Remember the mailman in the movie Funny Farm?

That guy has nothing on our ice cream dude. For two years Maggie has been trying to catch that guy and only with moderate success.

The first year she waited patiently on the couch staring out the front window. The truck would come up the street and she would begin shrieking to alert anyone in the house with cash that the ice cream truck was approaching. It usually took Kate or Ethan to stop the guy while Maggie booked it up the stairs to raid the drawer where Mike keeps his wallet.

The next summer she attempted to throw herself in front of the truck. By the 4th of July she was looking to have someone smuggle in bottle rockets from Mexico.

Personally, I never knew ice cream trucks could go that fast. When I was growing up a fat kid on a scooter with a flat tire could lap the ice cream truck once, maybe even twice.

But this ice cream dude? He’s like Maverick and Goose doing a fly-by.

We started stocking the freezer with big sticks, otter pops, and ice cream because we don’t have an ice cream man, we have an ice cream ninja.

School starts, the weather cools off and the ice cream ninja disappears. But his memory never fades.

Last night, about a block away we heard the faint music of the ice cream truck. Maggie was sitting at the table eating a bowl of cookies n’ cream ice cream. It had been months since we had heard an ice cream truck. As if she were in a hypnotic trance, Maggie dropped her spoon. Her eyes widened and she shrieked, “ICE CREAM MAN!!!!!” I worried she might forget she was sitting at the table and break her neck bolting for the front door.

The music got farther away and Maggie’s little face drooped. She picked up her spoon and went back to her ice cream. Just then we heard it again, coming around the corner and down our street. Ethan ran for the front door (brotherly devotion is sweet) and Mike ran for his wallet. I looked out the front window just in time to catch a white blur flying past the house.

That’s when Maggie started swearing… a lot.

At this point I don’t even think she cares about the ice cream. She just wants to get a hold of the guy driving the truck. God help him if she succeeds.