Ice Cream Man

Tonight I heard the siren song of the Ice Cream Man. I watched some kids playing outside. They heard the music and stopped dead in their tracks. It was as if they were trying to remember what that music meant. It’s only mid-May...way too early for the mobile frozen dessert pusher to be invading the neighborhood. Today was sunny and the warmest day of the year so far. By Seattle standards, summer has arrived. When my kids were in elementary school, the Ice Cream Man used to park his little truck outside the school and wait for afternoon dismissal. I always felt this was cheating. Parents were at the mercy of this unscrupulous dude. It ticked me off, so of course I dug in my heals and refused to buy my kids anything. Such a meanie! When I was a kid, we were rarely successful in pestering my mom for frozen treasures from the Ice Cream Man. Our home always had at least two kinds of ice cream, plus a couple different types of cookies. We really didn’t need to buy treats out on the street. But surely, they MUST have tasted exquisitely better. Thinking back on how much strife these guys have caused, I realized Karma has already gotten a piece of them. Can you imagine a worse job than driving around, trapped in a little truck that is repeatedly playing the greatest hits from the 1890’s? It must be hell...a well-deserved hell. Oh boo hoo...