Ice Cream In The Family

In my last post I mentioned an ice cream making family business that has been in operation for over 100 years - Luchini's homemade ice cream in the English Lake District. That is just one example of many families around the world whose passion for making their own ice cream has been passed on from generation to generation.

Another way in which I have come across a family tradition connected with ice cream is when I have read about famous people who seem proud to mention their family having had an ice cream business or operating an ice cream truck. Two such people whom I've written about before in a Blog Of Ice Cream are:

1. Ronnie O'Sullivan - last autumn I had just read the autobiography of this snooker genius and in the book I was struck by a photograph of him as a young boy sat on the bonnet of an ice cream truck which was run by his family.

2. Anthony Minghella the Oscar winning movie director who sadly died last year was from a family with a long established ice cream business.

Read about both of these in my Tradition of the Ice Cream Man post.

This week it was the anniversary of the death of a famous British comedian, Tommy Cooper, who sadly died on stage during a performance 25 years ago. Amongst the press, tv and radio tributes to him and to his life, I picked up on a point that was mentioned more than once - about ice cream. Apparently, Tommy's parents used to operate an ice cream van, selling ice cream to the public at fairgrounds; Tommy also claimed he would sometimes even help sell ice cream from one of the windows of their house. Thankfully, Tommy did not take up a career as an ice cream salesman, for whilst he would probably have made a success of it, I believe he made the world a far better place by allowing us to share in his natural, comic genius.

I must share with you one of his best loved jokes which involved ice cream and a Knickerbocker Glory ....

So I went down my local ice cream shop, and said:
"I want to buy an ice-cream."
"Hundreds & thousands?" said the ice cream man
"We'll start with one." I said
"Knickerbocker Glory?"said the ice cream man
"Well, I do get a certain amount of freedom in these trousers, yes."

The ice cream world's loss was truly the real world's gain. Thank you Tommy Cooper.

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!