My friends and I have discovered a mysterious phenomenon: about 2/3 of kids our generation (born early 80S) used to tip our big wheels or bicycles upside-down, spin the wheels, and pretend we were making ice cream. I also found this in a past post:

Quote from: lorac614 on May 26, 2004, 09:19:49 PM
I started out with a "Little Wheels" which was just a smaller version on the Big Wheel and then I graduated to the Big Wheel with the spin out brake.   

I know this will probably sound nuts but we used to flip them over and pedal the pedals with our hands and play "Ice Cream Man"...I guess we were churning ice cream.  LOL!! 


You know it's funny, but we used to do that too!


We are trying to figure out where this idea came from! It really makes no sense, especially to people who didn't do this. Does anyone who "made ice cream" this way have any memory of why they did this? We figure it must have been on tv or something because kids all around the country did it.  Anyone have any guesses?

Katie

I remember doing this, but we didn't refer to it as making ice cream, but for some reason I do remember getting a lot of amusement out of it.

Come on, somebody's got to have something on this.....was it subliminal messaging? Why can't anyone remember why they did this?

Katie

I used to pretend that too. Wow! Had forgotten about that.  :D

I emailed the current owner of the Big Wheels patent and they said:
Dear Katie & friends,

One possibility that may add fuel to your Big Wheel / Ice Cream mystery is that during the late 1970's until mid-90's Empire Industries/Empire of Carolina, manufacturer of the Big Wheel also owned KLONDIDE and POPCICLE ICE CREAMS.

Hope this little info helps to solve your case.

Regards,


Eric L. Deininger
Alpha International, Inc.
dba: Empire Toys
Gearbox Toys & Collectibles

Do you think maybe there was some commercial that combined the two products?

Katie

Maybe so...hmmm...those corporate companies are very sly!  :o

Oh my gosh!!  :o

My sister and i have also been perplexed about this phenominon!  We used to do the same thing back in the early 70's or even the late 60's, perhaps!  Weird, isn't it?  I don't remember any commercials influencing us, but i guess you never know!  since the company responded to you, i think they would have mentioned an ad like that, don't you?  interesting topic!  thanks for bringing it up and making my day!!

Kairi

I remember doing this to my bicycle back in the 60s (before big wheels). We used to always say: "You scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream." I think this probably dates back even further. A lot of people used to make ice cream at home. You had this bucket that had a crank on it and you had to keep cranking it to make it come out creamy (I have made ice cream that way). The pedal on the bike when it was upside down looked a little like the crank on the ice cream making bucket so kids would "pretend" to make ice cream.


That is my theory and I have no proof that that is the reason why kids did this but it sounds good to me.



Cat

Thats an intereting theory, Cat. I thought of that as well. It just didn't seem lilkely that a bunch of 4 year old in 1985 would have seen home-made ice-cream being made. Its interesting that kids before the 80s and even before big wheels did this. Perhaps this is something that dates back even farthur, and has just been passed down the generations. I would like to see if any kids today do the same thing or if it is lost.

Katie

I remember doing this to my bicycle back in the 60s (before big wheels). We used to always say: "You scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream." I think this probably dates back even further. A lot of people used to make ice cream at home. You had this bucket that had a crank on it and you had to keep cranking it to make it come out creamy (I have made ice cream that way). The pedal on the bike when it was upside down looked a little like the crank on the ice cream making bucket so kids would "pretend" to make ice cream.


That is my theory and I have no proof that that is the reason why kids did this but it sounds good to me.



Cat

I did the same thing back in the 60's! Now that you mention it, I have no idea why. It was just something we did, but like you said, we did make homemade ice cream back then, so that's probably where it came from.  :)

Now this is just freaky!  My husband talks about when he did this when  he was young.  I turned my big wheel over, but I pretended it was a movie projector or a sausage grinder.  What can I say, I've never been in the norm. 

Thats an intereting theory, Cat. I thought of that as well. It just didn't seem lilkely that a bunch of 4 year old in 1985 would have seen home-made ice-cream being made. Its interesting that kids before the 80s and even before big wheels did this. Perhaps this is something that dates back even farthur, and has just been passed down the generations. I would like to see if any kids today do the same thing or if it is lost.

Katie



Yes!  They do still do it today!  That's how my sister and I recently got on the topic.  She saw kids doing it and asked what they were doing..."Making ice cream!!"  It's so weird! :P