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The Ice Cream Man

  • Thread starter Thread starter Frantic
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Frantic

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I remember when the first Ice Cream Man started coming round.....what an adventure.....we drove our parents nuts well before "Greensleaves" finally pushed dad over the edge. Some of the neighbours were particularly curious about the musical van, and every time it came down the road, they would come out and watch. I was a budding Rock and Roll star in those days, so I recorded the van chimes on my 'Telefunken' reel to reel, opened the window and hid my guitar amplifier behind the curtain. With a flick of a switch I could get half the street out at once ;D.......So you see folks.......I've always been like this :2funny: :2funny:
 
I remember when the Walls ice cream man came around the streets on a bike with a fridge on the front.

He used to unwrap a bar of icecream kept in greaseproof paper and put it between two wafer biscuits,beautiful.
 
You know Alberta I had forgotten those icecreams wrapped in paper, they were just oooooooooooooh............... I can taste them. :)
 
Those were the days
f8nicecream.gif
 
I know that this is a traitorous statement, but I don't think you can beat real Cornish ice cream made with clotted cream. It would be worth the trip back to get one. Yuuummmmm. :smitten:
 
Just like Aston, I too remember the ice-cream cartons with the little spoons. Fantastic.
 
I seem to remember some ice cream which I think was Lyons or Lyons Maid which was round and was wrapped in paper or carboard before it was put in the cone. (It tasted delicious).
 
Yes Sylvia, there as a little shop on the corner of Park Lane & Upper Thomas Street that used to sell the Lyons Ice Cream wrapped as you say, used to buy one on the way back from an afternoon flick at the ASTORIA.
 
The little tubs of ice cream, used to fold the lid over and use it as a scoop. ::)
 
My mom had a couple of what you could describe as eye wash glasses,only with a small indention in rather than a bowl I remember being told these were "penny lick"glasses.In Victorian times ice cream was sold loose and one of these glasses would contain 1 penny's worth of ice cream,which would be returned to the vendor when you had finished,seems they went out of fashion due to hygiene reasons

Colin
 
My big sisters used to have ice-creams wafers wrapped in paper - I got the papers to lick. :'(
Fran, I reckon Henley-in Arden ice- cream teks a bitta beating see https://tinyurl.com/qgf8u

The best stuff I've had recently was much closer to home in the tea room of Forge Mill Farm, near Sandwell Valley. Trouble is I think it was made with one of the Channel Islands' creams.

Just for Robert ->
f8nicecream.gif
 
Alf, the  cardboard lids used to go soggy & you finished up having to us your fingers if you had not asked for a spoon.I some time used to take my own to the Victoria Play House Saturday Matinees
::)
 
The lids of the tubs were waxed and you doubled them over as Postie said, before the days of the wooden spoons. :)

The man in the photo probably had the penny licks on his cart.
 
Yes Alfie, it must be, complete with those iron railings. It's a shame the photo didn't get him as well. :)
 
Hello. Don`t know if you`ll be able to help. I`m looking for an ice cream man who used to sell round the great barr area in the 1970`s. Name was david. Believe he was married with children. Possibly in his 60`s-70`s now. Thanks
 
Another photo from our family album - early 1940s/1950s Ice Cream van in Cavandale Avenue, looks almost DIY, can't make out the full name on the van, but he's just made a sale. I don't know what make van it is but a nice opening windscreen and modified to allow standing in the back.

Ice_Cream_Van_1950.jpg
 
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Tonibell ice creams - he used to come into the road with Booby Shaftoe playing and was the best ice-cream round!!!
Used to love the nougat wafers and oyster shells too, had one on holiday in Rhyl in the summer and I am sure they are about a third of the size they used to be.
And the platic footballs filled with ice cream with a lid in them and spoon inside, can't remember what they were called, you tried to collect the different colours of them.
As a treat on holiday at Sandy Bay in Exmouth, we used to have a banana split - I can taste it now - but not the same today!
Sue
 
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When I was a child we had a corner shop, we sold Walls icream. But what did I crave? The ice-cream cones that were sold from an Italian man who came around once a week in his van. My mum flatly refused to give me the coppers for the delicious cornet, she used to say no I am not paying for icecream when we already sell it! So I would sneek out when she wasn't looking and buy one! Heaven in a cornet
 
Not sure when but either the late 40s or early 50s around Warstock the ice cream man in a van was called Mc.Nabs, was fantastic ice cream to us kids.
 
An Italian man used to cycle around Aston before the war, he had a box on the front with the ice cream in it. We used to run after him singing, 'Oh no Antonio he's gone away, left me on my ownio, all on my onio, I'd like to meet him with his new sweatheart, and up would go Antonio with his ice cream cart.' Regards, David
 
Bliss used to be on a Saturday (after skating at the Embassy Roller rink) an ice-cream floater sold in a shop a few doors away from the rink made with Dandelion and Burdoch and topped with ice-cream.......Heaven in a glass.
 
On Sunday my Grandson asked if I remembered penny-licks, they were before my time but Mum told me about them years ago. They didn't seem very hygienic as they didn't wash them apparently!
I've always wanted one of those Knickerbocker Glories that they show on old American movies!! The one I had recently was just ice-cream and strawberry sauce.
 
I remember the Tonibell ice cream van that came around Alum Rock in the 1970's, I won a Blue Peter annual in a colouring competition once by handing in some leaflet to 'Uncle Steve' !! I seem to remember the Tonibell vans being blue and then at some stage changing to pink...I'm sure I'm not imagining that, if someone could confirm this for me please !!
 
Rob Scott said:
I remember the Tonibell ice cream van that came around Alum Rock in the 1970's, I won a Blue Peter annual in a colouring competition once by handing in some leaflet to 'Uncle Steve' !! I seem to remember the Tonibell vans being blue and then at some stage changing to pink...I'm sure I'm not imagining that, if someone could confirm this for me please !!
Click to expand...

There are millions of pink Tonibell vans featured on Google but apart from the model toy variety there doesn't seem to be any of the earlier blue vehicles at all. That's the point of re-branding though: the old has to get vapourised in order to favour the new.

Here's a comprehensive feature on the ice cream vans of old, including how "Tonibell" got its name
https://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk/icecreamvans.htm




 
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