the ding-ding man

the ding-ding man is a favorite at our house. he drives his truck up and down all the roads playing his fun little diddy. for no reason at all, other than to make people smile.

alright, so i lied to my kid about the ice cream man. i didn't think it would work again this year, but this spring i held my breath as the first ding-ding man of the season rounded the corner. E breaks out into this hilarious crazy dance shouting "the ding-ding man's coming! the ding-ding man's coming!"


that's right, he has no idea there is ice cream inside that van. lucky for me, the ghetto-looking kansas city ice cream vans look nothing like what's fantasized about in all the kiddie books.

i'm not a huge fan of the ding-di... uh, ice cream man anyway. i mean, it was just a few years ago he ran over our mail box. preying on sugar-crazed children and hungry parents mowing the lawn with their overpriced thawed-and-refrozen treats in the shape of spongebob. he did buy a couple bikes from our garage sale one year, but had to ask for a receipt so his boss wouldn't think he stole them again. really. i can't make this stuff up.


but the last time the ding-ding man came by he went too far. he stopped and sat and wouldn't budge as E was doing his ding-ding dance. we weren't making any motion as if we were searching for change or anything. in fact, i was doing my best to glare and make "get-moving" gestures. i could see the look on E's face change as he started to look at all the small pictures covering the truck. i did my best to distract him but i fear it may have been too little too late. finally the truck mosied on down the road and E didn't say a peep about the colorful pictures of clown-shaped ice cream. i think we squeaked by one more time!