One of my goals with driving Bessie all the way to New York City was to try to get on TV while in town. Since nothing fell into my lap the last couple weeks, I had to take matters into my own hands. A couple days ago I decided Wednesday was going to be the day to sling some cream in Manhattan. Thanks to Beau, I had the addresses to where most of the talk shows were filmed around town.
Once loaded with cream, I headed toward the midtown tunnel which would drop me right into middle of Manhattan. I had butterflies in my stomach and strange feelings of doubt and necessity about what I was attempting to do. Traffic on 34th Street was at a near standstill and right in front of the Empire State Building Bessie conked out on me. I went to restart her and nothing happened. I used my he-man strength to push her over to the side of the road and spent over a half an hour trying to get her to turn over. Bessie’s main mechanic, Lee, recommended grabbing a screwdriver and touching the two leads on the starter with it. I’d done this once before and it scared the sht outta me. After a bunch of sparking, she eventually turned over but instantly died again. arghhhhh…… I gave away an ice cream and just stared and thought about what the issue could be. More often than not, common sense and logical deduction will solve the majority of the issues with a broken down 1969 ice cream truck. I rotated the ignition button then tried again and she fired up. whoooo hoooo. The smart decision was to abort the mission and get back to Brooklyn before anything else went wrong but I had only given away one ice cream and that just wasn’t going to cut it.
My goal was to get to where Conan O’brien was filming. Had to scrap that once I couldn’t make a right onto 6th Ave. Noticed that the Letterman/Late Show was just a few blocks away and decided to give that a shot. Turned the corner onto Broadway and saw a spot right on in front. It was just before three, i think, and the line was already entering the building. Again, I gave away one ice cream before one of the guys that worked for the show came over and told me I couldn’t be here. I wasn’t surprised so I asked him if I could go around the corner or come back earlier next time. He blatantly said “No, you can’t give ice cream to anyone in line”. I understood not giving cream to people entering the theater but didn’t get the, “You can’t give free ice cream to people on public property” thing. As I was pleading my case, another gentleman, in plain clothes, walked up, flashed his badge, then said “We tried to do this the nice way”. YIKES!. Keep in mind I was parked in front of a fire hydrant on Broadway, in Manhattan, trying to give away ice cream without any permits what so ever. Double yikes. I smiled, said I was leaving, fired up Bessie then ran out into the street to get one picture of my short lived attempt at cream slinging to the Letterman line.
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart was filming just down the road so I started heading west. I pulled over to check directions and noticed a bunch of guys standing out in front of a warehouse. One of the guys came over for a treat. He hollered to his buddies that the ice cream was free and the rest of the gang quickly came over to see what the deal was. They were all super cool and were down for any flavor. I mentioned I wanted to snap a pic with everyone and they all got excited and lined up in front of the truck. Once they left and I walked around to the driver side, I noticed they were all hanging out by the forklift so I snapped that shot up top. They were all smiles and digging the treats and, as I drove away, I remembered why I like giving away ice cream so much. Right as I turned onto 11th Ave. I noticed a billboard with a picture of Jon Stewart and a line in front of the building. Wow, that was easy enough. Pulled up right in front and went to work.
The people that were waiting to get in were WAY cooler than the Letterman fans. It didn’t take long for everyone to dig in. Some of the staff from the show came up and grabbed treats and thanked me for being there. Wow, that was 180° turn from just a few minutes prior. Since things were going smooth, I decided to hang out for a while before they started letting everyone into the studio. Briana showed up right as everything was winding down and we headed toward Central Park. We were thinking of slinging some cream to the people heading to the Upright Citizen’s Brigade show at Summer Stage but scrapped that once we found a good parking spot and realized if we didn’t take it, we’d probably never find another. So now I’m in back in Brooklyn with a few hundred pieces of ice cream on board. Any ideas?
