Monday, January 29, 2007

Mister Softee, is that you?

Okay, the last few days I keep hearing the tinkling music of an ice cream truck, toodling around the neighborhood both at home and at work. Is it just me, or is this a little strange? Didn't the sound of the ice cream truck used to be a harbinger of spring? Doesn't the ice cream truck generally stop rolling when it gets brutally cold? Don't get me wrong, I love ice cream in the winter as much as I love it in the summer, but I'm not standing outside on the curb for it when the temperature gauge is below freezing. Do mothers stand on alert, holding armfuls of warm winter wear, ready to thrust scarves and mittens at their child just in time for a mad dash to the curb? I can't imagine that to be true. And the truck I saw today was making its circuits long before school was even out. Who's the target demographic here?

I can only assume that the truck is a front for some sort of nefarious activity. I'm thinking of the episode of Reno 911, where the "ice cream" truck was emblazoned with "No Smoking" and "Do Not Strike Matches" signs, since it was actually filled with illegal fireworks. Or maybe they're selling drugs. Is "Bomb Pop" code now for crystal meth, or something? I'm not quite curious enough to actually stop the truck and find out. Suppose it's a trap? There might be cops in the back, waiting with handcuffs and tasers for anyone who dares ask for a "Nutty Buddy." Can't take that chance.

Or maybe it's even more insidious. I always thought the most chilling scene in "After Hours" was Catherine O'Hara in the Mister Softee truck, that plinkety-plinking music playing eerily on and on as she trolled the streets with the vigilante mob, looking for Griffin Dunne. Shudder. Don't want to get mixed up in something like THAT.

So I'll let the ice cream truck roll past, I guess, questions unanswered. And maybe I'll stop on the way home for some Ben and Jerry's. Can't get Chubby Hubby from the back of a truck, anyway!

9 comments:

lizgwiz said...

So you're saying I'm an evil kid then? I love it! Hee!

metalia said...

Okay, so...

I read the title, and assumed this was another bad date story.

It's official, I'm a pervert.

Stefanie said...

That is totally a theory that MY overactive imagination would come up with, too. I am convinced, for example, that the "Seat Covers" store in my old college town is surely a mob front. Same with the (now-defunct) Polka Dot Square Dance shop in a nearby suburb. But I already wrote about that once.

Also, Metalia, you crack me up.

Anonymous said...

But if you could, that would be one kick-ass truck!

lizgwiz said...

edge, I'm going to have to start following that truck. If the children of the damned are coming out into the streets, I want to see it! Do you think their eyes will glow? Hee.

metalia, ha! You may be a pervert, but you're a funny, funny pervert! (I snorted a little when I read that.)

stef, I think we're just being good citizens, on the lookout for crime wherever it may be. Maybe our blogs will lead to some mob kingpin's eventual downfall. Or not. ;)

chick, tell me about it! Can you imaging a Ben and Jerry's ice cream truck? I'd be chasin' that sucker all over town!

Anonymous said...

That's odd...I thought the ice cream only drove by (four times in a row) while my son was napping...

lizgwiz said...

3car, if they ARE looking for evil kids (as suggested above), they should just leave your house alone, since your kid even brings the Wiggles to church. :)

M.Amanda said...

So these nuts are infesting Tulsa, too? I thought it was only my city. I hear ice cream truck music pass by my office at least once a week - ALL YEAR LONG. I gotta wonder about the target customer, too. Downtown in the middle of the day in 25-40 degree weather? The only people out on the street are the smokers and the homeless man asking them for cigarettes.

lizgwiz said...

sparkling, your city, too? Now I'm smelling a nationwide conspiracy!