Summers when we were in grade school were memorable. So many fun things to do. We knew summer wasn't too far away when, on May 1, it was official that we were allowed to go barefoot. What a great feeling! Fresh green grass under your feet. And when summer came, lots of joys lay ahead including playing softball, showers with the hose, bicycles, walks to the bookmobile for books, slumber parties during the week, VBS, and ... ahhh, the ice cream man on hot summer afternoons. Although there wasn't money for ice cream every day, that didn't keep us from waiting for the ice cream man each day just to check with him and make sure he didn't have a "free sample." The answer was always the same. Sorry, no free samples. That is, until one hot day, my sister and I had walked several blocks to visit a friend. We were headed home and heard the music in the distance. He's somewhere in this area. Decision made: let's see if we can catch up to him and, you guessed it ... let's see if he has a free sample for us. We ran hard and by the time we found our friendly ice cream man,
we were panting and out of breath and, I'm sure we were quite a sweaty sight. He stopped his truck and came around and asked, "what will you have?" "Got any free samples?" we said. What a nice man and God bless him. He didn't hesitate, but opened the door and pulled out a couple of ice creams - one for each of us.
I think we were stunned, but we were so happy as we walked on home that day with our free gifts of cold ice cream. Those free treats cost the man all of ten cents total, but I think I will never forget the kindness showed on that hot day to a couple of young girls, probably 8 and 10.
