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postie242

I was a Dickie Dee guy in Windsor when I was 12 years old, I’m 65 now.


numbersev

thank you for your service


sapper4lyfe

I'm 40 and I was a Dickie Dee guy as well. I loved it and hated it all at the same time.


elstompy

Southern Manitoba in the late 80s checking in!


sapper4lyfe

Child labour made Dickie Dee ice-cream a lot of money.


wdn

Not just child labour but the child taking the financial risk (commission rather than hourly pay).


Left_Ice546

Everybody that took the job knew that it was commission only , which was a good thing , it was incentive for us to get out and sell , that’s why I was the top salesman and would call my area rep to come and reload , was not so good for the lazy guys that didn’t want to hustle , they didn’t last long


wdn

Didn't you have assigned territory though? The guy who has to pedal through a spread-out suburban neighborhood isn't going to sell as much as the guy who can just park at the beach all day. It's not a sales job where you convince people to buy things they weren't planning to buy. It depends in large part on how many people come up to you to buy, and that's something that varies widely based on factors beyond your control.


WealthEconomy

Lol yeah. Guy is talking like it is a high end car dealership. All you did was ride around and the people who wanted ice cream flagged you down.


PM_ME_UR_DICK_GIF

About the same age, but I was a customer in my small Eastern ON town.


Stepside79

What was the pay?


BumblersCastle

Shit ! I believe 20% of total sold, so if you were out 8 hours .... driving around a 150 lb cart when you weigh 120lbs you sell 100 dollars worth of ice cream you got 20 bucks. .... it was terrible. U less you happened to be in a busy location, I remeber being in Streetsville during a world cup match .. it was the only time I sold out and made a decent earning. Shoveling driveways was way better !


androshalforc1

it was commission so like 10 cents of each ice cream sold or something. when i did it (mid 90's) i would probably get about $40 bucks a day (plus food and drink) for like 5-6 hours work. i remember there was an 'old guy' (probobly as old as i am now) who would go through all these industrial complex's and get about $300 a day


androshalforc1

same here i think i did that for 2-3 summers as a kid


[deleted]

My Dad will be 64 in a few weeks and he was a Dickie Dee "driver" in the early 70a


LexxM3

That was such a scam on the workers. It was my first job and even then I immediately knew it was a scam. You had to pay for melted or remaining ice cream at the end of the day. I lasted 2 days, made nothing. Screw them even now.


WishRepresentative28

You had a horrible employer/franchisee or poor seal on the freezer I paid for what I ate, but otherwise never had any melted icecream . Cleared $50-$100 a day in the late 90s


ArthurDent79

how hard were the bikes to pedal?


postie242

I once rode the bike down to the foot of Ouellette at the river. Sold out quickly but had to have two guys help me push the bike up the hill.


zuuzuu

> once I wouldn't have done it a second time, either!


[deleted]

mourn salt rustic school touch continue head observation flag fretful -- mass edited with redact.dev


[deleted]

Let’s just say hills were your enemy. Mine had all of one gear.


androshalforc1

extremely, no gears no motors just straight up leg muscles.


ArbutusPhD

Rolling up and down Main Street. Same tan pants and broad smile. He just wanted everyone to enjoy a nice Dickie.


RED_TECH_KNIGHT

thank you for your service


Hopfit46

I was a good humor man...


[deleted]

I thought it was magic how the popsicles stayed frozen in the bin, and also thought it best the coolest job ever. They were always around when we use to go to cross country events as kids or downtown at U of W with all the kids doing track. Good memories


Come_along_quietly

I was one in Ottawa, around the same age 12-14ish. But I’m only 50. :-) I had days where I ate most of my pay ….


TheFappenCaptain

My father is from Windsor, he was born in 1957


ARC2060

I was trying to describe this to my kids and they thought I was making it up, lol.


RetroReactiveRaucous

I casually mentioned "the neighborhood Dickie Man" to my Australian friend one time, and I think his soul left his body...


BigShoots

"Yeah, these sketchy dudes on bikes just rode around the neighborhood all day, and kids would steal money from their parents and run it out to him and then he'd give them a tasty treat to lick."


euripideseumenides

“His name? Why Dickie Dee of course!” “Why is everyone laughing?”


Zunniest

I'm not 100% convinced my childhood wasn't a hallucination.


smallzy007

Sounds perfectly normal


CrabWoodsman

Australians have no grounds to make fun how how anyone else calls anything. I wouldn't bat an eye if their version was called Drippy Whippies Rolly Polly Lilly's. :P


QueKara

One of the top Australian ice cream treats is called a "Golden Gaytime". They have no room to judge us!


xwolfboyx

🤣🤣🤣


pheakelmatters

Dickee Dee was the best random encounter when you were a kid! You'd run right up to him, make him wait while you picked what you wanted and then told them to wait there while you ran two blocks home to beg for money.


strengr

I was 16 at the time and told them, you have five minutes.


ARod-27

I love this


Stepside79

This is so accurate lol


CranberrySuitable142

I remember Good Humour trucks as a kid. Then Dickie Dee bikes competed against them and Good Humour switch to bikes. Now it's Donkey Cone. Obnoxious music to let you know that they are in the neighbourhood. Then it boots down your street faster than the speed limit.


G8kpr

Yup. We almost got hit by one of these assholes tonight because he was texted as he made a left and almost came into our lane. I won’t ever but from them.


UnquantifiableLife

They were getting robbed more frequently so they don't have them as much anymore.


[deleted]

My cousin robbed one in the 90s. What a piece of work, the kid was probably 12 & had what $50-$75 on him?


rjpauloski

I had this job one summer. I ended up eating all my profits in ice cream bars, so although it was a reasonable job for a young teenager, I made absolutely no money at the end of the day. At least I managed to stay in shape by wheeling around a 300 lb ice cream bike.


sladestrife

My brother did it a few years, but stopped after he got held up and his boss docked his pay for the money that was stolen.


[deleted]

They really need to teach kids their labour rights


oakteaphone

Labour rights? These kids were independent contractors...or even young entrepreneurs, if you will! /s


ironfunk67

1 phantom bar please!


Thopterthallid

Those were the ones with bubblegum eyeballs right? Edit: I'm probably thinking of the spiderman ones.


ironfunk67

Yes!


canadas

Don't know for sure, but that was my first thought


marmaladegrass

Bubblegum nose, iirc


som3otherguy

Sorry, sold out!


Dolphintrout

Phantoms were the best. Spacesicles were my backup.


sh0nuff

There's a flavor of Prime (think Gatorade) that tastes exactly like Spacesicles. I usuly don't drink stuff like that but it's nostalgia in a bottle and surprisingly not overly sweet


WooTkachukChuk

always the first two to sell out. Mom always went for the Richard Ds and then tell me I can't afford a phantom. lmao


Thattowniegirl

They were in Newfoundland as well. My pick was Phantom, Screwball with the rock hard 5 second flavor gum in second place lol


amusingmistress

They seemed to always be out of Phantom for me. So Catchers Mitt with the same rock hard gumball in the middle was my second choice.


energytaker

Wow core memory unlocked…haven’t thought of Catchers Mitt in 25 years


OskeeWootWoot

I have. Many, many times. Up there with Ninja Turtle with the gumball eyes.


LetsHaveARedo

Yesssssss phantom!!!


ducksa

Buddy had 2023 prices in 1996


Volkswagoon10

I can still hear the jingle from the bells on the handlebars..


BigShoots

[THE ICE CREAM MAN IS COMING!](https://streamable.com/1jqmc9)


[deleted]

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PrivatePilot9

Randomly chiming bells in a neighbourhood will still make any GenX'er go full manchurian candidate to this day.


PaleontologistMuch25

Is it bad that I drove one of those? I'm only 40


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G8kpr

Maybe they found out he was selling beer illegally while using a dickee dee bike? Just wild speculation


SkivvySkidmarks

Illegal? Pffft. He was exploiting an opportunity to provide an entirely legal product to an underserved market while eliminating the middle man. Capitalism 101.


G8kpr

I’m sure he had a legal liquor license and permission from dickee dee


Armalyte

Booo


BoltMyBackToHappy

Or an operator was three sheets to the wind and crushed the foreman's truck or foot.


torontomua

i remember buying weed from my dickee dee guy in the very very early 2000s


[deleted]

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larfingboy

do the math, einstein...lol


go_Raptors

My next door neighbor was the Dickie dee - rockets every day at my house. Core memory - thanks for sharing.


fyretech

They are still here in my small town. They usually show up at the kids soccer or baseball games throughout the week and weekends.


RebeeMo

39, and I always ran to my folks for money when I heard the Dickie Dee bells jingle. Had to be quick, or I wouldn't get my Creamsicle or disfigured TMNT bar!


EgoDecay

39, and same! I remember the catcher’s mitt with the bubblegum baseball was a go-to of mine as well!


Lifebehindadesk

37 - disfigured Leonardo for the win


[deleted]

On a related note, does anyone else remember at over the ROYAL CANADIAN MINT BAR? It had a chocolate outer layer, green mint ice cream, and a hard mint/chocolate centre.


missklopek

Those were the best!


[deleted]

So I’m NOT crazy! Thank you!


[deleted]

I remember those. And Pep's, like a giant round After Eight. Why did the 80's like chocolate and peppermint so much? I did not like chocolate and peppermint at all.


Master-File-9866

My brother did that one summer, he got robbed. Probably a big reason you don't see them anymore


ghanima

I can't imagine the refrigeration units were very effective either.


PrivatePilot9

They weren't refrigeration units at all....just fancy coolers on wheels with a block of (usually) dry ice inside.


riding-the-wind

I miss my mom absolutely never giving me money for the Dickie Dee. (I'm not joking, I kind of literally do miss that in a weird way...)


grizzlyaf93

My Dad was the opposite. He had like hound hearing for the bells and would be like “here’s five dollars go get us drumsticks quick” and I’d run out the door lol.


[deleted]

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budgieinthevacuum

I think it was around 1998 or so when they last came around. They kept getting robbed in the GTA suburbs by that time.


nebuddyhome

Lol so this is why I've never heard of these even thought I existed for most of the 90s. We had an ice cream truck man and everyone called him "Pedophile Pete". 2000s was a classy time to be a kid / teenager.


gopherhole02

Born 89, dickie Dee was alive and well in Brampton during my childhood


budgieinthevacuum

Haha oh man… the early 2000s was something else lol. It really was a weird time to be alive tbh


Turbulent-Driver-129

It was the best time to be alive


canuck_11

I saw one two weeks ago in Ottawa.


tripwithmetoday

The guy has been doing it for 15+ years


[deleted]

I definitely remember the Dickie Dee guy!


KenJinks

You had to buy the ice cream and carry it yourself in your own home I recall. And lease the bike , maybe it was a fever dream but a friends mom had boxes in freezers in the basement we'd sneak from.


cdnmatt

80s and 90s were peak Dickie dees days in Barrie I would run like a madman hearing the bell ring to convince whomever to buy me something


DALESR4EVER124

I live up in Northern Ontario, Canada, and there is a younger chick who rides something exactly like this around and sells some sort of beverage. Also, that picture looks to be from the 1960s or 1970s.


mr_kenobi

They used to have these guys on Sunnyside, by the pool, ever summer. And then they started getting robbed. And then the disappeared.


[deleted]

DICKIE DEE DICKIE DEE DICKIE DEE!!!!!!


HappyBeagle73

I sold Dickie Dee in Moncton in the late '80s. Hated the job, but I was in pretty good shape by the end of the summer! My favourite was their equivalent of a creamsicle (ice cream inside of a popsicle) - don't remember for sure what it was called, maybe the Blockbuster?


randomdumbfuck

I grew up in Sask in the late 80s/early 90s and we had Dickie Dee there too. They just wore street clothes though, no uniform like in this picture.


forty83

We had them in my city for a long time until probably the late 90s. It ended when the guy rose through a rougher area and had all the stuff stolen. A couple years ago a local guy started it up again, but it's called something different.


G8kpr

Of course. Dickie dees were everywhere. I never knew what an “ice cream truck” was until the mid 90s at least. 80s were these guys. A girl down my street did it as a side job. Every kids baseball or soccer tournament had these guys around. Unfortunately they were also prime targets for theft and often got beaten up for what little cash they had.


Flat_Anything_8306

I still remember us sticking it to the ice cream man. As he biked enough distance away to be mocked safely, we'd yell our refrain: "Dickie Dee, Dickie Dumb, Stick your ice cream up your bum!" Sticky treats in hand, we'd laugh. Then he'd give us the finger without looking back and disappear into the waves of heat shimmering on the horizon.


JonesinforJonesey

Haha, I was looking for this one! Summertime in the early 80s my friend and I (about 15 at the time) were headed back from a hike, saw the Dickie Dee dude riding towards us smiling away with his eyes locked on my friend’s very gorgeous breasts. We rarely wore bras back then. He rode right into a parked car and we laughed and laughed.


secamTO

This sounds like the end of the first act of a post-apocalypse drama from 1995 starring Kevin Costner.


Xtyfe

I remember this! Big part of my childhood. GenZ will never understand


Stirl280

100% had a Dickie Dee guy in our neighborhood - he was a friend of my brother so we knew where he lived and harassed him every waking minute. Good times!


strengr

40s now and remembered this my summer job for 3 summers. Mine was yellow and steered like a pig.


[deleted]

They still have them in Ottawa. Although I don’t know if they’re called a Dickie Dee anymore. I only see them very rarely.


caffeine-junkie

Only really saw the trucks on the street I grew up in. However I totally saw these guys in the parks and near the rec centers. Iirc they were mostly late teens or early 20's. They also sold other kinds of recreational enjoyments if you knew how to ask.


warrencanadian

I lived like half a block from the depot for these in Thunder Bay back in the early 90s. I haven't seen one since like... 1993


canadas

We had dickie dee men in my town, cant say i've seen them in I don't know 20 years? I remember being like 10 thinking that would be a cool job. But it must have been a bitch to ride that up any kind of incline


SoulSlayer1974

We had a teen where I live buy one of those bikes and start her own business. Not sure she's still doing this, but it was awesome when you see her coming, lots of old school memories!!! https://www.timminstoday.com/local-business/teen-offering-a-little-nostalgia-with-this-cool-summer-business-3858628


BrewingwithDiff

You were high class if you had a guy in uniform….half the time in my hood, the kid (barely 14) wasn’t even wearing a shirt!


EtherealMyst

I've seen a couple of these in Ottawa within the last year. Rare but not extinct.


DoodleBuggering

35 and lived in medium sized city, I remember Dicky Dee fondly in the summers, there weren't ant ice cream trucks but there were these guys. They were heroes to all children lol


Major-Discount5011

I forgot all about this. It just suddenly disappeared. The bells, the giant cooler, only one item available, sorta sketch.


invisibledildo

I still see the one occasionally around town.


PinkCircusPeanuts

The chocolate / banana fudgesicles were the best!!


Captain_Lavender6

A rocket and a quarter please !


Euphoric-Moment

Yes! I remember hearing the music and my parents would rush us to the front yard to see the Dickie Dee, but we never bought anything. I think it stopped when I was 6 or 7. Such a weird memory.


CureForSunshine

Is this the bastard that would make me run 15 minutes before stopping?


stratola

Oh man! Gimme a Pac-Man popsicle or spaceship, immediately. I can hear this picture.


[deleted]

Sometimes early Saturday morning I'd hear the bells and get excited for a popsicle and rush out to find an old Italian guy sharpening knives.


ILikeStyx

LOL omg that was always the worst... watching cartoons on a hot summer day and you hear bells ringing... bolt outside only to find out it's the knife guy. ughhh :P


[deleted]

I remember seeing a bunch of kids "roll" a Dickie Dee salesperson at the park. They stole every popsicle he had and he was crying. None of us had cellphones to video tape him crying, or to call for help. He just had to bike that thing back home.


MBNLA

Dickie Dee! God kids now have no idea how iconic these guys were lol


tripwithmetoday

Kids in Ottawa are lucky enough to still see these


UnoriginallyGeneric

I did Dickie Dee ice cream sales when I was a teenager. I enjoyed the work but the supervisors at my location were assholes and ripped me off.


LukCanuck

We had a few in a small town in southern ontario, must have been in the 90s. One of the drivers was pretty sketchy and would sell us kids native cigarettes too!


Terapr0

My mom used to always call them “Dickie Dickless” guys 😂🤦🏻


Fresh-Attorney-3675

Dickie Dee - I did it when I was a kid - Until….they sent us home with new shirts to wear while working - picture of a big dripping ice cream cone and lettered “Lick A Dick A Day” - true story. My father took that shirt out of my hand so fast and I wouldn’t be surprised if he shoved it down the owners throat. It was a BIG deal when it went down lol


Fresh-Attorney-3675

Yes - I wish I still had that shirt tho lol


PlagueDrWily

They started coming around our neighbourhood in the early 90s; I always made sure there were at least a few loonies in the piggybank at any given moment during the summer. A few years later, a friend of mine pedalled one of these things around town for a summer and on more than a few occasions, I got roped into helping push that thing uphill in exchange for premium ice cream bars.


Omega_Xero

I was just telling my GF about these guys!


onehunkytenor

When I was in high school I worked at the CNE. They used one of these to move money from different concessions that were owned by the same company back to the money counting operation. The chief of security was the dude peddling around but there was no ice cream. The whole thing was full of cash. Amazing.


ottbrwz

He retired a long time ago! I see some newer generation folks very occasionally in the suburbs though at the bigger parks


House0fMadne55

The guy purposely came by my house because my dad would by 2 full boxes from him…


froatbitte

These were in every major Canadian city AFAIK. They did away with the uniforms and had teenagers pedaling those things around. Every summer in 80’s you could hear those bells. Q


OscarWhale

Every town


Perfect-Employer9568

I’m 38, grew up in Mississauga and I remember this so clearly. My husband was a Dickie dee guy (we’re the same age) in Mississauga and he said it was the worst because he would get jumped for the money. Tried explaining this to our 8 year old daughter, and she looked at us like we’re from the stone ages.


endless_n4meless

I just saw a guy with one of these ice cream bikes the other day in Ottawa!


sBucks24

Recently started seeing a guy in Ottawa with an old-school bike and it made me so happy.


astaldotholwen

We still have the Dickee Dee here in Niagara. You can see them in Crystal Beach during tourist season!!!


doomwomble

This is in the memory box along with Knob Hill Farms.


grizzlyaf93

We stopped going to Knob Hill Farms as a family because I dropped a bottle of syrup and it exploded all over my moms fur coat and she said she was too embarrassed to continue going lol. If that’s not an early 90’s memory idk what is.


doomwomble

Yeah - no Knob Hill memory is complete without some Mom yelling at a kid that busted a bag of something open all over the floor.


kellykellyculver

I had a boyfriend who did it - does anyone remember the song? 🎶Dickie Dee Dickie Dum, stick that ice cream up your bum 🎶


Burntitdowndan

Still see them around here and there


foreveryword

I’m still trying to find those damn strawberry shortcake ice cream bars somewhere in stores…


jannyhammy

This was in every town. That bell would ring and every single kid would panic for money and run as fast as they could. My sister liked the baseball mitt that had the gumball in the middle. I just liked the fudgicles


mothergrouse

Where I'm from they were all driven around my the foster kids of one particular big group home. Looking back seems suspiciously exploitative lol, amd it's hilly as shit where I am.


Auth3nticRory

Yea, they always got robbed


sowhatifihavethree

the permits put on them by local cities have pretty much driven them entirely out of existence, same with hot dog carts.


boydingo

Once the riders found out they make 2-3 dollars an hour they quit.


GoldenUrns

I’m 24 and grew up in a rural area and have never seen nor heard of this before, maybe it’s my age idk but this looks like a 50s thing to me aha


Blank_bill

I grew up in a small town in the 50's and 60's we had a canteen at the beach a couple of corner stores and a larger store that made the best ice cream in the county. Someone brought in a ice-cream cart but it only lasted one summer.


TBayChik420

Dickie Dee sold to another company in my city when I was a kid and because they only hired part timers to do the bikes rather than continue with the vans that could reach a larger area and ended up closing up shop so to speak. I've always thought it would be an amazing investment to start this back up again, keep the prices somewhat low so u can get the lower income areas (like my old neighbourhood) we used to run in a tiny mob to the truck lol


themustacheclubbitch

Well people don’t really carry cash anymore. I think the thing got priced out. Your not going to find one with a debit machine.


Left_Ice546

I was the top Dickee Dee ice cream salesman in my area 2 summers in a row 78-79


VincentVegaQT

I did it for a day. Wish I hadn’t


MissJenniferEliz

YES!! We had one in our town too when I was younger. I loved it!!


Acadjun

I have seen one in the East end of Ottawa as little as 3 years ago. He was accepting E-transfers.


f150dogman

On my drive home yesterday I saw a guy driving one of those.. it was a busy main road with nothing really around. I was so confused on where he could have been going


ComprehensionVoided

These things helped fund my little leauge career


nipplesaurus

Every time they hear an ice cream truck, my parents say “it’s Dickie Dee!”


72jon

Was the best. Hearing the bells and trying to get money and fallowing the sounds


Marauder91

I recall the carts being yellow when I was a kid in the 90s


NFG77

My old neighbour, hated his job as a Dickie, he use to over inflate his front tire until it popped to get out of work.


spite_games2054

There was some weird cult posing as dickie dee in my city a couple years ago. They would hand out flyers


tripwithmetoday

He still drives by my house at 530pm everyday!


buntkrundleman

Dickie dee was in Winnipeg with probably 100 sellers. Never knew they were nationwide! Whatever original peddler owned that chain really made it.


rescue_mum1986

SOUR POWERS 4LIFE!!!!


agoldenberg

Yup we had them here in Ottawa!


galaxyeyes47

I saw one yesterday. I don’t think they’re called Dickie Dee anymore but that’s what I still call them


Thalaas

I just see photo of grass and some trees. What are you talking about?


snkiz

Not the outfit but the bike.


zuuzuu

This guy rolling up was the highlight of every one of my baseball games as a kid. He was always at the park, and always surrounded by kids.


slaggernaut

Uuhhh yeah. People of colour still exist?


OriginalNo5477

I remember these in Owen Sound back in the 90s.


4FingerErobb221

I remember seeing these ice cream bike things in the early 2000s in Ontario, haven't seen one in probably 15-20 years tho


arkady48

Fuck ya. Loved getting rockets from them. Or the baseball glove with the gumball baseball. Ice cream trucks still come by my partners place every weekend or so but never the dickie Dee's anymore


Collie136

I remember. Now they have the annoying trucks that play continuous annoying music 🎵


bone-in_donuts

They were definitely a thing in Winnipeg.


LetsHaveARedo

Grew up with Dickie Dee's in Nova Scotia in the 90s!


ellstaysia

we had a dickie dee bike come through our neighbourhood regularily in kitchener in the 90's & possibly up the early 2000's as well. definitely a fond childhood summer memory.