As every year passes in the West new innovations and changes in how people go about their daily lives chip away at the old guard little by little. There was a time when we took wax discs and put them on a spinning turn table and then placed an arm with a stylus attached to it on to the disc in order to play music, now we put cd’s into a player. It’s funny because people graduating from high school this year have never known any other way.

It becomes nostalgia to those of us that are older,  and watching these things pass before our eyes is sometimes a little sad. One summer ritual that every kid in America looked forward too when I was growing up was chasing down the ice cream man when you heard his bells or music from just over the next block. Once we caught up with him we would then spend our time going over the many choices there were and counting our change.

Slowly but surely the ice cream man and his trucks are disappearing from suburbia and American culture, replaced by specialty ice cream shops and convenience stores. There are still a few still roaming the streets in search of children and their change but they are few and far between. Their trucks are ancient and in need of serious beautification and with gas prices what they are the ones left on the job are making fewer and fewer rounds.

Not so in Thailand. In Thailand you see all manner of ice cream trikes peddling their wares in every city. Some are using motor cycles and others using bicycles with brightly colored ice boxes fixed to them. What once was lost is found again. It’s nice to see that Thailand shares some traditions with the West and they are still going strong. Everyone loves ice cream and the Thai version of the ice cream truck is much more economical.

Nothing lasts forever and this too will probably pass one day in Thailand too. But it’s a nice sight to see when slowly but surely those old familiar friends disappear from western life.

I know one little girl that still gets excited and quickly checks her change when she sees the ice cream man coming and hopefully she’ll be chasing the Thai ice cream man down for a long time to come.

Long live the Thai ice cream man!