Has I when out my front door to put rubbish in the bin right outside my door was an ice cream van stuck in the traffic and like a flash, my mind was full of memories. I loved Ice Cream has a kid; it was my favourite thing about the summer.
You would hope for a warm spring hopefully so the ice cream van would be dragged out of winter storage early. Has a kid soon as you heard the tell-tale music I would dart straight in and start pestering mum for money for an ice cream. I always preferred ice cream to ice-lollies and still do today.
It was a case at nine times out of ten mum would give in to the pestering giving me money for a medium but not enough for my favourite a 99 with the chocolate flake. We had two regular vans calling in our street the standard Mr Whippy and an independent ice cream seller. When I could afford it, I just loved an oyster shell ice cream and would lick around the edge until I could close the shells together and devour. On a nice summers day the ice cream from Mr Whippy was so soft it would quick melt and soon be dribbling down you cone onto your hand meaning you had to eat it quickly.
That’s why I would prefer the independent seller he use scoop ice cream on a cone but you had to be careful eating it or it could easily floor to the ground if you dive in. My way of dodging that disaster was to lick around the edge of the cone and ice cream to make a seal.
Until I started dating the wife an ice cream van was just that a seller of ice cream, lollies and sometimes crisps. But my girlfriend/future wife lived in Llanrumney where the ice cream van was a very different beast.
The van would stop right outside her house the driver was a mate of her brothers maybe a discount was on the cards but as I step to the window, I was in for a shock. From the outside, it looked like a normal van but inside it was like a corner shop. Bread, fags, tins of baked beans the list seemed endless I lost thought of an ice cream asked for an orange maid ice-lolly and picked up the Echo.
Then when I lived in the Leckwith area with wife and the kids there would be an ice cream van doing the rounds at 10:30pm what the hell I would think to myself. Even for me an ice cream that late was just too late so I left it alone. Then one night I fancied a treat or something and headed out of the house for the van but has I walked up the street there was a distinct smell of onions. My god all those night sitting home and I could have been eating hot dogs yes the ice cream van was selling hot dogs it was a mini version of the Llanrumney van selling household essentials from then on it was part of my life until one night it was no more it just disappeared.
We now live on a main road the ice cream van never stops anywhere near the house what a pity.
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