The Dark Humor Man

Remember the days when the ice cream man would arrive in a cloud of joyful noise blasting from a van with all sorts of sweet delights depicted on its exterior? Well, just like those “classic” TV shows that are resurrected and given an edgier sense of realism, it looks like Mr. Good Humor has taken a spin around the Dark Side, as well… One afternoon while working on waterproofing the tent for our upcoming travels, a strange and sinister melody began working its way into my consciousness. I immediately recognized the Doppler-shifted tunage as coming from the local ice cream truck. What puzzled me was the change in the musical repertoire. “Pac Man”, was my first thought, but as I shifted my focus from the can of “Camp Dry” to the confectionary interloper, I began to realize that the music was from another old arcade favorite of mine – Phoenix. Specifically, they were the notes which were played each time a new level was being set up on the screen. The music was slowed down sufficiently to give it almost a dirge-like quality. Hardly the stuff designed to bring the little kiddies out with money in hand, unless you happened to be driving by the Addams residence. Then again, maybe it was just the fumes from the waterproofing spray distorting things. If the stuff is THAT good when it’s being applied, I can’t wait to see what we will encounter when we sleep in our watertight (yeah, right) home away from home. Probably ice cream men with hockey masks and machetes.