Also (I think)
should refer to the
ice cream truck that you
hear constantly but never actually
see.
My neighbourhood has one. It's a hot day, you could really do with a soft-serve cone, and the soft tinkly music wafts in through the open window. The truck is about!
Time passes, with silence, and then the music is LOUD! It's close! Grab your wallet, and sprint out the door, perhaps shouting "iiiiiiceeeeee creeeeeeeeeeeam!!!!". Look around the street. Where is it? There's the music again! It's so loud, WHERE IS IT?
One of several things will happen:
- You'll catch the briefest of glimpses as the truck races past. Dammit.
- You'll never actually see it, the music haunting and tormenting you with the promise of frozen dairy treats you'll never possess.
- You'll come out the door just in time to see the truck RIGHT OUTSIDE. And it drives off. Shit.
- You'll come out the door just in time to see the truck RIGHT OUTSIDE. And you get your icky creem.
Of course, this becomes all the more annoying when you go down to the corner store for a newspaper, and there's the truck there, sitting, waiting. And you don't want any ice cream, but IT'S RIGHT THERE! WHY NOT? WHY NOW? I DON'T WANT YOU NOW!
Going back to my local truck, his jingle is 'Greensleeves', and sometimes he plays it so slowly that the mournful pace makes you want to cry and shower the poor man with money trying to eke out a living selling his simple iced goodies from his humble (and fume-belching) van. And then (presumably) he makes a sale, and he cranks the tempo up, and it makes you feel like dancing with glee.
I'm such a child. A child with a university degree.
EDIT: In memory of the deleted node above, which I found charming.