Why do many of us eat
less ice cream
and sweets today when
they are much
more
readily available?
Photograph, Daniel Jackson
One of the daily rituals at
Oxgangs Avenue
was the sight,
sound and smell of the regular ice cream
vans which visited us. There were vans which visited
on a daily basis and
others which were like swallows, arriving
in early summer and
departing at the start of autumn.
Our favourite
ice
cream van in Oxgangs was Tony's who ran his
business from a large, blue van. Tony wasn't his
real name; it was actually Mario.
Was
it his own business or did Mario
work
for
someone? Mario scored
a ten for his film star looks, dark hair
and
flashing brown
eyes-a bit like Seve Ballesteros;
however that dropped to perhaps a six or a seven
because when he
emerged
from
the van he was quite
tiny.
I only ever saw him from outside the
van from where
he looked down on us below,
so I
was never aware of his
diminutive height until years afterwards when
Les Ramage told me.
Mario was a lovely guy. He
had that great gift,
you always felt that when he served you,
that you were his favourite customer. His van
always looked quite classy and
clean.
The ice cream
was
good. In addition to the
ice
cream I went through long phases of buying Topics, and
also packets of Oddfellows. I
wouldn't thank you for the
latter
today,
quite medicinal.
For many years Tony's Ice Cream Van
appeared
at four o'clock
opposite
The Stair, on the
other side of the
road. This was nicely timed for just after school. And
then in the evening, the musical chimes could
be heard around seven o'clock, but now on The Stair's side where he parked
outside 4 Oxgangs Avenue. This was perfect
timing for a post tea, pudding.
The other ice cream van which
visited us regularly was Jola's-a most odd name.
There was less of a relationship
there; instead
it was more of a
transaction. The
ice
cream wasn't
particularly nice;
however we enjoyed the Payne's Poppets.
I naturally thought there was only one Jola‘s ice cream
van. However, on one
occasion at Morningside Road I
thought I was seeing
double-two stationary
Jola's vans were parked
in a
line. I guess they were taking
stock on board; one
served Oxgangs whilst the
other must have served another community.
The irregulars were Mr Bongo who
served
up bongos. These
were hard frozen
balls of ice cream
covered
in chocolate on the end of a stick. Paul Forbes told
us a
suspicious story about one
of the men who operated the
van.
The other more interesting
van
was
Mr Whippy who only seemed
to ply his trade in the
summer months.
He always kept the
van’s engine running.
The combination of diesel, the distinctive
ice cream and the summer heat
was
a powerful mixture. The ice cream was good and
it was magical to see the
way it emerged
from the tap
and the expert way the vendor curled
the ice cream on top of the cone.
Tara Cottage Garden, Jamestown, with ruined Free Church in background; early evening, Saturday, 22 September, 2012
|
d'Artagnan and Atticus on Pentland Hills-next stop, Lucas! 2005 |
Ice cream
vans are a rarity nowadays-particularly here in the Highlands where
I live today.
Occasionally,
on a quiet summer's evening, drifting across from Strathpeffer to
Jamestown
carried
on a zephyr breeze we hear the
sound of musical chimes.
About six years ago when visiting Mother at Stenhouse,
Edinburgh I got a lovely surprise to
see Mario
driving along in an
ice
cream van. This time
the van had his own name on it; although his hair was grey, he looked as handsome as ever. Atticus
and d’Artagnan
were both there and
were thrilled because they'd been
brought up hearing
about
the
novelty of ice cream
vans.
d'Artagnan and Atticus in Australia-on their way for an ice cream, January, 2006 |
So, today with fridges at home
and more disposable income
to spend on
bumper packs of sweets and chocolate, why
do some of us not eat
confectionery quite as often? Perhaps, it's because we no longer hear the
sound of Pavlovian musical
chimes to draw us in.
Postscript: Mario
Angelucci (‘Tony’)
died peacefully on 21, May,
2008
at St Columba’s Hospice.
Comment We were just reminiscing about Oxgangs at the Sunday dinner table Toni's real name was Mario Angelucci and I always remember him parking at Firrhill School and no matter what you never got any change if it was 10p or less, Toni would always throw down a couple of chews or something to round it off ! Happy Daze!
Comment We were just reminiscing about Oxgangs at the Sunday dinner table Toni's real name was Mario Angelucci and I always remember him parking at Firrhill School and no matter what you never got any change if it was 10p or less, Toni would always throw down a couple of chews or something to round it off ! Happy Daze!
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