\jeff{krimmel}

The Ice Cream Man

Yesterday, Mike, Ariele and I went to the Rose Bowl for some lunch and some frisbee throwing. We stopped by Subway on the way down there so Mike and I could pick up some subs (Ariele was doing her usual assortment of fruit for lunch), and we found a parking spot near some picnic tables and a relatively large open grassy area. We sat and ate our sandwiches and then proceeded to play the well known game of how many times can we toss the frisbee to one another without dropping it. The answer…19. Well, put Mike with two people who can actually throw and catch frisbees, and I’m sure the answer is a lot more. Put him with Ariele and me, and the answer is 19 (with some luck).

Near the end of our little game, the ice cream man pulled up near the curb a little ways down the parking lot, and we begin to hear the happy birthday song, which was then repeated, without pause, for the next forty five minutes to an hour or so. I remember being a little guy and really enjoying the Buggs Bunny ice cream on a stick. So, I decided to walk over to the ice cream man and check out the ole menu. Sure enough, Buggs’ face was plastered on the bottom right hand corner of the menu on the side of the ice cream man’s ride.

After spending one of the best one and a half bucks I’ve ever spent, I was able to sit down on the park bench and enjoy the ice cream (something I was pretty certain I had seen the end of roughly twenty years ago). So, it looks to me like the ice cream man circa 2005 sells the exact same stuff he did circa 1985 (yes, including the traditional ice cream sandwich, the red white and blue pop, the lemon bar, etc). And yes, the gumball eyes are as worthless, in the sense of being useful chewing gum, as I remember them.