The Tradition Of The Ice Cream Man

Being an ice cream man is not the most common or popular of jobs these days and when you stop and talk to one you usually find it's been a family business for years. There are many such families with a tradition of ice cream making or selling. Indeed, there are a few famous people from just such a family background.

The genius snooker player Ronnie O'Sullivan 's family once ran an ice cream business. I recently read Ronnie's autobiography which our friends Don and Shirley (the sonic horns business people) gave to our son as a birthday present. In the book there's a wonderful photograph of a young Ronnie O'Sullivan (about 8 or 9 years old) sat on the bonnet of his family's ice cream truck.

The great, Oscar winning movie director Anthony Minghella (famous for 'The English Patient') who sadly died earlier this year, was also from such a background, his parents having been immigrants from Italy. The family has a long established ice cream business: Minghella's Ice Cream which produce from their own ice cream factory on the Isle of Wight in the UK.

Our local ice cream man is Gerry who's been doing the job for over 30 years he tells me. I pass his ice cream truck (photo on my web page about ice cream trucks) once or twice a week on the road coming out of town and last time I spoke with him he agreed to do an interview for me. Sadly, I've yet to get round to doing that but it's still 'on the agenda'. The life of an ice cream man is going to make for great reading. I can't wait!