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My little grandson(2-1/2 yrs. old) is just starting to learn what it is all about. The look on his face, and the innocent joy he displays, almost brings tears to my eyes. And …….when I dig out the money to pay for his selection of "joy", it surely does.

i have to say in the community i lived in it was not a sound you heard apart from wakes week at the fair, people did not have the money to buy ice cream,

Where I lived, I never saw an ice cream man appear until I was in
highschool and living in another neighborhood. My sisters were older
and they got ice cream occasionally. But I rarely did. Not that I didn’t
enjoy a treat too, but I wasn’t considered a child any longer, so I
didn’t qualify apparently due to stinginess from my mom.
I remember when I joined the army and we had an ice cream man
show up halfway through our basic training months. And I never missed a week, where I didn’t run downstairs like alot of us did, just
to have a treat that we couldn’t get otherwise. I made up for all the
years when I couldn’t have the money or wasn’t around to get the
money to stand on the curb with the little ones.
As an adult with children grown, I lived in a neighborhood in another
state, where the ice cream man would come down the streets, even
during winter, and I would so often be outside or running to the
door, when I’d hear his caliope music. They no longer used a tinkling
bell by then. It was all recorded music with a caliope. I always got
an ice cream bar, unless I had the money to splurge on a "Nutty
Butty", which was a chocolate and nut covered ice cream cone, and
with a chocolate flavored cone as well.
I’d hate to think what the cost of ice cream treats run this summer
in my new neighborhood. If the ice cream men even come up to
where I live now. It’s so quiet, I doubt there are any children on our
block. But isn’t that the way seniors like it?

I remember going into the city to see my grandparents and there was a man that would ride a three-wheeled bicycle up & down the streets with a chest full of cold treats in tow. When ever we heard the "ice cream bell", we dig the pennies out of our pockets and go and greet him. It was the always a surprise to see what he had.

When my kids were young, they had the "dilly man" that would ride the streets selling DQ dilly bars and they reacted the same way as when I was young!

We waited with money in hand & anticipation in our hearts! We spent hours collecting empty pop bottles in order to get the extra change to buy that ice cream! I can still remember carting all those bottles to the local grocery store in hopes to get a soda, some candy & have enough extra change for that ice cream truck.
In those days each bottle paid 3-5 cents each & a pop-cicle was the same price as a candy bar-10cents!
Great memories!

When I saw your question, I immediately began to hear the song that came from the ice cream truck, playing in my head.

Like others, I saved up the pop bottles and carried them to the store in my wagon, where I got 3 cents a piece for them and saved up the pennies for the ice cream man.

One time I guess I was too close to the truck for the driver to see me and he didn’t stop. But he was going so slow I jumped on the square boxy fender, figuring he would stop soon. He didn’t stop nor did he hear me hollering. Soon we were getting a distance from my house and he was going faster.

I jumped off and tore my jeans and scraped my leg and the palms of my hands on the asphalt. I did not get ice cream and I got spanked for ruining my jeans. I also lost my pennies that had been clutched in my hand when I jumped.

I still like ice cream but I’m too old to chase the truck anymore so I opt for the market. Now I can buy an entire half gallon but it still doesn’t taste as good as that fudgesicle I had to save my pennies for.

Tons of anxiety for me.
I had to worry about running home to see if I could get money.
If I did, would I make it in time to catch the ice cream man?
Once there, did the price of the "ice bomb" go up. (The large red, white & blue, missile shaped, frozen ice. No cream involved.) I liked that one best b/c it lasted longer, but my favorite was the Dreamsicle of vanilla ice cream with orange ice cover. Those two flavors blended so well in my mouth.

That tune was to me like the bell was to Pavlov’s dog. Pure conditioned behavior.
Speaking of dogs…my little terrier would hear the tune before me and race to the end of the driveway to sit and wait. The ice cream man would give her a little cup of vanilla while he waited for me to come out. I sure miss those days. I hear the tune in my neighborhood now, and I am so tempted to run out and flag him down.

When I heard this sound I went running to the ice cream van…..

Just one Cornetto,
give it to me,
delicious ice-cream, of Italy,
vanilla and strawberry dream,
Give me Cornetto,
from Wall’s ice cream.

I’ve never liked ice cream much, which is a good thing as I’m lactose intolerant. The ice cream truck never meant anything to me.

We didn"t have one, when I was a kid. Now it really irritates me as I am not suppose to have ice cream. The sound of his bell sends me straight to the freezer.

I didn’t enjoy the sound… it reminds me that the day is coming to an end.

This question makes me giggle. I can remember my mom grumbling under her breath whenever the ice cream truck started down our street. I remember the obnoxious music it played and my mom hated it. My sister and I would come screaming into the house begging for money. She would have to scramble like crazy to get change for us so we could bolt back out to get our ice cream.

I associate that tune with a traumatic event. Our ice cream man was shot and robbed, just down the street from our house. He was back a few days later, with his arm in a sling, but our mothers would not let us go out to the truck.

One of the happiest times of our childhood—dad or mom always found the money somewhere–I imagined we worked for it and it was "so fun" If I heard that sound again I would be out the door in no time.

LOL blu, you almost always tickle me. a friend and I were talking just today about how we ran behind the mosquito fog truck, breathing every poison known at the time …. LOL … he is a brilliant environmental chemist and we just looked at each other and shook our heads ….. simpler, scarier times

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream.