My neighborhood is filthy with ice cream trucks. During the summer, it’s not uncommon to see four to six of them roaming the streets from noon to 8pm. Generally, I don’t have a problem with them. I like ice cream. I also like our Rhode Island favorite, frozen lemonade, which they all sell. What I do have a problem with is the way they announce their presence.

It used to be that ice cream trucks would ring a loud bell to call the children to the curb. There still is one in the neighborhood that does that, but for the most part they have these crappy musical horns. Those things should be banned for a multitude of reasons. First off, they sound like shit. Second, they have Christmas music built in. Third, these dumb asses driving the ice cream trucks don’t bother to exclude the Christmas songs from the playlist.

Don’t get me wrong, I like a good Christmas carol in season. I seriously do not need to hear them from mid-May through late-September. I fear that all this overexposure to them may ruin them for me come the holiday season. Only time will tell. In the mean time, I’d like all the ice cream truck drivers of Providence to start playing Michael Hearst’s Songs for Ice Cream Trucks.