As I was walking to lunch during work yesterday, the ice cream truck rolled down the street. And with sudden, stunning clarity, it occurred to me that driving an ice cream truck has to be just about the worst job in the entire world.Your job is to be out when the weather is its hottest and most oppressive. You're driving constantly. You're driving an oversized vehicle. You're driving a vehicle that with open windows, so air-conditioning is not really an option.
You're in customer service. And your customers are unruly children looking for a sugar rush. There will be no tipping for your food service.
No doubt you're on constant watch by over-protective parents. Slip up in the smallest way just once, and you can guarantee some angry mother or father is going to be calling to report you.
You probably drive the same "beat" every time you go out, monotonously traversing the same area time after time. And no doubt some routes are better than others. But surely the people with seniority get the choice routes through the good neighborhoods. If you've got a totally ghetto route, you're probably stuck with it.
And last, but certainly not least -- the music. I worked retail at a store in a shopping mall as a part time job through college. Every Christmas season, the holiday music would start up in the mall, louder than the normal elevator music by far, and on a loop that only lasted about five or six hours. The same songs would play day after day after day -- and some of them you got to hear more than once a day. Well... imagine hearing the same single song on a loop that repeats about every 10 seconds, all day long.
Some level of hell has got to be driving an ice cream truck for all eternity.
7 comments:
At least he's getting paid for the work he's doing...
How is air conditioning not an option in an ice cream truck? There quite obviously has to be some form of cool somewhere.
You pretty much described the work of a letter carrier. Except take away the kids (add dogs or elderly looking for the S.S. checks), take away the music (but add winter weather and the threat of co-workers going postal).
I'd still take the ice cream truck... at least there you could eat your product. I don't think junk mail tastes that good.
Wouldn't dropping a bomb pop down your pants be enough to cool you off? Would you have to pay for it?
Heh. Ask Bojo what they call the ice cream truck in his house. Oh heck, I'll tell you. It's the "music truck". You're not allowed to approach it, just listen to the wonderful music it brings. :)
Touche about the refrigeration, bishop -- but I doubt the whole truck is one big freezer. Sure, the ice cream's riding pretty, but I think the driver's in a sweat box with open windows.
Oh I totally agree, but if I was getting paid what they get paid and I was hot, I'd pull over and hang out in the freezer for a few.
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