The Ice Cream Mans Song

Salam

I've just come back from across the road. A few minutes ago that familiar tune rung across the street, echoing down the multitude of driveways and barrelling into peoples houses, finely tuned to seek out and call all the little children [and me]. So magnetic is this tune, that seconds later there is a crescendo of pitter-pattering feet running down the road in ice cold anticipation. Its a universal song. Play it in the depths of the darkest Amazonian jungle, across the cold flats of the Antarctic ice cap or through the darkened caves of Mongolia and you will get the same result. [Except in Afghanistan, where you will probably have your feet cut off and then be shot].

For a few minutes, real life stops and my street is plunged into a magical serenity of boundless opportunity, because the arrival of the Ice Cream man is no small deal. He is up there with Santa Claus and The Tooth Fairy. He is the legend, the enigmatic knight in shining armour, the provider of ice cream and his call is heard and obeyed. Riding in an elegant carriage on a cloud of diesel fumes, his Ice Cream Van coughs and splutters, on its last legs. God only knows how he managed to start the wreck.

So there I was, surrounded by a sea of munchkins.

A small dream for the childrens creative minds. It is wonderful that the Ice Cream Man can restore that creativity, showing them that in a world of adults, there still can be a small slice of fantasy. Just seeing their faces light up when they are queuing, realising that a true hero of endless icy delights awaits them, is enough to shed a tear.

But alas! In our ever-growing world, manifesting itself as a concrete jungle, the Ice Cream Man seems doomed to a destiny in shrouded in legend and myth. Not for long will this man be around. When the children forget about the Ice Cream Man; a sad day will that be. Our last living fairy tale will be forever forgotten.

Zaman Durani
Over 'n out