The music comes on. The music every child knows. Its hypnotic tune bringing happiness no matter what mood the person is in. The faces of the people we pass immediately change, some whistle the tune, others just have a grin, but most have a full smile, either driven by sentimentality, or by pure glee. We stop by the neighborhood park, and immediately all the kids run out. They push and they fight to be the first in line.
The first to say hi to Julian the Ice Cream man. Finally the first kid comes up. He fidgets in place, jumping from left leg to right. His curly hair covers most of his eyes and he constantly puts it up only for it to fall back down. “Hi sir” he says. “Whats up Ellie?” Julian answers. Julian says he knows every kid in each nearby park on a first name basis. He says its important for him to remember all their names. Based on today he must know at least 100.
“Everything’s good sir” Ellie responds. Julian scratches his own sizeable mass of hair. “Have you been listening to your ma and pa?” Ellie shakes his head enthusiastically. “Have you been getting good grades like I told you?” Ellie shakes his head even more vigorously. His curls are know soaked in sweat and possibly water from the parks water fountain. “Show me.” Julian says. Ellie reaches into his pocket and pulls out some lint and a button. Reaches into his other pocket and pulls out a soggy piece of paper. “Here you go, sir!” He hands it to Julian as quickly as possible. You can tell the kid was waiting for this moment. His hopping is getting even more frequent, as if this moment defines his entire week. Julian takes the paper carefully and observes it. On the paper there is a large A with a smiley face and a teachers signature. Julian cracks a rare smile. “So you finally aced that vocab test huh?” Ellie shakes his head again. “Slushie or Ice Cream?” Julian asks. Ellie points to the Vanilla soft serve cone on the truck. Julian had the ice cream prepared before he even pointed at it. Ellie looks at Julian as if mulling a joke only they understood, Julian shrugs and adds sprinkles. Ellie grabs the cone and runs back to the park shouting a gleeful thanks over his shoulder. These interaction are not rare. They happen often, and Julian says he never feels bad about it.
Julian the Ice Cream Man is a role model in the Flatbush community. He came from Haiti a couple years ago and decided that he would have a steady life and help kids along the way. He often talks about how important it is to help the folks who have nothing to their name besides their kids. Julian is very mildly famous in Flatbush for his program, where he gives kids a free ice cream or slushie if they give him an A on a test. He says it makes him happy to know that kids do better because of it.
Parents often come up to Julian to thank him. They speak about how his program makes their kids try their best, and how without him their kids might not even have passed the test. Julian is a stoic man. He tells me he read some Greek literature that said that real men don’t show emotion,but I couldn’t quite get what Greek literature he was talking of. His answer to the parents was always the same. “My pleasure” and a curt but not rude nod of his head.
Julian says that his job isn’t the most lucrative in fact he said “Man, I barely get by.” He says that “It’s easier know with gas being cheaper, but still nothing crazy” He says that he does his job more for the kids than for himself. According to him “My soul feels better when I help these kids, and soul money is better than real money”. Its strange, a 6 foot tall man that rarely smiles, and has the musculature of a football player might be the kindest man in all of Flatbush.
