Ice-cream Man

Last Sun, I read Sunday Plus abt so many ice-cream men sprouting all over Orchard Road. Selling their block of ice-cream sandwiched between 2 wafer biscuits for $1. Cheap. They lamented that nowadays competition has became tougher, and their sales fell.

It reminded me of my kid days when I would wait eagerly for ice-cream man at home. He would peddle his ice-cream on his bicycle along the houses in my private housing estate. It was hard work. He was very old man and had to cycle from house to house under the hot sun. I respect him. I reminded my mom to watch out for him and asked her anxiously and non-stop if she can hear his honk. At the sound of his honk, I would run out of my house and stop him and buy from him.

Another reminiscence - As a little girl, when I stayed at my grandma's house for holidays in Penang, my cousins and I would watch out for snacks man hawking his snacks on his motorcycle. He was Indian man. We ran down the hill ( my grandma's house was situated on a hill.) and stopped him. Opened the snack box perched on his motorcycle. Not only snacks for kids, he hawks bread too - plain and coloured. My neighbours would walk out of their houses and buy bread from him.

But now, the snack man is no longer pedding snacks and bread. The ice-cream man was gone too. Instead of waiting for him at home, I have to walk to McDonald or some gelato shop near my home. The ice-cream at that gelato shop is quite pricey. Cannot expect the upmarket gelato to be cheap like $1.

posted by Sleek Black @ 3/01/2006 02:20:00 PM