It’s hot outside, its summertime, reminds me of the good Ice Cream truck days
The days when you’d hear the Truck coming, all the kids ran in the house or to the window and have their parents give them money (Or throw it out the window in my case) and have the ice cream truck drive an extra block down the road like he didn’t see us LOL
But the Ice cream truck was everything; you could get the ice cream of course you also had toys like:
The green arms men
The Army man with the parachute
The Styrofoam air planes
…you had your candy and bubble gum. .. The fun dip!! The main attraction was the Ice cream
I compiled a list of my top 20 Ice Cream treats from the Ice cream truck … the ONLY caveat is I’m only listing the things that I have personally eaten SO there is no Choco Taco … never had one sorry lol
… and no Chipwhich lol but you can tell me how good they are and where you’d rank them in the comments K? k.
Let’s get to the list
20. Eskimo Pies
Classic Vanilla ice cream and a chocolate coating, that was pretty much the intro to it all; and when you want to go classic, there’s not much better
19. Ice Cream Sandwich
Speaking of classic, Ice cream sandwiches were so great, and you had to let it melt a little bit, get a little soft to really enjoy it
… You get the cookie stuck on your fingers a little bit; good times.
18. Flavor-Ice
Classic “Freeze Pop” You got these off the ice cream truck when you were dead broke lol They were maybe 10 cents or a quarter, they eventually got transitioned off when everyone’s parents just got them at the grocery store
17. Screwball
I think I’ve only had these once, but it was good … the best thing about it was you didn’t know what flavor bubble gum you’d get at the bottom
16. Fudgesicle
Fudgesicles were chocolate paradise early on, nothing fancy, no tricks, all fudge and fudge all over your face everything
15. Push Up
These were the first functional ice cream truck treats, you actually had to work to finish it lol The orange cream flavor was incredible, and you had to have the joints with the color circles on the side of the paper … those were the originals
14. Crunch Bars
Nestle Crunch bars dropped and the neighborhood went ape, we only knew the candy bar, nothing had the crispy crunchies on them prior to that, it took the eskimo pie to the next level (and also made them obsolete on my block)
13. Dreamsicles
Or creamsicles … the orange was the OG, they eventually made other flavors but eh. It was all about the orange, they were like the push-ups but so much more
… So much so people are still making this flavor in juice, soda, even vodka
12. Klondike
Now they are pretty much nothing and common place, but there was a time when they didn’t exist … and then they were available on the truck; the thing was they were thicker than anything else,, which meant more ice cream
… Plus kids like shiny … and the shiny silver wrapper hooked it
11. Heath Bar
Something about heath toffee and ice cream makes everything more better, this took down the nestle crunch bars as the go to ice cream bar … and improved on the Klondike
10. Chocolate Éclair
The first of the “crumbles” bars … it had cake crumble coating … vanilla ice THEN had fudge in the middle of that? Mannnn we went crazy for these
9. Wonder cups
Odd place for these, but they were too classic to be lower; these were noting but ice cream in a cup but they were the first ice creams a lot of kids had, they were also the ones they passed out at school .. And if you had zero money these were the ones you got off the truck with everyone’s change lol
…shout outs to the wooden spoon that came with it
8. Bubble Gums “surprise” bars
These were classics and came in all shapes and forms; they were the ice cream treats with the bubble gum surprise! You had:
The Mickey Mouse with the chocolate ears and bubble gum nose
Tweedy bird with the bubble gum eyes
The pink panther with the bubble gum eyes
The froze toes with the bubble gum big toe
Ninja turtles, even the screwball kinda counts
7. Cherry Bullet
Only the coolest of the cool remember these, they were cherry ice cream; surrounded by banana ice cream, covered in a chocolate shell … they were my mother’s favorite lol
I couldn’t even find a picture of these!
6. Splits and Swirl bars
The ice cream bars with the double flavors were the hottest things out for a good two summers, you had the cotton candy swirl, the cherry/banana split, the banana/fudge split … they were everything
5. WWF Ice Cream Bars
Only the elite had these, the well to do’s … at the time they were premium ice cream bars, you had to eat these with white gloves and your nose in the air … and a monocle lol
They were like $5 in 1985! In today’s cash that’s like $567.21 LOL When I was lucky enough to get one it was mouthgasm
The cookie and the ice cream and the fudge … the perfect mix of everything … they came in a damn box! lol
4. Snow Cone
A summer classic … not to be confused with the ones at baseball games straight from the bathroom stall.
Shaved ice … the rainbow flavors and colors .. The paper cone cup that always dripped down your arm; good times
Even shoutouts to the Snoopy Sno cone machine
3. Strawberry Shortcake
The Chocolate Éclair had a good year head start on these, we were loving them and one summer on the side of the truck we saw Strawberry Shortcake… they changed the game
Cake on the outside, vanilla ice cream and strawberry in the middle, we ate those exclusively one whole summer lol
2. Nutty Buddy/Drumstick
In my opinion when it comes to ice cream edible transport, nothing beats a sugar cone, not the cake cone, not the waffle bowl, or even the waffle cone (though it’s close)
First we got the Nutty Biddy, that was the original sugar cone, vanilla ice cream, chocolate and peanuts on the top … the nutty buddy had the flat top; the drumstick had the round top and even did you one better, it had the fudge coated sugar cone and in the bottom of the cone… fudge.
When we got down to the end we’d dance around and show people LOL
1. Bombpops
How could this not be number one?
IS it the best tasting? No.
BUT it’s the original, most classicist summertime staple
Cherry, Lime, and Blue Raspberry everyone had these, everyone loved them … young and old
THEN they came out with the Fudge bomb pop! The yellow and brown joint with the fudge and banana … just wow
So that’s the list … where would you rank them differently?
What are your summer time ice cream truck memories?
