I suppose everyone has their own memories of the ice-cream
man when they were growing up. For those of us who grew up in Tarrytown and who loved
the long summer days playing outdoors, it meant a daily visit from Eddie the
ice-cream man in his white truck; he worked for the Good Humor Company. He
would drive into Tappan Landing Road, make a U-turn at Henrik Lane and park in
front of the 26 Tappan Landing Road apartment building. There would be a line of
children waiting to buy ice cream cones, popsicles and sandwiches from him. It
was always exciting to watch him reach into the truck’s freezer to retrieve
what you had asked for. In my case, it was a toasted almond dessert bar; they
were heavenly (http://www.goodhumor.com/product/detail/114453/toasted-almond-dessert-bar-good-humor).
More favorites were the strawberry shortcake dessert bar (http://www.goodhumor.com/product/detail/114303/strawberry-shortcake-dessert-bar-good-humor)
and the standard ice-cream sandwich (http://www.goodhumor.com/product/detail/114441/giant-vanilla-sandwich-good-humor)
(not a giant version but just the regular-sized one). I think Eddie enjoyed handing
out his ice-cream products as much as we enjoyed receiving them. Of course
nothing was for free; but I don’t remember that we paid more than about 50
cents for what we wanted. Nowadays we’d pay much more.
Here in Oslo, I am reminded of Eddie the ice-cream man each
time I hear the ice-cream truck play its familiar song. The Oslo ice-cream
truck tune is just the opening riff from the theme music to Norge Rundt (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WadPQ9XIF4M)
but it is so characteristic. You can hear it a mile away and recognize it
instantly, knowing that the ice-cream truck is in the vicinity. I purchased
some ice cream from the ice-cream vendor recently--ice cream sandwiches and
Lollipop popsicles (http://isbjornis.no/?page_id=172
--also called saftis med sjokoladetrekk),
both of which are very good. Even though it is many years ago since we were
children, it is nice to have those memories of summer, and nice to know that ice
cream trucks are not a thing of the past.
