Good humor ice cream truck drivers#
Good humor ice cream truck series#

Drivers had to work long hours jumping in and out of the driver’s seat to make their rounds and vend the product. The life of a salesperson must have been pretty rough though. These trucks with their distinctive bodies must have been just the thing to make kids of all ages dig into their pockets to pay for a cool treat on a sweltering hot day. Too bad that the tradition couldn’t continue. Becoming a legend of their own, the trucks were a symbol of the company even after insurance woes and high fuel prices drove the products to only a grocery store and independent contractor existence. The operation was so well organized that vendors were trained for three days on the proper way to sell Good Humor products. After bribing the patent office with a five-gallon pail of ice cream bars, he got his patent and his business grew from the original twelve trucks to a fleet of thousands of trucks, carts, and even flocks of unique tricycles with coolers on the front. Always looking for a way to make money, Burt came up with a radical concept of a bar of ice cream covered in a layer of chocolate and frozen to a stick. With a buy it now price of $65,000, is there a well-heeled ice cream lover out there ready to put on a white uniform and fulfill their destiny as the next Good Humor Man?Īccording to their website, Good Humor was started in 1920 by confectioner Harry Burt.

The 800-pound gorilla of ice cream sales was Good Humor, and the company built up their business by using semi-customized trucks like this 1966 Ford currently for sale here on eBay. Thank goodness the ice cream was pre-packaged! Up north, the ice cream sellers had a bit more class. Running them were guys in dirty T-shirts who looked as if they didn’t have running water at home and were allergic to soap. Post Office vehicles that had seen their better days. Where I grew up, all the ice cream trucks were old decrepit step vans or former U.S. Were they the best ice cream products in the world? Arguably, no - but they certainly served their purposes and remain nostalgic to me to this day.Nothing makes kids pour out of a neighborhood in zombie-like fashion than an ice cream truck. These favorites are still available today - if you can find them and if you do not mind your wallet or purse being lightened by several dollars. …while Mister Softee offered vanilla and chocolate soft ice cream in either a cup, a sundae, or an edible cone - as well as milk shakes and floats. Popular flavors of Good Humor included toasted almond, chocolate éclair, and strawberry shortcake - all of which were offered on a wooden stick… Photograph ©2021 by Brian Cohen.

Good humor ice cream truck series#

The photographs of the trucks which are featured in this article almost exactly resemble the ones which came down the street in Brooklyn on which I lived as a boy: the Good Humor man always rang a series of four or five silver bells - which were located inside the windshield above where the rear view mirror would be - with a thin rope with which he reached from the driver’s seat while the Mister Softee truck repeatedly played its familiar theme song. Freezer Fresh would show up in their bright green trucks offering soft ice cream - they no longer exist but although their ice cream was acceptable, it was considered second rate - but the most sought-after hard ice cream was Good Humor and the most popular soft ice cream which somewhat resembled what was sold at stationary Carvel ice cream stands and shoppes was the mobile Mister Softee. Three ice cream companies competed for customers. Trucks came down the street all day long every day from spring to fall with assorted rides, beverages, milk - and yes, ice cream. Growing up as a boy in Brooklyn, I did not need to leave the street on which I lived to have my fix of various items. Sunday Morning Photograph March 20 2022: Vintage Ice Cream Trucks. Spring starts today, Sunday, Maat 11:33 in the morning Eastern Daylight Time in the northern hemisphere - and along with the warmer weather, longer days, and budding flora, the renewed popularity of that venerable sweet frozen treat known as ice cream heralds in the season as winter leaves for another year.