"QUANTUM SHOT" #748 Link - article by Simon Rose and Avi Abrams
"Stop Me & Buy Some!"... "Often licked, never beaten!"...
Ah, ice cream trucks. What great memories they represent from so many people’s childhood years! The sound of those distinctive tunes and melodic chimes are still guaranteed to send shivers down the spine even today.
The original idea of the ice cream truck was relatively simple, that the delicious tasty treats of the ice cream parlor are coming directly to you. We still see them during the summer months at public events, parks, beaches anywhere where crowds of people are likely to gather, as well as driving down residential streets hoping to entice customers. These examples here at Dark Roasted Blend may not be the cream of the crop, but they’re certainly some pretty cool pictures.
(Shane McGill of Muscatine with his 1957 ice cream truck, more info; right image via)
(1954 "Good Humor" ice cream truck, image credit: Jack Snell)
Very cute 1954 Morris ice cream van, Plymouth Barbican:
In the early 1920’s, before ice cream trucks and vans, the first ice cream bicycles appeared in London. The Walls ice cream company expanded their manufacturing facilities in 1924 and invested in a fleet of tricycles. Annual sales in 1927 are said to have been over £440,000, or $US 700,000 at today’s exchange rate, but still a huge sum at the time.
Walker Electric Vehicle Co. built electric and gasoline-electric hybrid trucks in Chicago from around 1918 until at least 1942. This Walker Electric Truck, had a top speed of 12 mph when empty and 9 mph when fully loaded, even with ice cream:
During World War II, ice cream in the UK was considered to be a luxury and the country’s resources were devoted to the war effort. Manufacturing resumed after the war and ice cream trucks became a familiar sight in the UK and North America in the 1950’s and into the 1960’s.
This is the original 1953 Liberty ice Cream truck:
Early ice cream trucks weren’t as sophisticated as they are today. Back then most families didn’t own a freezer and the trucks sold simple ice cream. Once freezers became common household items, ice cream trucks began selling more specialized novelty ice cream items, such as ice cream bars and popsicles. The vehicle’s refrigeration system consisted of large blocks of dry ice. This entailed the engine being turned off when customers were actually buying their ice cream. A hand-driven crank was usually employed to operate the truck’s familiar chimes or music.
Here is the 1956 Ford F-100 Good Humor Ice Cream Truck, seen in Gateway Colorado Auto Museum:
This Divco truck apparently dates from 1950. It was restored as a fully functional ice cream truck, with heavy duty electric systems so the freezers can still be running when the vehicle’s parked:
How about this little three-wheeled one? (left image) ...Italy is famous for its ice cream and there are still a few scooters making the deliveries there (right):
We mentioned at the beginning of the article about the bikes and tricycles that were used as the first ice cream distribution vehicles. Today, in some parts of Southeast Asia, ice cream is still frequently often sold from modified motorcycles with attached freezer sidecars. This one’s from Cambodia:
Wonderful! By the time I was a kid in the 70s in the UK the scene was very homogenous, it was all about the Bedford CF (as chosen by Banksy - and The KLF) - even a Ford Transit ice cream van was a relatively uncommon sight.
(N)ice!! I lived for a few years in Utrecht, and often saw that cute icecream truck, it's right on the middle of a bridge below the Dom-tower. Supercool to see it here on DRB!
Mr Whippy vans were common in Melbourne during the 1960s, but there must have been a dispute over naming rights. The local Mr Whippy became John Creamy (I think) but kept that pink and white colour scheme. There's still one rolling around Perth in pink and white today. I think he's stalking me - first I'd hear that damn Greensleeves around the neighbourhood at home, then he started cruising the industrial area where I worked. Would he go away if I bought an icecream?
you cannot see this with your own eyes...something yes, but not everything.. http://www.universetoday.com/11863/true-or-false-color-the-art-of-extraterrestrial-photography/
Beautiful pictures you've posted, It's all just so overwhelming .I get that feeling even when Im in the garden with my small telescope a tiny ant looking up at the sky and wondering whats out there.
There's nobody living inside that stadium in Osaka - it's just an annual exhibit by the construction and real estate industries, like the Ideal Home show in London.
Sorry, but among the "Miniature Stirling Engines" ther is alos a vacuum engine (the big and the last picture, i.e. the one that looks a bit like a raygun)...
A little-known fact: If you go by launch rate (i.e. how many craft are launched per unit time), the busiest spaceport in the world is Cape Canaveral in Florida.
The second-busiest, however, is not on the list in this article at all. It's at Woomera, in South Australia.
Cool article, it's amazing to see some of the rockets being built nowadays but a little sad that we've progressed so little...we got to the moon then stopped dreaming! Hope to see us heading out to mars within the next decade or so, humanity needs to leave home.
My favorite is Hunter S. Thompson's "Debt Letter" that he sent to companies he owed money to. He insisted after reading it-many never contacted him again. Find it in "The Proud Highway" or at this link. http://darylburnett.wordpress.com/2009/01/13/hunter-s-thompson-the-debt-letter/
There is a special irony because this page is appearing on my computer with Best Buy ads. Best Buy emphatically did not like being pranked when dozens of members of a guerrilla theater group showed up at one of their stores all wearing blue shirts and khaki pants. They didn't do anything just strolled around the store politely till security rounded them up and threw them out
I'd like to add Paul C. Rosa to the list. And while he tended to use his own name, the personalities he adopted and populated his fictional life with were no less than brilliant. While i've read most of the others, i believe Mr Rosa should top this list.
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4 Comments:
Wonderful! By the time I was a kid in the 70s in the UK the scene was very homogenous, it was all about the Bedford CF (as chosen by Banksy - and The KLF) - even a Ford Transit ice cream van was a relatively uncommon sight.
(N)ice!! I lived for a few years in Utrecht, and often saw that cute icecream truck, it's right on the middle of a bridge below the Dom-tower. Supercool to see it here on DRB!
Those are some pretty sweet(lol) icecream trucks!
Mr Whippy vans were common in Melbourne during the 1960s, but there must have been a dispute over naming rights. The local Mr Whippy became John Creamy (I think) but kept that pink and white colour scheme.
There's still one rolling around Perth in pink and white today. I think he's stalking me - first I'd hear that damn Greensleeves around the neighbourhood at home, then he started cruising the industrial area where I worked. Would he go away if I bought an icecream?
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