The circling of the ice cream truck has begun.

It seems that some days, the circling goes on indefinitely. And it is always on those days that I have no cash in my wallet or my kids have already had enough sugary snacks for the day.

Sometimes I will catch the first note of the truck’s song and run around slamming windows closed, turn on the AC and blast the television hoping to avoid the entire process.

It doesn’t always work. I think kids have dog-like hearing when it comes to the ice cream truck’s catchy tune. With the very first note of the song, possibly coming from miles away, my kids will yell out for me.

“Mom! The ice cream man! Do you have any money?! Can we get some?!”

Even if my answer will be no, there will still be a scurry of activity searching for my wallet hoping to find $10 within. Then if I say yes, they need to complete this task with enough time remaining to then run outside and flag down the truck.

The worst is when I would have said yes, but I seriously don’t have the cash. All of the neighborhood kids are lined up placing their orders. When will the ice cream man start taking debit cards, for crying out loud? Luckily, I have nice neighbors and a son who is not shy about asking for a loan.

And then there are the times when I just say no regardless of whether I have the cash or their friends are in line.

“No, you just had dessert!”

“No, you had enough junk food today!”

“No, we can’t buy ice cream every day. Do you know how much money that comes out to over the course of a year? You guys can add. Someone do the math.”

Their pencils scratch away as they figure it out, the ice cream truck music faintly sounding in the distance.

At $9-10 per day, say five days per week, times half of the year, that’s over $1,000 a year on the ice cream man!

“It’s so much cheaper to buy the ice cream on sale at Shop Rite and just have our own.”

But I know that the Edy’s Chocolate Chip Mint or store-brand ice pops are not nearly as much fun as the thrill of chasing down the ice cream truck. 

When the chase doesn’t end well, it can be kind of sad though. Take yesterday. The stars appeared to all be aligned. I actually had a $20 in my wallet, the kids with their superpower hearing heard the ice cream
man approaching from great distances, and my son ran down the block yelling and waving the money frantically trying to get his attention.

It’s so sad when the ice cream man doesn’t see you.

On this day, the ice cream man did one pass by our cross street and kept going never to return. The one day that we had the cash and thought we’d catch him, he didn’t do his usual endless circling.

“Don’t worry, Buddy. He’ll be back another day.”

We settled for Fla-Vor-Ice from our own freezer instead.