Number 211: Shel Silverstein "Ice Cream Stop"

Ice Cream Stop

The circus train made an ice cream stop
At the fifty-two flavor ice cream stand.
The animals all got off the train
And walked right up to the ice cream man.
“I’ll take Vanilla,” yelled the gorilla.
“I’ll take Chocolate,” shouted the ocelot.
“I’ll take Strawberry,” chirped the canary.
“Rocky Road,” croaked the toad
“Lemon and Lime,” growled the lion.
Said the ice cream man, “Til I see a dime,
You’ll get no ice cream of mine.”
Then the animals snarled and screeched and growled
And whinnied and whimpered and hooted and howled
And gobbled up the whole ice cream stand,
All fifty-two flavors
(fifty-three with the ice cream man).

-- Shel Silverstein

Hap Notes: Yay! It's Saturday. And everybody likes ice cream, yes? I love the way Silverstein gets rhymes for each animal. Always nice to take a little break after a long poem by Shelley, eh?

Here is a bit of Saturday ice cream fun.

Here's an 80s ad for ice cream cone cereal. Do you remember this cereal?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DVCKuBntEQ

Then we have Tootsie Roll Ice Cream bars... another thing I never knew about...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEqP01w8bzo

Have you ever heard of spaghetti ice cream? I honestly thought this was a joke but it's not:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY66CyTUvMo&feature=related

No ice cream mention would be complete without the Buckwheat Boys- I believe Baskin and Robbins used this for an ad:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC_gkcplz_4&feature=related

And the Buckwheat Boys cultural contribution to the internet-- the infamous Peanut Butter Jelly Time:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8MDNFaGfT4

Here's a short explanation about these cultural blips:

knowyourmeme.com/memes/peanut-butter-jelly-time