Friday, March 27, 2009

Ice Cream Truck Cacophony

Everyday here in West Phoenix, starting about 2:30pm, the dilapidated ice cream trucks circle the neighborhood, blasting (about 75 dB A) their songs to lure children to buy frozen treats. The songs range from Christmas carols, to the Mexican Hat Dance, to the "Constance" song that Todd, Harry, Andrew, Phillip and Winthorpe sang in "Trading Places". It is a bizarre cornucopia of sounds. Since the roads in my neighborhood are curved in a nautilus like shape, and my home is at the center of the phragmocone's camerae, the episodes of repetitively blared songs sometimes take the better part of an hour to dissipate. On weekends, one can count on hearing ice cream truck songs the better part of the day. With 1 out of 3 homes vacant, and 1/2 of the inhabited ones with renters in them, I really don't understand how these truck operators make any money, but they keep trolling.

2 comments:

  1. 75 dB? i suspect it's actually much higher than that!

    ReplyDelete
  2. 75 in my back yard, 100 or so adjacent to the old rickety white van, that looks like Borat (and his bear) or John Wayne Gacy or a Pervatasaur could be driving it.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.