Stuff That Scares Me: The Ice-Cream Van!

It's almost funny sometimes when I think of things that scare me but really shouldn't.

Take the ice-cream van for example: the first time I heard it I wasn't sure what it was (I grew up in France) so I looked out my window and I saw it: two waves of kids first running into their houses, probably to ask for money so they could buy an ice-cream, the second wave made up of the same children spilling out of their houses and running towards the ice-cream van.

I thought it was kind of cute, in an old-fashioned way at first, but then that damn ice-cream van started coming every day and there was no way I would allow my kids to go and buy an ice-cream every single day, not even if I could afford it!

From now on, when I hear the music of the ice cream van playing in my street, all I can think of is the horde of overweight children galloping towards one of their daily sugar fixes and inevitably succombing to heart disease.

Don't get me wrong: I think an ice-cream treat is fine from time to time, just no every single day; I love ice-cream too (mmm, yummy mint ice-cream with chocolate chips!). Anyway, would those kids ask for ice-cream every time they passed a shop that sells ice-cream? Probably not. Do the ice-creams that come out of a musical van taste better than shop-bought ones? Probably not either. It's an evil mind that hides behind the friendly face of the ice-cream van driver our children love. Not that they intentionally set out to give our children heart disease; just like drug dealers, ice-cream van drivers can't see past money.

So maybe my irrational fear of the ice-cream van music is not so irrational after all.