The sanity of ice cream truck drivers

susnfx · Post by **susnfx** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 3:31 pm

I'm worried about them. Every afternoon about this time, an ice cream truck drives through my neighborhood. The tune it plays is arguably the most annoying tune ever conceived by the mind of man or woman. It only plays about 45 seconds of this tune, each phrase ending with the bark of a dog, the quack of a duck, or another idiotic sound. At the end there's a pause of about five seconds, then a woman's voice says brightly, "Hello!" (which causes my dog to race around barking at the intruder) and we're off on another agonizing 45 seconds of tune.

How could a person keep their sanity listening to this hour after hour??? Does any one personally know an ice cream truck driver? Do they appear lucid? Is therapy part of their benefit plan?

It's my opinion that we need to worry more about ice cream truck drivers than postal workers--and if they're not going to shoot us, someone is surely going to shoot one of them!

Susan

rebl_rn · Post by **rebl_rn** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 3:46 pm

I've wondered the same thing. The same ice cream truck that goes by you comes by me here in Wisconsin. The tune ours plays is "Turkey in the Straw". That is maddening enough, but that "HELLO!" is totally annoying.

emmline · Post by **emmline** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 4:03 pm

They are most likely not sane. But I've wondered the same thing about salepeople in certain mall stores--namely Hollister, Ruehl, Abercrombie--the sort of place where you trip over several clothing racks on your way in because the light is too dim to see them, to say nothing of the soundtrack, played at such driving decibels that anyone over the age of 25 who does not know to hang on is blown out of the store by the force of soundwaves.
What happens to people who work there?

mutepointe · Post by **mutepointe** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 5:15 pm

And what a sick ice cream man he would be who makes that same song the ringtone on his cell phone.

Tyler · Post by **Tyler** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 6:35 pm

oh dear lord, I know of the one you speak!!!!!!!!

it's enough to cause nightmares!

dubhlinn · Post by **dubhlinn** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 7:20 pm

For reasons unknown and never understood, every ice cream truck in Dublin plays "Greensleeves".

Don't ask, I have no idea.

Funny enough, it was the first time I heard the tune...

Slan,
D.

I.D.10-t · Post by **I.D.10-t** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 7:22 pm

susnfx, can you find a youtube video of what you have seen/heard? Old... Turkey in the straw is all I have ever heard.

susnfx · Post by **susnfx** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 9:57 pm

It's not a tune I recognize...just some dreadful electronic chime thingy with sound effects. I don't know that the tune itself makes any difference, although I think this one was specifically written to coerce children into buying ice cream from strangers in big white vans. An evil tune that stays in your head for hours and hours....

Susan

hyldemoer · Post by **hyldemoer** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 10:10 pm

Every ice cream truck driver I knew back in the 60's was a stoner.

Denny · Post by **Denny** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 10:24 pm

susnfx wrote:in your head for hours and hours....

hours?

still remember it?

MTGuru · Post by **MTGuru** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 10:25 pm

How about this one?

http://www.box.net/shared/i1rd7jasv8

susnfx · Post by **susnfx** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 11:00 pm

That's not the one I hear playing in my head....
Tyler, you hear it! What's the tune?

Susan

mutepointe · Post by **mutepointe** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 4:27 am

Someone once mentioned that they played on the whistle their local ice cream truck's song to trick the neighborhood kids.

rebl_rn · Post by **rebl_rn** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 8:34 am

Since I run our county's immunization program, this is one of my favorites.

susnfx · Post by **susnfx** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 9:55 am

It just came to me what the tune is and I've been laughing ever since I realized it: it's an LDS hymn "O, Refresh Us!" Took awhile to recognize it because of the jaunty way they're playing it, along with the animal sounds interspersed throughout. It's probably some tune known by others as something else, but that's what it is here.

(Love the cartoon, rn)

Susan