Icecream Vans / Sellers

[peterg]

In response to Flojo I would say that I left Leeds early 1960, so I have no knowledge of the Treats factory. Does anyone remember the Lusardis or am I so old that all the others have gone before me?

[arry_awk]

I can always remember wondering how theWallsie man's tricycle tyres stayed inflated withall those half inch diameter 'holes' in their sides!Actually, the tyres were solid and the holes werealready moulded in to save weight!Weren't those triangular ices called 'Walls' Fruit Ices'?I can remember 'cringe-ing' at the end of the ice, when you sucked at the empty cardboard wrapper!Fair set yer teeth on edge!Brrrr! like sucking a hanky!PeterQI can only remember 'Linda' Lusardi from page 3 and alsoon 'Strictly come Dancing!' Phwoah! wonder if she isany relation?

[Penz]

Well, thanks to this site I'm now in contact with someone I worked with in the ice-cream trade 40 years ago. I live in Penzance and he's in Norfolk, but we've met up (complete with wives) for a drink & a meal and we are keeping in touch via phone and E-mail.So, thank you Secret Leeds.

[String o' beads]

peterg wrote: In response to Flojo I would say that I left Leeds early 1960, so I have no knowledge of the Treats factory. Does anyone remember the Lusardis or am I so old that all the others have gone before me? I recall a Mr & Mrs Lusardi who lived on Ebor Gardens until about the mid eighties. They were associated with the Italian origin ice cream trade.Can't remember if I've mentioned before but my childhood friend's Dad was a Mr Softee driver. The jingle was distinctive and if you put words to it, I was told, it was 'There is an ice cream man down your way, his name is Mr Softee'. Repeat ad infinitum. If we were still playing out when he finished we'd get an oyster shell each. [Great mate to have ]

[String o' beads]

Oh. And I don't think anyone's mentioned Brizzolara's.    

[FLOJO]

In 63/4 there was an ice cream van that would park outside CrossGates girls school and he also sold cornets with toffee in instead of ice cream thet lasted you fore ages and I think they were threepence, I have never seen them since.Oh the good old days.

[AngryofMayfair]

Tony Granelli was one of the Granelli Ice Cream family - I worked with him at Music Hire in the late 60's, refurbishing Juke Boxes & Fruit Machines.His family did have two ice cream stalls in Kirkgate Market and I think they are still there but no longer have Granelli signs...In the early 60's there was a small sweet shop on Tong Rd just down from The New Inn - they sold Walls round vanilla ice creams (rammed into short round stumpy cornets with a flat bottom) that had a lovely sort of golden-creamy outer (probably just from being old stock!) They also sold neapolitan sandwiches and frozen 4d Jubbly's - the triangular orange drink that you snipped the top off and sucked away at for hours. Then we always were left with bright orange coloured lips that took days to disappear....

[chameleon]

AngryofMayfair wrote: Tony Granelli was one of the Granelli Ice Cream family - I worked with him at Music Hire in the late 60's, refurbishing Juke Boxes & Fruit Machines.His family did have two ice cream stalls in Kirkgate Market and I think they are still there but no longer have Granelli signs...In the early 60's there was a small sweet shop on Tong Rd just down from The New Inn - they sold Walls round vanilla ice creams (rammed into short round stumpy cornets with a flat bottom) that had a lovely sort of golden-creamy outer (probably just from being old stock!) They also sold neapolitan sandwiches and frozen 4d Jubbly's - the triangular orange drink that you snipped the top off and sucked away at for hours. Then we always were left with bright orange coloured lips that took days to disappear.... Music Hire that was a thriving concern some years back - are they still going or developed some new guise?

[blackprince]

Bramley4woods wrote: wiggy wrote: does anyone remember the enormous pink mr whippy ice cream vans that used to be parked at the entrance to kirkgate market outside the kirkgate/back new york street doors?they had big plastic cornets on the front and were high at the front,sloping backwards.....what make were they...anyone know? The vans would have come from the Walls / Whippy depot at Limewood Approach Seacroft.I worked there unofficially in 1964 with a fellow student during the summer vacation. I can't remember who manufactured the vans exactly but I have a feeling they were built on a Bedford Commercial chassis. They were absolute sods to get started in the morning, whilst oddly the Walls vans, which were diesel were a doddle. As a last resort we would have to tow them round the yard with a Walls van 'till they started.The Whippy vans had a generator in the back driven by a tractor engine that ran on TVO, Tractor Vapourising Oil, (remember that smell of Kerosene ?) once they had been warmed up on petrol. This drove the soft ice cream whipping machine which was made in Italy, otherwise known as the Ooly-Ooly effort because of the unpronouncible name of it's Italian manufacturer.The generator also drove the compressors on the fridges for the lollies and solid ice cream products. The Walls vans on the other hand had "Eutectic" plates for cooling which were hollow metal plates full of an anti - freeze type gel (Like freezer packs) which were deep frozen overnight and could absorb enough heat during the day to keep the products frozen. -Just about, provided it wasn't too hot and you didn't forget to close the lids on the fridges. If your fridge started warming up and you were a long way from base on a Bank Holiday Monday say, your inventory of ice cream could be declared "Duff" when you got back to the depot. This could get you sacked. On the other hand if you came back early this had a big impact on your days earnings. A bedford ice cream van -like this

[blackprince]

Bedford Ice Cream van.