Tuesday, June 7, 2011

No Pennies!

*Post inspired by the The Red Dress Club's remembeRED prompt, "What, from your childhood, do you still know by heart?"

Besides the obvious things, like the Pledge of Allegiance and "No cuts, no butts, no coconuts," I remember a lot of things from childhood.

Okay, maybe not a lot. I actually don't remember that many details. I'm the kind of person who, once I have no need for it, let's the information go to make room for all the other stuff that is thrown my way. It's also why I am horrible at remembering names.

Sorry new person in my ward who has probably told me her name at least five times and who I just call "you" because I'm too embarrassed to ask you your name. Again.

I do remember some silly, nerdy things, though. Like the tune of the Nintendo video game, Mario 1. Or the Gummy Bears theme song (sadly, I don't have the "secret" recipe for Gummy Beary Juice memorized anymore, though I did at one point).

But mostly I remember the haunting tune of blue ice-cream truck: me, my brothers, and my fellow neighborhood children's arch nemesis. There was Doyle, the one we loved and would save all our change for, but then there was the "No Pennies!" ice-cream man. The one who would speed down Sabre Lane and angrily throw our change back at us if it included too many pennies, yelling, "No pennies!" before screeching away again.

I also remember saving all of our pennies and trying to buy two dollars worth of goodies for that reason. Handing him that clear sandwich bag, nearly tearing from the weight of 200 pennies, and seeing that sweaty, Arabic mustache twitch in irritation brought a smile to my eight-year-old angel face.

I also remember that it takes five children's bikes to make a barricade in the street so that he cannot pass. With a waving fist, he turned that little blue music-mobile around and we, the neighborhood kids, cheered as though we'd just defeated a terrorist threat.

Needless to say, our tactics worked, because we never saw him again.

11 comments:

hilljean said...

Hahah! Why are the drivers always grouchy? I was scared of our ice-cream truck man. The sweet music was always deceiving. Stopping by from the RDC

Jen said...

Hahaha!! I love it!! I think that ice cream man was in the wrong profession!!

Anonymous said...

My street was too busy for an ice cream truck. I am envious.

And man, kids are evil, right? Evil but awesome!

Anonymous said...

I can't believe you were conniving enough at such a young age to give him 200 pennies!! And, the bike barricade. This stuff is great! What great memories you shared!!

Unknown said...

Aww, super cute!! I loved the ice cream truck, though one rarely came through my neighborhood, and when it did it was shockingly overpriced. Nice to find another LDS blogger participating in TRDC!

Anonymous said...

We must have had the same ice cream man. I normal had to chase ours through the neighborhood because he would never stop. I remember once having to run more then a block in bare feet just to get my darn ice cream!

Mad Woman behind the Blog said...

Sadly we didnt have an ice cream man. Our pennies went to buying the flavored sodas at the gas station.

But the bicycle barricade? Love that visual and can totally see my band of brothers and neighbors pulling that same kind of stunt.

Katie @ Chicken Noodle Gravy said...

Hilarious!!! Your neighborhood had awesome and tough kids. I can so see myself and my neighbor doing something similar and then chickening out before we could actually block his path. I wonder why the drivers are all so mean? You would think that'd be the kind of job where cheerfulness and liking kids would kind of be a requirement.

Loved this memory; thanks for sharing! Stopping by from TRDC. :)

Anonymous said...

Baahahaha This is a FANTASTIC memory!! Some friends and I were at a *ahem*naughtyparty*ahem* and when it was mentioned that something looked like a super mario goomba, I broke into Mario song... how I ever remembered that song from THAT long ago, I'll never know!

Galit Breen said...

A war with the ice cream man! Yikes! Now that sounds like a fab children's book just waiting to be written!

Unknown said...

Oh, I love this! And, you described the way I think perfectly in the beginning. If it's not essential, it immediately deletes, which creates a lot of problems with school parents...no clue what their names are, though I've met them a dozen times :(

This was hilarious. Go neighborhood kids!!!