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On the topic of ice cream trucks and monopolies, has anybody else seen the South Pico Armored Ice Cream Truck? My best guess is that Los Angeles hands out its
by jasonkester 6y ago
On the topic of ice cream trucks and monopolies, has anybody else seen the South Pico Armored Ice Cream Truck?
My best guess is that Los Angeles hands out its popsicle man contract to a single vendor with the caveat that they are required to serve the entire city, not just the profitable bits. That way every kid can get a fudgecicle on a sunny day.
That's the only way I can explain what I saw in the neighborhood south of Pico, near Little Ethiopia, where Mo' Betta Meaty Meat Burgers used to be.
Now if you don't know the area, there are a whole bunch of really cool houses dating back to around the time the movie Snow White came out, many with whimsical little turrets and minarets like little fairy tale castles. It's a pleasant neighborhood to walk around for an afternoon.
North of Pico, that is.
Immediately South, the lawns grow knee high, bars appear on windows, and the walkability declines... significantly. Mortally, perhaps. But there are houses there that could conceivably house children. So the Ice Cream must flow.
And one day in July, I saw what was clearly an Ice Cream truck, but with steel grill plates welded over all the windows with a little slot cut out with a torch that could theoretically be used to pass an ice cream sandwich through. That is, were it not weaving along at 45 miles an hour (playing its jolly tune as stipulated in the contract), then careening around a corner on two wheels to high tail it out of there.
It was the missing scene from Mad Max. The ice cream man of the apocolypse.
10 years later, I'm starting to doubt whether I really saw it.
But I did.
- JdeBP 6y agoIf you've never heard of the Glasgow Ice Cream Wars, now is the time to look them up. (-:
- isoprophlex 6y agoWhat a fantastic piece of writing, your post. I really want to see a picture of an armored ice cream truck now. Edit: thanks reddit... https://i.redd.it/if0b8pvl0yn31.jpg https://i.redd.it/if0b8pvl0yn31.jpg
- jasonkester 6y agoNice find. That looks like it must be the Mk. II version, starting with a proper armored car and working backward until ice cream can come out. The one I saw started life as a little willys postal jeep conversion, and ended up looking like somebody had trapped the A-Team with it in a welding shop filled with plate steel for long enough for the music to play. I'll post a photo if I can find one.
- runnr_az 6y agoPossibly related. Ice cream is a pretty rough way to make money, but it’s all cash. More than a few of them sell drugs.
- athms 6y agoNo different than the fast food places in certain neighborhoods of Los Angeles. I entered a KFC that had plexiglass partitions on the inside, from the counter to the ceiling, with a slide out tray were you put the money and the cashier puts your food. The bathrooms were locked and you needed a key that was attached to a five pound weight. All that for some mac-n-cheese and a coleslaw. These anti-theft methods now seem normal with the pandemic.
- fortran77 6y agoThe City of Philadelphia famously wanted to outlaw bullet-proof partitions in businesses. https://www.snopes.com/uploads/2017/12/Bill-No.-17096301-As-Amended.pdf https://www.snopes.com/uploads/2017/12/Bill-No.-17096301-As-...