There Will Be No Screaming for Ice Cream

Kerry Howley | September 2, 2005

AP reports on ice cream tribulations in wine country:

A Napa City Council committee on Tuesday asked the city manager to set a decibel limit for ice cream trucks. The committee also asked the city to draft rules prohibiting music while trucks are stopped and limit how frequently trucks pass through neighborhoods...

"The city was a quiet, peaceful place at one time ... and we just let it go to heck," resident Rocky Sheridan said.

Whole thing here.

Comments

|9.2.05 @ 11:52AM|#

angry committee member:

"I swear, if I hear "Turkey in The Straw" one more time....."

"I've had it up to here with the likes of you people!"

"You're all going straight to heck...in a waffle cone!"

The Anti-Puritan|9.2.05 @ 11:58AM|#

Go to heck? No wonder they're passing such intrusive laws. They're prudes.

|9.2.05 @ 11:59AM|#

I'm sure hell is equipped with many tinny, noisy turky-in-the-straw loudspeakers.

Few things have ever been so annoying.

I'm guessing the reason is that the old bells are disallowed by law. Or possibly Good Humor just hates me.

Jeff P.|9.2.05 @ 12:08PM|#

I'm assuming they don't have a problem with ultra-loud bass-heavy car stereos, hairtrigger car alarms, and Harleys without mufflers.

|9.2.05 @ 12:12PM|#

One of my favorite things about winter is that fucking ice cream truck finally stops parking on my street every evening for what seems like... the entire evening. I was just going to go outside and blow the bastard's head off, but I did some research and discovered that doing so is actually illegal in the state of Virginia. Stupid laws.

Perhaps the only silver lining to the recent pretend oil shortage is that this fuckbag will be driven out of business, and his goddamn music blaring truck with him.

The Wine Commonsewer|9.2.05 @ 12:15PM|#

If everyone simply shot out the loudspeaker on the ice cream truck each and every time it came down the street they'd stop with that stuff.

|9.2.05 @ 12:16PM|#

independent worm,

Why do you hate mint chocolate chip?

You people are mean. Ice cream trucks rule. They're like a carnival on wheels.

|9.2.05 @ 12:17PM|#

They're like a carnival on wheels.

Except without the circus folk. And the animals.

|9.2.05 @ 12:21PM|#

My favorite ice cream truck plays Beethoven and Wagner. I love the smell of popsicles in the morning.

|9.2.05 @ 12:24PM|#

I propose that California henceforth adopt Tofu Carts in place of traditional ice cream trucks. The Tofu Carts will play new age music at a quiet level, and sell tofu, sugarless kool aid, and a variety of organic fruits and vegetables. This will ensure that every west coast youth will have a duly miserable childhood. We have to provide for and protect the nannies of the future.

|9.2.05 @ 12:24PM|#

I could go for a few Lotsa Fizz and a Blue Ghost right now.

|9.2.05 @ 12:28PM|#

If there are so many ice cream trucks, doesn't this imply that lots of ice cream is being sold?

Frankly, I thought Napa was far too yuppie to buy the crap sold in ice cream trucks, even for their kids.

|9.2.05 @ 12:36PM|#

When ice cream trucks are outlawed, only outlaws will have ice cream trucks. Then, when you buy ice cream, you will support the terrorists.

|9.2.05 @ 12:36PM|#

Nothing gives me quite as much pleasure as eating those superhero-head shaped ice cream pops. Even if it doesn't taste that good, it's always fun to eat Spongebob's gumball eyes.

|9.2.05 @ 1:06PM|#

This is really funny. When I was about 18 I drove an ice cream truck. The job didn't last long because I ate all my profits. One day I got pulled over by a motorcycle cop because he thought my music was too loud. He actually pulled out some kind of law manual to show me my violation. It was somthing insane, like the music could not be audible outside of 100 feet. He wrote me a ticket which the judge dismissed.

|9.2.05 @ 1:16PM|#

Their right to play 'Pop goes the weasel' ends at my ears.

|9.2.05 @ 2:07PM|#

My local ICT loops "Fur Elise" through non-blown speakers (tho not hi-fi either, of course), so it never irritates me. Lucky me.

Jeff, WORD on the stereos, alarms, and Harleys.

Smacky: play Enya?

|9.2.05 @ 2:51PM|#

"If everyone simply shot out the loudspeaker on the ice cream truck each and every time it came down the street they'd stop with that stuff."

TWCS,
Jennifer's voodoo has afflicted you.

|9.2.05 @ 3:11PM|#

Poco, The ICT may be playing Fur Elise, but the kids think it's Naz's rap "You can be what you wanna be."

|9.2.05 @ 3:58PM|#

Huh? Since when do ice cream trucks play music? The ones I remember from my childhood just went, "Ding-ga-ding... Ding-ga-ding... Ding-ga-ding... Ding-ga-ding... Ding-ga-ding... Ding-ga-ding... Ding-ga-ding... Ding-ga-ding..."

Nothing annoying about that. It would just trigger a panicked reaction -- "Mom! Mom! Need money! Ice cream truck!" Then we would get bomb-pops or orange cremes or Eskimo pies or, best of all, fudgesicles.

I think it would be cool to be a Randian ice cream truck driver. "Sorry, kid, I don't take that looter money. Got any gold? Then get out of my way. Get the hell out of my way!" And my truck would play Richard Halley's Fifth Concerto.

|9.2.05 @ 4:31PM|#

Stevo Darkly,
In my childhood, when grapesicles were still new-fangled, the vendor had to supply his own "music."
He'd simply yell, "Pop-si-CULS."
Note that the last syllable was yodelled.
Man did that yodel get saliva flowing!

|9.2.05 @ 4:36PM|#

"Mom! Mom! Need money! Ice cream truck!"

Hehe...that reminded me of Eddie Murphy's "ice cream man" bit from "Delirious," back in the 80's.

NecroPhile Collins|9.2.05 @ 4:44PM|#

You people's priorities are ugly and wrong. How can you talk about ice cream and guns when there are millions of dead bodies in the wake of this disaster? Dead bodies! Dead bodies! Don't you care? We should be talking more about the dead bodies! Let's talk more about dead bodies.

cicero|9.2.05 @ 5:05PM|#

all this talk about dead bodies is ruining my ice cream.

Ron Hardin|9.2.05 @ 5:41PM|#

Beethoven : an obscure division of the local power company had call center that played Fur Elise using its processor clock in space cycles. When the woman answered I asked, ``By the way, did you know that your music on hold is Beethoven?''

``Yes,'' she said. ``There's nothing we can do about it.''

About fifteen years ago an ice cream truck used to hit my neighborhood and I never minded it; and on my bike route home every night, sometimes I encounter one on its route. It's fairly pleasant.

Moderation in all things seems to apply.

|9.4.05 @ 9:43PM|#

The best ice cream flavor is bananna.
Got some Breyer's to that effect today, and am looking forward to sampling it soon.

The pesky WEBN fireworks have just surceased here in Sinincincinnati. Whew.
The jet flyovers earlier in the eve were the scariest part. Thought the lock to the old Erie canal had broken.

Is Maria Sharapova tall or what? Is Serena handicapped by too much booty/booby?
Happy Holidays.