I am totally not kidding when I say that all I wanted to be when I was a kid was an ice cream man. I was fascinated with them. It's a long running joke in my family that I could hear the music from 5 miles away (totally true.) Heck I used to want to buy something from the ice cream man every single day even if I had a stockpile of previous purchases in the freezer from days before.
When we would draw those "what do I want to be when I grow up" pictures in school, everyone else would say that they wanted to be a firefighter, a doctor, vet, policeman, etc.....not your boy. Ice cream man was always the answer. I think I might still have some of those drawings if I dig deep enough.
Obviously I did not fulfill that dream (not yet at least) but If I DID, this is how I would want to go out. A giant funeral procession with all of my ice cream truck colleagues sending me out with one final run down the block. I haven't seen an ice cream truck on the block anywhere around Pittsburgh in years....maybe it's my time to revive the tradition and live out my dream? If I make it happen, give me this procession and bury me in push pops, cotton candy bars, and the spongebob ice cream characters with the awful black gumballs that turn your mouth black.
RIP to this Ice Cream man