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I Scream. Mind that child.


Jim Bell

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G Dragone & Son (George). 1930-2001

 

Speciality: Black market black pudding.

 

0-60: Unplayable due to bad light.

 

 

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Geordie Dragone and his son George junior (exterior) served ices and other wares to the proud folk of Felling (South Tyneside) from the early 1930s to almost present day times. The outfit started small, with just Geordie snr. manning the Crosby Stills wagon at the end of Nash Terrace. Along with the usual array of iced goods, Geordie could be relied upon as a source of processed meat products such as your traditional pork pies and your more exotic black puddings and that spiced haslet that nobody likes. During the war years, with national stocks of both ice AND cream at an all time low, the Dragones sold under the counter meat almost exclusively. Brisk trade continued as the nation starved until a disagrement between George jnr and a mother of six ended with him being stabbed to death with knitting needles clutched by twelve small sticky hands. Other members of the family soldiered on at George seniors side, mixing sales of snacks with that of duty free cigarettes and poppers as the times changed briskly around the van. The crankshaft finally sheared in the early naughties.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm going to tell you a story. A short one. Mrs TW and I visited London village over the weekend. We were drawn in by the ice-cream van outside the Tower of London, and duly approached it. Imagine my delight when I realised it was a Callestick Farm van (Cornish brand of frozen milk product). The very foreign monger didn't even slightly get my quip about discounts for Cornishmen. I think the rules should change.

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  • 4 months later...

My local one, Hockings, has quite a sizeable fleet these days and never seem to throw a van away, apparently some are kept in storage.  What little I know is through my sister working for them over a couple of summers a few years ago.

 

There's at least three of these CF2s although two, on W and B plates haven't been out on rounds for some time.  This one, which my sister drove a few times, seemed to keep going longer but apparently it was pretty knackered mechanically, temperamental to start and prone to flooding, suffered complete brake failure on one journey, now appears to be in storage as there's been no sign of it for a year or two.

 

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This 1926 Cowley is their original van from their startup in the 1930s, still comes out for the odd car show.

 

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This Bedford is their oldest in regular use, although only the owner is allowed to drive it and it only ever goes to a pitch half a mile from their depot.

 

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Having seen this one negotiating a roundabout, I have no idea how it stays upright.  Bought to work on the beach after their usual vans got stuck one too many times.

 

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They've been on a steady diet of Sprinters since the 90s as per the original post on this thread, never seen a Transit on their fleet.

 

Also, best ice cream in the world.  Made with clotted cream, vanilla only unless you buy a terrifyingly expensive tub (worth it though), none of that whippy nonsense.

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"It wont be funny is he gets a 99 flake up his jacksey"  :-)

 

Seen this happen before and get very ugly, with baseball bat beatings! Happening more as well as some ice cream vans are just a cover for mobile drug dealers

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Some of us remember the long hot summer of 1976.

Water rationing and girls in boob tubes being but part of the memories.

The sun shone brightly for what seemed 24 hours a day, no rain fell for 45 days in parts of the country.

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Swarms of Ladybirds, dying trees and forest fires were not the worst events tho;

 

In the sea side resort* of  Warrington on Sea,

a unfortunate mistake by junior ice cream sales manager (acting, unpaid) Eddie Latta

in setting the bovril boiler to maximum, lead to the destruction of the ice cream van.

(Mr Latta's remains were never found).

 

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