We all scream for ice cream

The ice cream van has arrived…yes that great institution is back for the summer. At least it is down my street. Have you seen or heard one yet?

That unmistakable plinky-plonky music takes you back to another world and instantly gets you excited…even as a grown up! This particular van wittily plays the Monty Python theme (as a child my local one played the match of the day tune) and blasted it through my front room as it pulled up outside my house…and I mean right outside, I could have leant out of the front door and grabbed myself a Mr Whippy (see pic). Now if today’s kids are anything like my generation, the sound of the ice cream van is probably the bane of their parent’s lives. The minute you hear one in the distance the nagging starts “mum, dad can I get an ice cream”. When I was a kid I remember the range of ice creams as being incredible. As well as the soft scope cones variants you also got the choose things like funny feet, screwballs and the rockets. Some of them I never got to try, like the outrageously expensive Oyster, despite my constant nagging. Even though I can now afford the reckless decadence of the legendary Oyster, I always plum for the Flake 99, a true classic and beloved by many. It’s a little know fact that a certain Margaret Thatcher (before moving into a rather successful political career) worked as a developer for Lyons and played a major part in the creation of Mr Whippy ice cream! Always a welcome sign of summer, bringing us ice cream on a hot day wherever and whoever you are…God bless you ice cream van! What was or is your favourite ice cream van treat?