Good Humor calls that the Strawberry Shortcake bar, and you can still buy it in frozen food cases at many supermarkets. I used to love those too, when I was a kid.
My favorites were the Chocolate Eclairs and Strawberry Shortcakes. And big ice cream sandwiches. I also ate more than my share of Bomb Pops. The ice cream man that came to my neighborhood also sold candy. We ate a lot of War Heads and Cry Babies as well as ice cream.
The ice cream vans here still play the Greensleeves tune just as they used to when I was a child. Even now, when I hear that tune, all I think of is ice cream.
When I was around 10 to 12 years old, my mom put my sister and I into this “playground program” thing run by the local park and rec – basically, it was like day care for school-aged kids at a playground during the hours when kids would normally be at school, so their parents wouldn’t have switch their schedules around for the summertime.
So, since we were at a playground all day like four or five days a week, we saw the ice cream man all the time. I never had much money to spend, but I loved the chocolate eclairs when I could get one, and I really loved buying Lemonheads (50 cents for a little box) and popping little bits of sticky, lemony goodness in my mouth all day long. 
(You should see the look of terror in an ice cream man’s eye when 20 kids who’ve been playing in the hot sun for hours descend on him like vultures. True horror, that :))
Yessss!!!
Me, too! I loved those, but generally all I could afford was the popsicle. That’s back when they cost a nickel.
You know, you can get the chocolate eclair bars in many grocery stores now. They’re good, but not as good as when you sat on the curb, smelling hot asphalt on a summer afternoon, trying to make it last as long as possible, but not wanting it to melt and fall in the gutter.
Actually, as we grew older he’s the one who caused trouble and I was the one left holding the bag with a stupid look on my puss.
A chocolate-dipped vanilla cone–pure heaven. I think I tried a Peanut Butter Parfait sundae once, with caramel and drizzled chocolate and chopped peanuts… siiigh
I loved Italian ices. I had a borderline obsessive way of eating them - I’d let it melt for a few minutes, flip it over, eat the really syrupy bottom, flip again to reveal a newly syrupy side, lather, rinse repeat.
And these chalky little candies on a stick - looked like a flying saucer on a lollipop stick, tasted mostly like a really big Smarties (US, not UK type). Oh, and Boston Baked Beans and Nerds.
I really don’t mean this as a hijack, but when I was young enough to be an easy mark for the Ice Cream Man, we didn’t have one. At least not a regular one. Instead we would go Every Day directly from school to Dairy Queen. At first it was just “a cone” until we discovered the joys of “a Pint-Of-Hard-Frozen-Vanilla” that we would eat on the way home with one of those little wooden tongue-depressor looking paddle spoons. Then came the Dilly which wouldn’t last to the end of the block. Basically a round Eskimo Pie with that little curlicue thing on the side. Still later it was sherbet: lime, orange and pineapple. By the pint.
When the Ice Cream Man finally made it to our neighborhood I was old enough to be buying stuff for the kids. But then it was just ice cream sandwiches, Eskimo Pies, Nutty Buddies and popsicles. I remember favoring CreamSickles and FudgSickles over the fruity type.
We used to get the man to give us a piece of “hot ice” that we would put pennies on to hear it squeal. That or a fork or a knife and mash down hard to get the sound.
Nowadays, even though the guy will drive down our street playing that racket even though nobody ever stops him to buy something, if I want ice cream I’ll go to the Kroger store and buy a half gallon of some concoction with lots of chocolate and as many other flavors thrown in as the flavor-of-the-month has.
Yes, that’s the one!
…off to the grocery store now…
You know, you could probably sue for that now. Childhood ice cream deprivation or something. 
grumble Buncha spoiled rotten kids. When I was little Mom would give us a dime to buy the cheapest thing they had: a double popsicle. And then my brother and I had to split it in half and share it. grumble
I am remembering fractured English.
Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Throw me down the stairs a quarter!
34 posts and not a single mention of the Big Stick? That was my absolute favorite.
this was my favorite
My mom used to say she’d never have to worry about my hearing - I could hear the Good Humor man 3 blocks away
Was it this guy by any chance? Seems that ice cream truck drivers are a rather eccentric type.
Now I’m going to have Van Halen’s “Ice Cream Man” song stuck in my head all day now. Either that, or excerpts from Eddie Murphy’s standup about the ice cream man.
Kick the can, manhunt, the rope swing down at the Hudson River and Mr. Softy. Childhood Summers were the best. He’s now called Mr. Ding-a-ling and comes down our street every night in the Summer, playing “It’s a Small World”. Bombpops were my favorite.
“You ain’t got no ice cream. You ain’t got no ice cream. You can’t afford it. You can’t afford it…and-your-father-is-an-alcoholic!”
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“You dropped your ice cream, you dropped your ice cream!”
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I loved the same one anyrose posted. Unfortunately, I grew up in a very small town at the end of a dead end street - we didn’t have the ice cream man except when I’d be at a friend’s or relative’s house - and even then, it would usually be too late before I could butt in the conversation and convince my parents that “Can I PLEASE have some ICE CREAM from the ice cream man - I know there’s ice cream at home but this is DIFFERENT - PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE I’ll be good all week I PROMISE” but every once in a while I would get lucky…
This is (seriously) one reason why when my son was growing up, I always made sure he got to get something every single time the ice cream man came around.