Handling the Cloverdale heat with frozen treats

Its been HOT lately in Cloverdale, in the low 30's every day. Nights are still warm and sleeping at night is not easy because the house maintains the heat from the sun beating down for a long time. Staying cool is not easy.

I hear several ice cream trucks in the neighborhood. Most of the time I hear the truck playing Turkey in the Straw, but lately we've been inundated by the competitors who play The Entertainer and La Cucaracha.

I've been buying more ice cream and frozen yogurt from the store than I usually do. Yesterday we finished off the last of the ice cream so a trip to the grocery store was in order today. I bought a container of ice cream, one of frozen yogurt, a box of something called frozen cream pops (face it they were creamsicles when I was a kid) and a box of popsicles, also with some fancy name.

It's almost like I have to ask myself how old am I. Reverting back to childhood treats.

Well whatever works to stay cool in this heat.

The ice cream van is back!

Ah, the familiar sounds from childhood. Tonight I heard the ice cream van for the first time this year coming down our street. I've seen ice cream trucks around over the past couple of months but tonight is the first time I've heard one in our neighborhood this year blasting the unmistakable melody of Little Brown Jug. We don't have many children living around here so whenever I've seen/heard the ice cream van its traveling past at a good clip with the music doing double or triple time which can be rather amusing. Though not so funny for the people who may have heard the music, craved a treat, and by the time they got outside with their cash saw the van gumbooting it down the street.

When I was growing up in Cloverdale the ice cream truck travelled a little more slowly down our street and there was plenty of business from kids and adults. Nearly every house had someone standing at the end of the driveway awaiting the van. We always came running back in the house screaming: "It's the ice cream man!" hoping our parents would dole out a couple of dimes. And sure enough it was always a man driving the van and serving up the frozen treats. I don't remember seeing a woman driving the van. And the treats were a lot cheaper back then. Popsicles, Fudgsicles, Creamsicles, and Revellos all were about ten cents each. Over the years the prices increased up to about twenty-five cents, maybe even fifty cents by the time I was an adult and resisting the temptation to run out to the curb when I heard the blasting music.

Have you seen the prices on the ice cream trucks today? I don't even know if $2 is the lowest price, but the prices all run from $2 something up to $5 or so. Yikes! But its the cost of doing business. Gas prices, wages, taxes, etc. Its too bad the ice cream van doesn't attract customers the way they did when I was a kid.