Ice Cream Memories

[usedbustickets]

Summers here and do you remember when we were kids, and you'd be playing and the next thing you'd here the chimes of the ice cream van ... games would come to a stop, bats dropped, balls left, as kids went running off home and as soon as they hit the front door the loud cry would go up

Muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum can I have an ice cream ........... please?   

What lovely memories.  On our estate as I remember there were four ice cream men competing for our coppers in the summer months (never saw them in the autumn/winter months) Tonibell, Mr Whippy, Mr Softee and Walls.  I managed to dig out some of those old chimes and pictures of three of the ice cream companies.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0QQdJVqNm4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0QQdJVqNm4</a>
Mr Softee chimes

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VB90CwosK8" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VB90CwosK8</a>
Mr Softee Van renovated - fantastic and the chimes too

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hZDY22n2AQ" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hZDY22n2AQ</a>
A great one this, Tonibell, but I remember Tonibell being blue round our way??

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7pv4Qivn_c" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7pv4Qivn_c</a>
Mr Whippy chimes (Pink Vans)

I'll have a threepenny one .... and plenty of monkey blood on that mate!!    

[Colwyn]

A couple of weeks ago I was listening to radio show that got people to send in memories of the fibs parents told their children - like warning them that if you held up a guinea pig by its tail its eyes would fall. The cruelest hoax, by a long way, was the father who told his children that the vans played their chimes to warn people that they had run out of ice cream.

But I'll be all right. I bought an ice cream maker this week and the first batch will be ready to go with strawberries for dessert this afternoon.