I had my little 3 year old nephew this weekend, so sufficed to say I ran after every icecream truck that came close to anywhere we were. I am a sucker for those red white and blue rocket pops but my nephew loves Italian Ice. Anyway, not once did we see a female driver of the truck. So not only do I have THAT little song in my head that they play to entice all the little cherubs to run to their location but I that little ditty paired with the image of a big burly hairy guy asking what the little tikes wanted for sweets.
Why are there no female drivers? Mostly college guys or guys that looked like they belonged in the Hells Angels.
I used to drive an ice cream truck. It was an old Mr. Softee truck that my boss bought and “reconditioned” (read: repaired, barely.) The jimgle machine was gone, so I had to use an old cassette tape player, the only music I had was the Beatles. The darn truck broke down weekly. One week it would be the engine or transmission, the next it would be the soft serve machine or the freezer.
The job was hot, dirty, and dangerous. I was accosted twice by would-be robbers, one with a gun. The pay was low- a percentage of the day’s take, which isn’t much when you’re collecting change all day. I would start in the late morning and drive into the night, having to make do with meals from take-out places. There was no social life possible with this situation- and it’s common in the industry (at least it was where I worked.)
There were women who drove some of the trucks for competing companies. The more successful ones had a partner working with them, but generally women were not attracted to the job.
When I was a kid, I lived on a (sort of) country road, where the speed limit was about 50mph. I vividly recall hearing the ice cream truck approaching and then my sister and I running at top speed for about a half-mile until the driver caught sight of us and stopped so we could buy some tasty treats.
Personally, I think ice cream truck drivers – based on my experience – are simply sadistic bastards. I think our ice cream truck driver would speed up just to see if we’d give up or try to keep chasing him or what…
It seems as if most clowns are male too, which could be why I find them so creepy. Even though I’ve seen female clowns, I’ve never seen a female ice cream truck driver. There’s a stereotype just waiting to be shattered. Or a horror novel waiting to be written, I’m not sure which.
I’ve actually seen a female ice cream truck driver. It was about three years ago, beginning of my sophomore year at college, and me and some guys were all hanging out on the porch after a long days work outside fixing things and doing yardwork. So, being hot and sweaty, and hearing that jingle, we knew we needed ice cream. The truck pulled up, and lo and behold the driver was not only a woman, but HOT! She soon became known as the ‘ice cream chick’, and indeed sold a lot of ice cream in that area that week.
I’ve seen one or two around here. One of them looked kinda like the bus driver from South Park. She drove a modded station wagon of some sort. It’s been a while, so my memory’s a bit fuzzy, but I recall it being a green panel wagon sorta thing.
Our neighborhood ice cream trunk is the King of the Jankmobiles. It’s nothing but a rusted out van with a hole cut into the side with what appears to have been a jagged piece of rock. Perched atop this charming vehicle is a loudspeaker that blares not childhood tunes or even a bit of classical melody, but rather a recording of a barking dog. Periodically the dog will be interrupted by a stern-sounding woman’s voice shouting “Hello? Hello!”
The treats are advertised by way of a motley assortment of faded, dogeared stickers plastered above and below the window. This is complemented by a poorly aligned and badly misspelled listing of additional treats written in dripping paint beside the window. (Creemsikles, anyone?) The driver is indeed a woman. A woman who appears to have not brushed her hair since the Carter administration, but a woman nonetheless. She is assisted by a huge and hairy man who sits in the back with one hand on the freezer and the other on a nail-studded two by four.
One time, while attempting to purchase ice-creamy treats from said Jankmobile, my friends and I became embroiled in a confrontation which ended with the ice cream lady frantically driving away without selling us anything and an irate asshole being threatened with a gun by an 8 months pregnant yours truly. Ah, good times…
WAG- Before trucks, came pushcarts (You’ll still see these in some cities). OTTOMH these date back to around 1900. Rather than a refrigerator, the carts were cooled by large chunks of ice. Pushing around a large heavy cart, while walking alone around the city was obviously (to folks at the time) no job for a woman. (Hmm went to look up the date for the first ice cream truck. Can’t find it. Did find ice cream pushcarts date from 1870). Then comes the Ice Cream Truck, it’s a big vehicle-obviously (to the folks at the time)not a job for a woman. That and I’d guess many of the early drivers had previously driven delivery trucks- and I doubt that there were any women driving delivery trucks at the time.
I suppose it continues due to inertia. My WAG is that eventually, there will be an amount of Good Humor women representative of the percentage of women in the total population.
Semi Hijack-
I’m hearing that a used Jack & Jill ice cream truck wouldn’t be a good buy? But, they have such roomy interiors! And what can compare to the pizazz of the molded treats that cover the roof?
I haven’t seen one since last summer though.