actually X without being Y.
In regards to the story (if you want to read more crazy comments see below) I posted: Yes, I think it is sad that there aren’t more sidewalks so people can just walk places. There are a lot of snobs in the county although I don’t know I would tie it to living in a particular place. It’s also a big county of things like walk ability and such could vary greatly depending on where specifically in the county they live.
and OY VAY. If you thought the story itself was crazy here are some of the even crazier responses from the local blog:
Comment 1: “You effete pussies living in your Section 8 subsidized loser housing need to wake up.
Suppose an unknown airplane approached US airspace. Didn’t respond to requests to identify itself.
Do you think Norad would scramble a few fighters to tell it to turn around, or force it to land?
Damn straight they would.
If you park in front of my home, and loiter there for several days, and I don’t know who you are and what you’re doing, I will confront you.
If I don’t like your answers you’ll leave fast, voluntarily or assisted.
What we have online is a bunch of over-sensitive weirdos who have minimum wage lives and can’t afford to own your own home.
Threaten me and mine and I don’t give a f what your conception of yourself is.
You will state your business or I will be as assertive as I feel a need to be to protect my family.”
Comment 2: “I will say that was one of the things I looked for in a house. It’s very hard to get anywhere near my house without me knowing, and difficult to come up with an ostensible reason unless you’re delivering my mail. I know this isn’t practical for everyone but I take some delight how difficult it’d be to case my place”.
Comment 3 “Actually, most crooks are extremely polite and friendly. That’s to keep you off guard so you won’t report them. I would still at least have the police run the plates. It’s suspicious to use that location instead of the community center. I’m sure the HOA or the Sub-Division developers would be happy by strangers parking in front of other people’s houses. Granted its not a crime, but still something not to be taken for granted”.
@Katie
The lady in the story blew it when she said ““Oh no of course not, we just don’t like it when people who aren’t neighbors park in our cul de sac.â€
She got a polite response from the walker. I would have been more inclined to remind her that no matter what she thought, it is not her cul de sac. That the parking laws are not determined by whether you live on that particular street. And that after the first two times checking me out, it is now becoming tiresome, and would she please mind her own business.
I have lived in the city, the burbs and now the country. I have seen strange cars parked on my street numerous times. And guess what…….it is none of my business. I really don’t care if someone wants to walk the neighborhood, or if someone is having an affair with someone, or whatever.
As for the HOA or developer in the one comment, they cannot say a damn thing. At least up here, the streets, roads, cul de sacs themselves are public, owned and maintained by the municipality.
Warren — I hadn’t even thought about that. I can sort of understand being a bit concerned, or at least curious, about someone who parks in your cul de sac every day and doesn’t have any apparent connection with the neighborhood. Not that I’d badger someone about it, but I’d probably wonder about it if I was aware of it.
BUT, how do you KNOW he doesn’t have any connection with the neighborhood unless you’re doing some kind of Gladys Kravitz routine? When someone parks by my house and I don’t recognize the car as belonging to my neighbors (who can’t always fit all of their, and their frequent guests’, cars in their driveway), I simply think, “Oh, I guess someone is visiting my neighbors.” *If* I even paid enough attention to which cars parked where, and I noticed it was three days in a row, I’d think either, “Oh, I guess one of my neighbors’ relatives got a new car” or “Oh, I guess my neighbors have a new friend who visits a lot for some reason I’m not the least bit interested in” — but mostly likely, I wouldn’t even think about it that much.
But this lady knows which cars “belong” in her neighborhood, and which don’t, and follows up on the ones she can’t account for? This is NOT normal behavior, and the fact that so many commenters on the original site don’t notice that is really strange.
This woman in the cul de sac is either a snob, or is worried that strange cars belong to the cops checking out her court appearing son. lol
@pentamom Would it help to clarify, if I mentioned this is Northern Virginia?