How Much Wood...?

(click on this foto)

Summer's Last Calling

You Scream, I Scream, We All Scream for...Cigars?

Saturday afternoon I was up on the ladder painting on the back of the house, when off in the distance I could hear the tinkly, circus music from my childhood days. I tilted my head, trying to better identify the sound coming nearer. It dawned on me that what I was hearing was that calliope tune that announced the arrival of the ice cream truck!

I bounded off the ladder and ran to the front of the house. Sure enough, slowly making it way up Friley Road was the little white van filled with cold, frozen summer treats. My childhood favorite was the fudgesicle and it only cost 5 cents.

I grabbed my camera from the car and snapped this picture. When I looked up and down our street, all my neighbors were doing the same as me...standing on their front stoops with smiles on their faces. Several of the kids were chasing after the van, waving their money like hankies, trying to get the vendor's attention.

What the picture does not show clearly (altho you can see, along the edge of the lamp post, her hand lowered) is that the woman behind the wheel, selling mostly to children from this gaily decorated truck, was sporting a huge cigar. She was puffing away as she drove down our street. Whenever she spotted a kid with their parent running for the truck, she held it down low so no one could see her stogy.

I thought it odd to see this...not really something one would expect from the 'ice cream lady', huh?