In Defense of the Ice Cream Man

Ice Cream Man, 1995. Closed-captioned, color, DVD.

On Tuesday, the New York Times Dining Section ran a disturbing piece about ice cream vendors. To some parents, these cart pushing, truck driving sweet gods and goddesses have become bothersome bell-ringing predators.

Part of the trouble is vendors' proximity to playgrounds, and the amount of time they devote to a single area (i.e. they linger). A Brooklyn parent expressed disdain for the "icy man," the popsicle peddlers that roam the outskirts of Prospect Park, and their cooler counterpart, Mister Softee. A mother living in Portland, Oregon was equally bothered, saying:

'When we were kids you would either get the ice cream or not and then he would just go away. But they just sit there now, and it’s like an hour of ‘Can I have ice cream? Can I have ice cream?’ It’s really the vulture-like behavior that bothers me.'

I don't know ladies, it sounds like a good business strategy to me--stay where the customers are and they will return. But on the other hand, a small part of me is sympathetic to the mother that must endure her child's pleas and possible tantrum; when something so good is so close and yet out of reach, a kid can really lose it. But children will find themselves in this situation for the rest of their lives. Can't this be an opportunity to teach them about alternatives, moderation and negotiation? You certainly can't place all the blame on the ice cream vendor just for being there. But you can try:

In May, New York City principals received letters from the advocacy group Asthma Free School Zone, urging them to keep trucks from their buildings. 'Sometimes you’ll see a child in a stroller parked right next to the exhaust pipe of the truck'...

Umm, whose fault is that? Furthermore, who are these parents that want to partially restrict or all out ban the sweet saviors of summer? Writer Helene Stapinski noted the observation of a Mister Softee VP:

Those who dislike the ice cream man tend to be 'New Age parents whose kids can’t seem to do anything without them.'

Yep, it's always those yogis pushing their double-wide super strollers to the nearest food coop for a box of Tofutti Cuties that suck the fun out of everything. But then there's this:

[T]he complaints are not just coming from effete organic-food zealots with too much time on their hands. The 18th Ward in Chicago, which banned ice cream vendors, is made up of working-class African-American families...

In Chicago last fall, the City Council banned ice cream trucks from the 18th Ward after residents complained about unclean vendors, noise and, more troubling, possible drug sales inside some of the trucks...

Okay, now we're talking about "Big Worm" from the movie Friday.

While he was comic relief in the film, I can't imagine sending my kid to an ice cream man that might slip him a dime bag instead of a Rocket Pop. In contrast, Stapinski highlights Cool Cycles, a two-wheel ice cream service (à la CHIPs) in Tacoma, Washington. Owner Joel Semanko is quoted:

'There used to be this image [of the ice cream man] that was wholesome and cool'...But these days, in Tacoma, there is a guy in an old mail van with no shirt on, smoking a cigarette...'I heard one kid complain that the guy actually burped on him.'

Eww. Speaking of digestive issues, some parents are (understandably) concerned about additives and health. In a few closing quotes from Hilary Guishard, a Brooklynite and former owner and driver of Mister Softee trucks, he suggests that customers ask Mister Softee to carry fat-free options. (That said, products with less additives might be possible too.) While Guishard empathized with moms, he also had this to say:

Moms have a choice. We should be mature enough to tell our kids, ‘No.’

Amen. If you can't handle telling your kid no, then get off the playground. As for the icy or ice cream man's unrelenting jingle, sure, it's a little annoying, but deal with it. Some of us look forward to that sound. I shudder to think that ice cream could be banished from kid zones like merry-go-rounds, seesaws and teeter totters. As my sister, a mother of three, says, "Some things just need to be left alone."

Read the entire New York Times article, When Parents Scream Against Ice Cream, here.