I grew up in the New Jersey suburbs where ice cream trucks regularly roamed our neighborhoods in the summer months. These days, I live in a more rural part of the Garden State, and so it’s been a long time since I’ve seen an ice cream truck in the wild. If you’re concerned about this life of hardship and deprivation, I will say that there’s an ice cream stand about a mile and a half from our house so we’ll probably get by.
Still, it’s not quite the same as being a little kid and hearing the song of the approaching ice cream truck. When you heard that little jingle it was imperative that you grab money and race outside as quickly as possible. Shoes? There simply wasn’t any time to waste putting those unnecessary accessories on!
Provided you had the money and made it out in time to catch the ice cream truck, then you had to hope that your favorite frozen treat was in stock. My all-time favorite was a strawberry a shortcake ice cream bar. Judging by how often those things were sold out, I suspect this was a LOT of people’s favorite ice cream treat.
I grew up in what I think of as a big ice cream household. My parents are huge fans of ice cream still. We went out regularly for the stuff. As a kid I remember Carvel, Friendly’s and Howard Johnson’s as places we regularly got ice cream. For seven-year-old Alissa the height of dining excellence was HoJo’s where I would enjoy a plate of fried clams for dinner and a dish of black raspberry ice cream for dessert. No matter where we went for ice cream, black raspberry was my number one pick. It remains my very favorite flavor of ice cream.
Of course, this being New Jersey, at least once every summer we would make our way “down the shore” and head to the beach followed by an evening on the boardwalk. For us the boardwalk was almost always Seaside Heights. When we were on the boardwalk by far the best frozen treat was a Kohr’s frozen custard (aka soft ice cream) cone. My favorite variety was a strawberry banana swirl cone. I just found and went to the Kohr’s website, and I was disappointed to see that it looks like the strawberry banana swirl is no longer available. What a pity! Today’s kids don’t know what they’re missing!
Well, kids of all ages, I hope that if you live in an ice cream truck area that you make it out to the truck in time, and that your favorite treat is in stock! And wherever you are I hope you can enjoy your favorite ice cream and keep your cool during this hot week!
— Alissa
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Creativity and Contentment 
15 responses to “Where's an Ice Cream Truck When You Need One?”
First of all, Alissa, that is a great photo of you!! Second, we love ice cream in our household as well. I have many favorites and your parents took us to that great ice cream parlor in FL. Boy was that ice cream good and so inexpensive. Keep enjoying. Aleta
My dad was very excited to get a gift certificate to that ice cream place from my sister for Father’s Day. I’m told they go there nearly every Sunday.
Friendly’s!!!! My favorite place as a kid. I would get the fried clams and chased it with a hot fudge sundae. This past May as I travels back to Ohio for a nephew’s graduation, I noticed the local Friendly’s is no longer there. Made me kind of sad as I feel my childhood haunts are being replaced with unnecessary businesses such as doctor offices and Edward Jones which I never see cars at any location. By drs offices I mean elective procedure dr office not emergency ones.
What a waste of space. I lived to rural to have had ice cream trucks as a kid. However, the good old Schwann’s truck would make its weekly monthly round where we would stock up on cold items. Which always resulted in ending up in the basement freezer which is a story for another time. Ewww the scary basement
Oh, I hear you on all the good stuff disappearing to be replaced by not very fun things. Around here our mall closed and is going to become a distribution center, which I guess is a sign of the times, but also kind of sad.
I can’t enjoy ice cream very often due to dancing on the edge of diabetes, but in my next life, I’ll live an an ice cream mansion and nibble on the walls at will.
That sounds like a very solid plan. . . well as long as it doesn’t get too hot out!
Sweet memories! Stay cool this week! As always love these stories.😘
Aw, thanks!
Just curious to know if you saw the video that went around recently showing a young British girl complaining about the cost of the ice cream at a local stop. Cute as heck. I was hugely disappointed recently to have a “fake” pistachio (made with green cherries!!!! and maybe one real pistachio) ice cream cone; noticing, too, the “sugar cone” was no longer “brown” but a pale buff color with no taste! Thankfully, I saw that the black raspberry/coffee swirl was still available. I haven’t had one yet this year and hope IT hasn’t changed somehow… Childhood pleasures have become rare at my age. 😉
I have not seen that video, but as usual I am out of the loop. The fake pistachio ice cream sounds very sad, but at least they still have some good flavors!
That video is a hoot. She will grow up to be an attorney and a protestor. Lol.
A Mr. Softy !
Love love love ice cream. At present I just bought lg pack of strawberry. Last week I had a sm carton of sea salt Caramel choc truffle. Delicious. Yes my kids indulged in ice cream trucks in our old neighborhood suburbs of Cleveland. We all indulged.
Sounds like you raised them right!
We have ice-cream trucks in our area. “Pop Goes the Weasel” is their song of choice; I’m not sure why! The last ice cream I had was at a very good place called O Wow Cow.