The Good Humor Man

In many of the childhood memories I’ve held onto, I’m just having fun. Like the times I used to play at the beach — that is, until a large wave slammed my small body onto the sand. Ouch.

One particularly happy memory from days gone by is of the Good Humor Man. Every summer afternoon of my childhood, sure as sprinkles, I waited to hear the tinkly tune from the Good Humor truck. For those of you who may have come of age after me, this was an ice cream vendor who drove his truck around the neighborhood selling ice cream bars. I remember half and half bars, vanilla ice cream coated in chocolate, for only five cents.

Though cash was chronically short (even thrift can be costly), my mom always seemed to have an extra dime to spare for two ice cream bars — one for me, and one for my little brother. (I always thought of David as my “little” brother, even when he grew up to be taller than me.)

Come to think of it, I haven’t seen a dime in circulation for years. And now, the U S treasury has announced that it will no longer mint any more pennies because they cost 3.7 cents each to manufacture.  (I guess that they finally figured that they weren’t going to make a profit with increased production.)

While dimes and pennies and nickels seem to be following the same course as the dinosaurs, Daveen and I still carry around quarters for — see if you can guess?

That’s right!  For parking meters. Because it is easier to drop in four quarters than it is to deal with the vagaries of using a credit card to buy time on a meter, which it seems, are often broken. (Parking tip: I frequently find available parking in a space with a broken meter. It seems other people don’t know you can park for free if the meter is broken – up to the maximum posted time limit.)

The Good Humor Man is long gone from the neighborhood I grew up in, as am I, but the sweet memories linger, of licking a cold ice cream bar on a hot summer afternoon.

In my world, back in those days, a nickel was all I needed to be happy.

Well, maybe a dime to buy a kite, from time to time.

Alan