The Ice Cream Truck Cometh
I was sittin' out on the front porch tonight talking to my mom on the cell phone (when you live in a house with metal walls, the great outdoors provides better reception) when an ice cream truck drove by. This is a regular event in our neighborhood which has 3 different ancient vans converted into ice cream trucks as well as two push cart vendors. However, this was a new van and one I had not seen before. So I had to wonder, did one of the regular vendors get a new van or are we now going to have FOUR ice cream trucks and two push-cart vendors assailing my ears every evening with their music and bells? Seriously folks, how much ice cream can any one neighborhood possibly consume? I don't mind the push cart guys so much since they just have bells that go jingle-ling-ling, but the vans play the world's most obnoxious "children's" music amplified to a degree that would make a rock-n-roll band proud. I miss the good old days when we only had one ice cream van in our neighborhood and the music speed varied with the speed of the van. As he sped up, it got faster and when he slowed down it got slower and it was reaaallly sloooow when he was at a complete stop. It was hilarious and we got to laugh at it once in the early afternoon and once in the early evening and that was it. Not the overkill we have now. Back in the day, when the band used to play in the back yard, I was tempted to buy a decibel meter so we could stay legal. Now I wish I had bought it because between the ice cream trucks, the new noisier city buses, power-tool man next door, lawnmowers and leaf-blowers and a dog or two in every backyard we could probably successfully argue that a little band practice barely makes a dent in the overall cacophony.