Ice Cream Man Terror Be Gone!

We have two ice cream men that drive by in their respective vehicles throughout the summer months.  The first guy is exactly what you’d expect from an Ice Cream man.  He is a jovial looking man driving around in a big boxy truck, with colorful stickers on it.  And his music is also what you would expect–cheerful happy little kiddy ditties.  But he…  He doesn’t come around here very often.

The other guy is not your run of the mill ice cream man.  He drives a maroon mini-van.  His ice cream menu is peeling off.  There aren’t very many cheerful colors. 

And the music…  Oh… 

For a few months he played one song and one song only:  Beethoven’s “Fur Elise.”  Now, I am a fan of Beethoven, and I like the song “Fur Elise” just fine, but the computerized bell tones of the ice cream truck speakers just distort the song into something truly disturbing.

In fact, most days when he would come by I would picture a scene from a horror movie:

It’s a stifingly sunny day on Toesin’s street.  Things are still.  Too still.  (The strains of creepy ice cream man music begin to filter through the trees)  Children are bouncing balls to a drone like rhythym and then suddenly…  THE ICE CREAM TRUCK COMES.  *Duhn duhn duhn.*

The worst part about it all was, invariably the truck would come creeping down the street at the very point of the day that was the pinacle of stress.  I’d be cooking dinner, DH would be getting home and changing, and grumbling about his day, Little Miss would be screaming, and the ice cream man would come.  Now I’m the kind of gal that in a high-stress situation I WELCOME the sight of ice cream.

But not this Ice Cream…  No…  For this Ice Cream brought with it the terrifyingly slow, dark melody of Ice Cream Man “Fur Elise.”

In the last three days something truly miraculous has happened:  The scary Ice Cream man has changed his song.  Yesterday, he played Brahm’s lullaby (ok–there was still a slight creepy-factor, but overall it was a dramatic improvement).  Today, it was a happy little ditty which I didn’t recognize.

Ahhh…  Once again the appearance of the Ice Cream Man can be heralded as the happy event that it was always meant to be.

The world became a little righter today.