For the seventh straight year, October is Dining Month on OnMilwaukee.com, presented by the restaurants of Potawatomi. All month, we're stuffed with restaurant reviews, delectable features, chef profiles and unique articles on everything food, as well as the winners of our "Best of Dining 2013."
Here comes the old man, "back in my day" speech...
But, seriously, back in my day, we had two ice cream trucks a day come down our block.
The Good Humor man in that classic while, boxy Good Humor truck arrived in the afternoon, selling cherry bombs, choc-o-nuts, zingo bars, candy center crunches, chocolate eclairs, ice cream sandwiches, strawberry shortcakes and the rest.
In the evening, maybe around 7:30, Mister Softee would roll down the street with its tall, blue and white truck, rockin’ its musical doodle and boasting a big ice cream cone mascot.
Mister Softee sold soft-serve cones and it was my favorite, though I was also a big fan of Good Humor’s cannon ball of orange sherbet in a conical plastic cup with a gumball in the point at the bottom.
The ice cream truck was a daily summer ritual, one that seemed non-negotiable. The sight or sound of it rounding the corner onto our block sent a couple dozen kids running toward their homes, shouting, "Can I get? Can I get?"
If we could get both Good Humor and Mister Softee on the same day, life was good.
Fast forward to today and I rarely see an ice cream truck. When I do, it looks to be extremely questionable. In fact, often it looks like it might be on its last drive, headed to the scrapyard.
They rarely look like the kind of ice cream truck the Fonz – who famously groused, and I paraphrase, "every time I get the truck up to 80, I gotta stop for a kid waving a dime" – might drive.
They never look like the kind of vehicle I want my kids waving their dimes at.
In fact, I can remember my kids buying something from an ice cream truck on our block exactly one time. Instead, we eat our ice cream at the table, out of bowls, with spoons.
While that might be good news for the obesity epidemic (though, that’s been on the rise since I was a kid, so maybe not), it’s certainly not good for my kids’ future sense of nostalgia.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
