Oh this is hard, like asking me to pick my favorite child. But I don’t have any kids. I like Italian Ice, Creamsicles, and Bomb Pops, so much so that I regularly buy them from the store. So eliminate those. The Choco Taco is the best thing ever, but so messy on a hot day. In terms of taste alone, it wins. That leaves Drumsticks, which are almost as tasty as the Choco Taco, but much less messy.
Also I was thinking of Shaved Ice when I saw Italian Ice, and that is the best treat on a really hot day.
@cpierce I grew up in the day of the Mister Softee truck. They served soft-serve ice cream out of the truck. No novelties… just soft serve (choc or van or twist if I remember correctly).
OMG I just found out they are still around. Makes me wish I lived in a bigger city!
@chienfou I have seen a Mister Softee truck in my neighborhood recently! Soft serve is indeed superior to novelties. Fortunately, both Mickey D’s and Burger King sell vanilla soft serve these days (and BK’s ice cream machines seem to “break down” a lot less often than MD’s)
@JoetatoChip I had them when I was 10. I didn’t know what to get so I saw the design and picked it out. I had to wait a while for the wafer ends to defrost before enjoying them. It took a long time to eat so one was enough to keep me full.
I’m on team Creamsicle, but all of the sudden I sat up fully erect in bed, cold and shaking asweat, gripped with a panic that I was somehow mistaking Creamsicles with Dreamsicles.
@UncleVinny@ZeroCharisma I agree these were the best, and I think they should be considered as one thing, especially in light of the article.
We used to be able to get C/Dreamsicle flavored “Pushups”, a cylndrical ice cream bar or popsicle-like thing on a stick in a cardboard tube that you would “push up” from the bottom - do they even make those anymore?
@stolicat@UncleVinny@ZeroCharisma we called these “push-up pops” and afaik they are still sold in the grocery store. (haven’t hit up the ice cream truck in a long time so i couldn’t say about that ) we often had flinstone themed ones.
My most favorite of any frozen things sold from a truck was Dell’s Frozen Lemonade. Best part was finding a few really big hunks of frozen sweetened lemon. Next runner up were Banana Fudgsicles. All the creamy goodness of a chocolate Fudgesicle, but banana flavor.
@LaVikinga there’s a del’s walking distance from my parents house (not a truck, a brick & mortar) and we walked there many a night after dinner growing up. nothing beats a del’s, classic lemon or cherry are my faves. always “stop at the sign of the frozen lemon”
@jerk_nugget Last time I enjoyed a Del’s was at the stand in Midddletown, RI, and few summers ago (and thank you for reminding me about the spelling. I knew it looked off). It was a rare treat for me because I swore off debbil simple carbs almost 2 decades ago. Hello, glucose drop, my old friend. I didn’t a sugar free option when I was there that summer, but I have a girlfriend who buys their make-at-home frozen lemonade mix in a sugar free version in bulk every time she visits family in the area. It’s close, but not quite, both in taste and mouthfeel.
I miss those days of chasing the truck in the summer, hanging out of the back window with the dog in our the family station wagon, eating crinkle cut french fries with malt vinegar and salt at the beach with its rocks instead of sand, trick-or-treating for full size candy bars with a pack of friends without parental oversight until we couldn’t walk another step, Zotz, Clackers made with glass, the original Lawn Darts…
@LaVikinga i keep meaning to try the make your own del’s, but in all these years i still haven’t yet! i guess because i know it won’t be exactly the same, but it can’t hurt to try. i should give it a go next time i’m home visiting. (perhaps they might even sell me some paper cups :))
malt vinegar on fries! another wonderful thing. my partner thought this was weird until i pointed out that his favorite flavor of potato chip is salt and vinegar, after all…
i saw a comment on a youtube video today that said something to the effect of, “all we wanted to do back then was grow up, and now that we’re grown up we wish we could go back.” ain’t that the truth.
I don’t remember.
Ice Cream trucks have been banned, in Des Moines, since 1967. A 9 year old girl was hit and killed, by an ice cream truck and even 40 years later, the idea of bringing back ice cream trucks got shot down, by the city council.
@TheCO2 One death shouldn’t warrant a whole city ban and the article says that she was hit by a car near the ice cream truck. That could happen if you were in the cross walk and you had the right of way.
@FearTheNoFear@TheCO2 unfortunately a typical knee-jerk reaction to a problem. Sad that the child was killed, but that’s a sort of “baby and bath water” issue to me.
@chienfou@FearTheNoFear The girl was running out to the ice cream truck. I was always under the impression she was hit by the truck, but maybe I heard wrong. And I agree, they blew it out of proportions, when they banned ice cream trucks permanently, over one incident.
As for why they won’t reinstate them is beyond me.
@ahacksaw And best of all, they have no horrible wooden stick lurking in the middle of the delicious, deceptive frozen treat, waiting for its chance to scrape across my tongue. (shudder)
One of my kids just reminded me our sketchy neighborhood ice cream truck plays a Christmas tune instead of the more traditional Turkey In The Straw or whatever it is trucks used to play.
I have to revise my choice. The Astro Bar by local family shop Pace’s Dairy Ann. They are giant home-made popsicles, with at least double the flavor and stickiness of anything factory made.
Paces is now a 3rd generation family business, and they’ve been in the same location for 62 years. About the only thing that’s changed is the sign out front. They do burgers and dogs and such, but they’re famous for the Astro Bars.
One of the five original trucks has been restored, but just does parades.
I grew up ‘40 and plumb’ (40 miles from town, plumb up in the sticks) so I never saw an ice cream truck. We did have a little community store that had plenty of ice cream and other goodies. My favorite to this day is vanilla in a cup, eaten with the wooden spoon. The wood gave it extra flavor.
In NYC ice cream trucks give you soft serve ice cream. You can get a cone with the two soft serve ears coming out of it dipped in hardening chocolate and sprinkles. That was my jam. These pre-wrapped icecreams i’m seeing are low tier.
All this reminded me of frozen chocolate-covered bananas. I don’t think they were an actual store product, I mostly remember getting them at County fairs and the like back in Midwest, on a stick, of course. Everything at the fair was on a stick.
/image chocolate covered banana
/image choco-taco
@Collin1000 Okay, I am hungry again.
@Collin1000 Have I lived a sheltered life? Why is this new to me?
@Collin1000
@Collin1000
Chipwich
@takethatyourock I’m not sure a cart counts as a truck.
Never got anything from the ice cream truck.
@DVDBZN so sad …
Pac-Man Ghost
Astro pop and crunch bar
https://shirt.woot.com/offers/suburban-blitzkrieg
@mfladd
Oh this is hard, like asking me to pick my favorite child. But I don’t have any kids. I like Italian Ice, Creamsicles, and Bomb Pops, so much so that I regularly buy them from the store. So eliminate those. The Choco Taco is the best thing ever, but so messy on a hot day. In terms of taste alone, it wins. That leaves Drumsticks, which are almost as tasty as the Choco Taco, but much less messy.
Also I was thinking of Shaved Ice when I saw Italian Ice, and that is the best treat on a really hot day.
@cpierce I grew up in the day of the Mister Softee truck. They served soft-serve ice cream out of the truck. No novelties… just soft serve (choc or van or twist if I remember correctly).
OMG I just found out they are still around. Makes me wish I lived in a bigger city!
@chienfou @cpierce my mom talks about Mr Softy. She said it was the BEST ice cream
@cpierce @tinamarie1974 Sigh… I guess that makes me old enough to be your dad…?!?
@chienfou @cpierce I did NOT say that!!
@chienfou I have seen a Mister Softee truck in my neighborhood recently! Soft serve is indeed superior to novelties. Fortunately, both Mickey D’s and Burger King sell vanilla soft serve these days (and BK’s ice cream machines seem to “break down” a lot less often than MD’s)
Second goes to Orange flavored Push Ups.
@JT954 This makes my Nintendork heart so happy. I didn’t know these used to be a thing
@JoetatoChip I had them when I was 10. I didn’t know what to get so I saw the design and picked it out. I had to wait a while for the wafer ends to defrost before enjoying them. It took a long time to eat so one was enough to keep me full.
@JT954 OMG that’s amazing…and probably worth money. LOL
Is there possibly any other answer besides the strawberry shortcake bar?
@nolrak Apparently so, and the others are winning.
@hchavers ah well, i suppose everyone is entitled to their (wrong) opinions …
Strawberry Shortcake bar.
@lordbowen
Screwballs!
Going to guess this fell into other, but how many folks got the treats with gumball eyes and they looked like this:
@gilby722 THREE dollars? THREE???
@gilby722 Wow! That Sonic movie re-design is looking exceptionally better!
I’m on team Creamsicle, but all of the sudden I sat up fully erect in bed, cold and shaking asweat, gripped with a panic that I was somehow mistaking Creamsicles with Dreamsicles.
This tedious site set my mind at a sort of ease about the differences: https://pastrychefonline.com/creamsicles/
@UncleVinny We called them all 50/50 bars. I think Creamsicle was the official trademarked 50/50 but Dreamsicle was the better one.
@UncleVinny @ZeroCharisma I agree these were the best, and I think they should be considered as one thing, especially in light of the article.
We used to be able to get C/Dreamsicle flavored “Pushups”, a cylndrical ice cream bar or popsicle-like thing on a stick in a cardboard tube that you would “push up” from the bottom - do they even make those anymore?
oh yeah, they do:
@stolicat @UncleVinny @ZeroCharisma we called these “push-up pops” and afaik they are still sold in the grocery store. (haven’t hit up the ice cream truck in a long time so i couldn’t say about that
) we often had flinstone themed ones.
@jerk_nugget @stolicat @UncleVinny @ZeroCharisma DQ has a dreamsicle hard shell topping that is pretty damn good (and was free on the summer solstice)
@chienfou @jerk_nugget @stolicat @ZeroCharisma NOW you tell us?!
/giphy inconsolable weeping
Does Schwan’s count?
Because Turtle Pie…
My most favorite of any frozen things sold from a truck was Dell’s Frozen Lemonade. Best part was finding a few really big hunks of frozen sweetened lemon. Next runner up were Banana Fudgsicles. All the creamy goodness of a chocolate Fudgesicle, but banana flavor.
@LaVikinga there’s a del’s walking distance from my parents house (not a truck, a brick & mortar) and we walked there many a night after dinner growing up. nothing beats a del’s, classic lemon or cherry are my faves. always “stop at the sign of the frozen lemon”
@jerk_nugget Last time I enjoyed a Del’s was at the stand in Midddletown, RI, and few summers ago (and thank you for reminding me about the spelling. I knew it looked off). It was a rare treat for me because I swore off debbil simple carbs almost 2 decades ago. Hello, glucose drop, my old friend. I didn’t a sugar free option when I was there that summer, but I have a girlfriend who buys their make-at-home frozen lemonade mix in a sugar free version in bulk every time she visits family in the area. It’s close, but not quite, both in taste and mouthfeel.
I miss those days of chasing the truck in the summer, hanging out of the back window with the dog in our the family station wagon, eating crinkle cut french fries with malt vinegar and salt at the beach with its rocks instead of sand, trick-or-treating for full size candy bars with a pack of friends without parental oversight until we couldn’t walk another step, Zotz, Clackers made with glass, the original Lawn Darts…
I miss the magic of ordinary days.
@jerk_nugget @LaVikinga I hadn’t thought of Zotz in decades!
@blaineg @jerk_nugget Grape and cherry Zotz were my favorite.
@LaVikinga i keep meaning to try the make your own del’s, but in all these years i still haven’t yet! i guess because i know it won’t be exactly the same, but it can’t hurt to try. i should give it a go next time i’m home visiting. (perhaps they might even sell me some paper cups :))
malt vinegar on fries! another wonderful thing. my partner thought this was weird until i pointed out that his favorite flavor of potato chip is salt and vinegar, after all…
i saw a comment on a youtube video today that said something to the effect of, “all we wanted to do back then was grow up, and now that we’re grown up we wish we could go back.” ain’t that the truth.
I don’t remember.
Ice Cream trucks have been banned, in Des Moines, since 1967. A 9 year old girl was hit and killed, by an ice cream truck and even 40 years later, the idea of bringing back ice cream trucks got shot down, by the city council.
@TheCO2 One death shouldn’t warrant a whole city ban and the article says that she was hit by a car near the ice cream truck. That could happen if you were in the cross walk and you had the right of way.
@FearTheNoFear @TheCO2 unfortunately a typical knee-jerk reaction to a problem. Sad that the child was killed, but that’s a sort of “baby and bath water” issue to me.
@chienfou @FearTheNoFear The girl was running out to the ice cream truck. I was always under the impression she was hit by the truck, but maybe I heard wrong. And I agree, they blew it out of proportions, when they banned ice cream trucks permanently, over one incident.
As for why they won’t reinstate them is beyond me.
Chocolate Eclair Ice Cream Bar! I’ve been craving these for a week and haven’t gotten one yet.
Creamsicle push pop!
I’m new at this.
@blaineg Obviously that stick is just a counterweight.
Maybe not the best, but Toasted Almond bars were surprisingly great. But I voted for Choco Tacos, because they’re sublime.
@ahacksaw And best of all, they have no horrible wooden stick lurking in the middle of the delicious, deceptive frozen treat, waiting for its chance to scrape across my tongue. (shudder)
Life could be worse, I suppose.
@blaineg My wife’s grandma would tell her kids that when the ice cream truck plays music, it means they’re out of ice cream…you’re not alone.
@blaineg @FearTheNoFear oh that us EXACTLY what my parents did! Damn truck was ALWAYS out of ice cream
@FearTheNoFear Fortunately that’s just a meme, and not my actual childhood.
I can remember the ice cream trucks coming around occasionally, but they weren’t a frequent thing. But I did get some goodies.
Vanilla softie with rainbow or cookie crunch sprinkles!!
Rachel Bilson
Doodoodoo do do do dooooo …
screwball! i also loved chipwiches & my ice cream man would have cotton candy ice cream to scoop into a wafer cone. fond memories.
Meh.
One of my kids just reminded me our sketchy neighborhood ice cream truck plays a Christmas tune instead of the more traditional Turkey In The Straw or whatever it is trucks used to play.
@LaVikinga there was one driving around here playing Dashing Through the Snow last week. Took my brain quite a few seconds to register it.
Fried tacos!
Maybe that wasn’t technically an ice cream truck…
I have to revise my choice. The Astro Bar by local family shop Pace’s Dairy Ann. They are giant home-made popsicles, with at least double the flavor and stickiness of anything factory made.
Paces is now a 3rd generation family business, and they’ve been in the same location for 62 years. About the only thing that’s changed is the sign out front. They do burgers and dogs and such, but they’re famous for the Astro Bars.
One of the five original trucks has been restored, but just does parades.
@blaineg The “recipies” are “until it tastes right”.
https://www.deseretnews.com/article/239253/ASTRO-BARS-SHELF-LIFE-DEPENDS-ON-WHOS-HOME.html
I grew up ‘40 and plumb’ (40 miles from town, plumb up in the sticks) so I never saw an ice cream truck. We did have a little community store that had plenty of ice cream and other goodies. My favorite to this day is vanilla in a cup, eaten with the wooden spoon. The wood gave it extra flavor.
@tngrannyd Country folk 'round here used to have the Schwan’s truck as their ice cream truck.
/image schwan’s ice cream
@tngrannyd
and roughage…
Anything involving stale frozen peanuts is fully gross. I’m lookin’ at you, Drumstick.
@whogots bite your tongue, drumsticks are super delicious…well except for the stale peanuts. The caramel plug is so good!
@llyndon The caramel plug is pretty good.
Ice cream sandwich. No, push pop. No, ice cream sandwich. I CAN’T DECIDE!
Also, I took this selfie for Gishwhes back in the day. I call it “I Have a Dreamsicle”.
Really surprised Bomb Bop isn’t winning, and I’m totally shocked Drumstick is. I’d think it would have the most niche fanbase of them all!
In NYC ice cream trucks give you soft serve ice cream. You can get a cone with the two soft serve ears coming out of it dipped in hardening chocolate and sprinkles. That was my jam. These pre-wrapped icecreams i’m seeing are low tier.
Toasted almond
Strawberry shortcake bar. Duh. I could eat bowls of the crumble coating.
Screwball!
All this reminded me of frozen chocolate-covered bananas. I don’t think they were an actual store product, I mostly remember getting them at County fairs and the like back in Midwest, on a stick, of course. Everything at the fair was on a stick.
/image chocolate covered banana
ones we got weren’t quite that fancy, just banana, chocolate, stick,
@stolicat We used to make these at the shop when we had a Bresler’s Ice Cream franchise in the mid-80’s…
Nothing says summer like Pumpkin Spice ice cream sandwiches.
@mike808 kind of seems more like a fall flavor…
@chienfou @mike808
I have to add the Magnum Double Carmel as a current favorite.