June 21: Summer = ice cream

Check your calendar. Notice that today is the first full day of Summer, 2016. Yeaaaa!!! And nothing says Summer like ice cream. And what better way to start this blog, than have a tasteful and tasty ice cream truck with Jesus hawking those delicious treats. Who really cares, if this pic has been photo shopped, the message is clear (whatever that message is). But the bottom line is that Summer = ice cream. So let's take a look at few of the imaginative mobile ways we can get this treat.

Pull up in any neighbourhood on a hot and sultry Summer's day, ring that silly little bell or play that extremely annoying music and look who comes running. With any luck, some of them might have money. We've all seen this type of ice cream truck, the very traditional kind..........

But let's go back to an earlier time, as we begin our journey........

 This must be one of the very earliest, probably supplying treats for the gunslingers at the OK Corral, while the below one is the famous Good Humor truck. Custom built thru the years, with a fleet of smartly dressed drivers ready to stop at a moment's notice to quell the ice cream needs of the local populace........

Another fleet were the Bungalow Bar trucks, with their roofs complete with chimney and that very clever picket door. Just like grandma's house, except there the ice cream was free.

Nothing too unusual about this vehicle, unless you consider a monster ice cream truck unusual, but like everything, there are people who defy convention........

.......people who think that bigger is better (look at the size of that cone) and also, that the little ones should have to work for their treats. Luckily someone thought to bring a ladder. So, from the biggest to the smallest. So small in fact that only single cones are served, but customer friendly even for the smallest of munchkins........

Or how about this entrepreneur who has decided to stick to the basics.......

Three flavours only, take it or leave it. Obviously from the people around this van, one can see that the hoped for customers are voting with their wallets, or just maybe the fair hasn't opened yet (pictures are worth a thousand words and their captions a bit more).

You really want to attract kids to your cheery ice cream mobile, but you haven't quite got the user friendly part down pat.........

Maybe, just maybe, this person needs to rethink what they are trying to do and who they are trying to attract. What little kid, other than in a Stephen King novel, is willingly going to mosey up to one of these trucks and ask for an ice cream (maybe a frozen lizard in a waffle cone?). What parent is going to give their kids money and suggest that they try that grim looking truck down the street, you know the one playing music from Jaws? You know, the one little Bobby from next door went to last week and has never been seen since.

Sure, this one is also a little dirty (clean helps, but is not essential), but oh so cute with that darling little soft ice cream cone growing from its roof........

Or how about this opportunist, who gamely goes about his business as it slowly descends into the depths of the River Thames? What a great idea, a floating ice cream truck. Whoever said that only land lovers get the need for this sweet treat?

Yes, sir, Summer is here and on those scorchingly hot days, what better way to quench your inner most snack desires, than with a scoop of flavoured frozen milk on top of a crunchy cone? Last year when we were in the south of France, it was 39C or about 103F, too hot even for an ice cream truck, but who would have expected this result.........

Until next time........