Nostalgia -

    We all know that nostalgia sells. That is part of the reasoning behind the remaking of so many old movies. It was behind Ford's reasoning's to start producing Mustangs again. It is the reason that casino's book performers whom in their prime were topping the charts. And I could go on and on with the examples. In-fact, I am quite positive that some examples have just come to your own mind. Tell me about them!
    All of us smile and know that winter is really over, when we start hearing the tunes of the ice cream truck as it drives slowly through our neighborhood. While part of the reason we smile is because we are ready to be done with winter, part of the reason also has to do with nostalgia. The memories of our own child hood connected with goodies from an ice cream truck.
    For a long time we had been successful in convincing our "boys" that it was just plain and simply a 'music truck'. That the nice man drove his truck around playing music to encourage people to smile, and that it was always songs the older people knew and would start singing along to and thus teach to their children. Any time that we were outside when the truck was driving around, we would wave and wish him a 'good day'. He in turn always did likewise. Like I said, it worked, for a l-o-n-g time! :-) No, we were not trying to deprive our children. The reality was that we simply could not afford to purchase anything from the truck, but we had found our own way to get enjoyment from it never the less.
    But our 'delusion' came to a screeching halt one day, all due to the kids that lived five doors down from us. That particular house full of boys caused us many a problem in many a way... but I'll spare you the majority of them. Well, at least for now.
    But the one day as our "boys" went out onto the porch to better wave at the nice man, the boys from five houses down came running and hollering up the street, waving their money up in the air. The nice man had no choice but to stop, those boys were making such a racket, and the younger one had left the sidewalk and was now running in the street in his attempt to catch the drivers attention, and he was only about three years old! The driver had to stop.
    But he stopped right between our house and the next neighbors, and thus our sons watched in total disbelief as the nice man came to the door of his truck, talked to the boys from five doors down, and then after taking their money, returned from the insides of his truck and handed each of them an ice cream treat. Our "boys" wanted answers, now! Like I stated, we had been successful with our tale for a long time. Our eldest was about ten years old when this fiasco happened. While he didn't actually use the word 'duped', he found other ways of expressing that was what he felt we had done to him. And how!!!
    Once Brian arrived home, he agreed that from his next paycheck we would take a five dollar bill and set it up on the shelf under the picture in the living room, so that the next time the truck came through, our boys could buy something too. For me, that turned out to be a ever so disappointing experience.
    My parents had some very dear close friends named Ken and Marian L.. If we were at one or the others house during the warm weather months and we heard the tunes of an approaching ice cream truck, the chances of us being able to get something from said truck were very good indeed! Both my dad and Ken really enjoyed doing so, and their wife's had a much harder time talking them out of it when they were together. Us kids were all the more happy then to get together o;-p
    The ice cream trucks from my youth were taller trucks, with windows on one side that slid open so that the people riding in the truck could take your order and hand your ice cream to you through them. And they carried soft serve ice cream. You could get it plain in cones, or cups, or as sundaes.
    At least that's the way I remember it. Seeings how my dad and sister both read my postings, I'm sure they will set the record straight if I'm wrong. ;-p Then again, I find great enjoyment from these memories, so they don't necessarily have to .... o:-) {Craig, I know that you read them too, it's just that you were oh so young back then, I'm not sure you have memories of them.}
    Brian's memories of the ice cream truck in his town, are that the truck carried the ice cream or sundaes in the cups with cardboard lids and little wooden paddles to eat the ice cream with. But actually being allowed to buy them from the truck, was a BIG event! :-D
    The five dollar bill was set upon the living room shelf so that all of our "boys" could clearly see it. Trust me, they checked frequently to verify it really was there, and that it was still there. And their ears were ever on the alert for the sound of the music truck, turned ice cream truck.
    Over a week passed before we again heard it approaching, and oh the excitement that broke free when we did. Actually, chaos might be a more appropriate description! ;-p I had to part the sea of young bodies, some of whom were standing on the couch reaching for the money themselves, to retrieve the five dollar bill and lead them in a less that orderly fashion, out the front door and to the curb.
    Once the truck stopped, we found that it wasn't the nice man driving it that day, but rather his son, whom had seldom bothered to wave back at us, seldom smiled, and my sons had voiced that maybe he needed to sing the songs more often. Aw the wisdom and insight of youth. o;-p
    While our boys were thrilled with the 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle' sort of ice cream treats on a stick they got, I was greatly disappointed! That was the only type of ice cream treats the truck carried, and they only had like five different then current TV characters to choose from. Then, to top that, it took almost the whole five dollar bill to purchase four of them. Not only wasn't there anything I would want for myself, I wouldn't have been able to pay for it anyways. Disappointing! But even more so when I realized that it would be extremely infrequently that we would be able to allow our boys this little pleasure as well.
    Our sons, being the good little boys at least at heart that they were, all offered me some of their treasured treat. So I took one lick of each ones, and then let them enjoy the rest. They enjoyed them so thourally that they ended up wearing that mutant green color 'from ass to appetite' as the old saying goes. ;-p
    This year, the first time I heard the tunes of the truck, I smiled and glanced out the window. It seems that the current treats being carried are Sponge Bob and Dora in nature. Sad.
    Seeings how there is so much proff that nostalgia sells, I wish some body would start a business of ice cream trucks that actually sell ice cream, whether it be soft or hard serve. I bet it wouldn't take long at all for them to start doing all kinds of record breaking business!!! Because then, it wouldn't just be the young kids wanting something from the truck. It would be their nostalgic parents grabbing up the kids and running after the truck with all of their might! :-D