Jolly Joe, The Ice Cream Man Drawing

Awhile back, I had posted a story about the ice cream man from my past.  I had written the story for a children’s writing class and when I did this, memories came flooding back to me.  It made me want to search Jolly Joe and see if I could find out who he was and his past or something.  I could find nothing on the man.

I wanted to be able to give this story to him or his family to let them know that he was indeed a special man and many people remembered him (just look at my post on him). I recently painted this picture of what I could remember how the truck looked with the bell and asked a local paper if they would put this in the paper with hope of finding someone that knew him, hopefully even a family member.  It should be in the Warwick Beacon soon.  Hopefully this brings me to someone…anyone that knew him.

But for now, here is the picture of Jolly Joe. Enjoy!

Jolly Joe The Ice Cream Man

 

I had put it in a format for submitting t children’s book publishers, but had no illustrations to go with it.

Retro-look Ice Cream Picture

Just finished this picture.  It was so much fun!  I took a picture of my son who was about 6 here, and turned him into a retro-look ice cream advertisement sign.  Retro is in  and this is what made me try this.  His face is so cute, he could sell mud pies!  Think I will make him into a flag!

Anyway, I would love to do my daughters now. Caitlin could do pies, and Kelsey…cupcakes or cookies.  So much fun!

Retro look Ice Cream Sign

 

Penny Candy (A Trip Down Memory Lane)

Hi all!  I was just sitting here thinking, “What can I write about?”, when I thought of a conversation I had with my husband in the car the other day.  It was about going to the bakery as a kid (which would be 1950′s to 1960′s),  buying penny candy and filling up a small paper bag.  Then we both started naming all the candy we could remember.

Okay, here goes…the first that comes to mind is Squirrel Nuts, which were so chewy my teeth would stick together and  thought I would break my jaw as I tried to chew. They were too good, so I’d just keep placing them in my mouth.  Yes, yes…candy necklaces, which I wore (nerd) and candy dots on paper, which I think I ate my share of paper that stuck to the undersides.  Okay, Flying Saucers, you know, the candy that tastes like the church wafers, only slightly flavored with candy beads inside!  Still don’t know why they couldn’t give these out every Sunday at church instead.  Sorry .

Sky Bars were my favorite, 4 surprise creams in a bar. Yum!

Ok,  remember those wax bottles filled with sugary liquid???  I shudder now when I think of eating or swallowing that liquid and how sweet it was.  They were kind of like the energy shots of today!

There were Razzles, the candy that was also a gum…genius!  Pop rocks, rock candy, milk duds, caramel creams!  Oh yes, atomic fireballs!  They were so hot when you first put them in your mouth, it made your eyes water, until you got used to it.  Then they were just sweet and you had to bite them, take them out of your mouth and look at all the layers it had inside!!!  So cool!  When it was done, the experience was so cool, you had to do it all over again.

The coconut  3 striped candy, neopolitans.  Jelly Nougats, Chunkys, Ice Cubes,chuckles, necco wafers.  I could go on and on.

But the last is the absolute best…..W A X   L I P S!  Come on, there wasn’t a cooler candy around.  First you could wear them and make everyone laugh (just see photo below of my kids trying them out when they were younger).  Then after that you could place them in your mouth and chew it like a gum!  The flavor was irresistible!  Like a sweet vanilla or something.  Oh, take me back, I can’t stand it!  Why did everything seem more awesome when we were little!

Come to think of it, do you remember caps and cap guns.  You didn’t even need the gun really, just a big rock.  You slam the rock down on the cap and “Bang!”.  Then you pick up the red burnt paper and you did ,what????  Yes,  you’d smell it!  Oh, the sweet smell of sulfur!

And then the “Snakes”.  These were always available around the 4th of July. They were black tablets you lit a match to, and it grew an ash snake that looked like it was alive as it coiled around…Oh my God!  I guess this is going to have to be another post!!!  I keep remembering stuff, see what you made me do!

Oh well, I hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane, or Candy Lane, I should say.  Hey wait, that sounds sort of like Candy Land.  Remember the game Candy Land???  I loved that game …with all those yummy pictures and neat candy names!  And then there’s the Mystery Date game???

Wait!!!  Stop!  Stop!

I gotta go….Bye!

My Mick Jagger look alike kids with their wax lips