The ice cream man came by my house on Saturday.\u00a0 If you are as old as I am, or a lucky youngster who happens to live in one\u00a0of the few neighborhoods he still visits, you have seen him\u00a0before.\u00a0 He drives a beat-up white van or panel truck\u00a0with colorful pictures of frozen treats all over it.\u00a0 Sometimes there’s a big clown hat on the top, and always, there is a loud speaker\u00a0blaring out some corny tune.\u00a0 Nine times out of ten, it’s “Turkey in the Straw.”<\/p>\n
As he slowly cruises by each house, he hopes to draw the kids out with his music.\u00a0 It sounds fun.\u00a0 The truck looks colorful and exciting with pictures splashed on almost every inch.\u00a0\u00a0 And the ice cream . . . the ice cream he brings is . . . well . . . mediocre at best.\u00a0\u00a0 Sometimes old.\u00a0 Sometimes half thawed.\u00a0 Other times frozen so hard you can hardly bite it.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But that doesn’t stop the kids from running to the curb and waiting for the truck to come by, eager to purchase the mediocre ice cream from the ice cream man.\u00a0 Why?<\/p>\n
It’s an even stranger question when I admit that I am at times, still one of those kids.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Hear the tune.\u00a0 See the truck go by, headed deep into the heart of the neighborhood.\u00a0 Now run to the curb and wait.\u00a0 He’s coming back on his way out.\u00a0 I hear the music getting closer.\u00a0 What will I get?\u00a0 An ice cream sandwich?\u00a0 A red white and blue “bomb-pop?”\u00a0 One of those orange push-up things on a stick?\u00a0 The excitement of the purchase takes over.\u00a0 It doesn’t matter that it is not the best ice cream.\u00a0 What matters is that it is the best way to buy it.\u00a0 This past Saturday I resisted the urge, but next time, I’m running to the curb.<\/p>\n
Sometimes my heart overrules my head.\u00a0\u00a0 Sometimes it\u00a0matters.\u00a0 Sometimes it doesn’t.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The ice cream man came by my house on Saturday.\u00a0 If you are as old as I am, or a lucky youngster who happens to live in one\u00a0of the few neighborhoods he still visits, you have seen him\u00a0before.\u00a0 He drives a beat-up white van or panel truck\u00a0with colorful pictures of frozen treats all over it.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[137,136,138,139],"class_list":["post-1151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-misc","tag-head","tag-heart","tag-ice-cream","tag-summer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1151"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1231,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1151\/revisions\/1231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}