Tunesday: The Candyman

It occurred to me just the other day that my intention of revealing myself though the books I read has been a slow-moving project, with most books not prompting any memories at all. So why not salt the soup (I keep thinking that's a real expression...) and also share the songs that I know do have associated memories? For the first entry of my new feature "Tunesday", this is the first ever song-on-the-radio that I remember asking my Mom to turn up:

The Candyman 

(Leslie Bricusse / Anthony Newley) Recorded by Sammy Davis Jr.

Who can take a sunrise (who can take a sunrise)
Sprinkle it with dew (sprinkle it with dew)
Cover it with choc'late and a miracle or two
The Candy Man (the Candy Man)
Oh, the Candy Man can (the Candy Man can)
The Candy Man can
'Cause he mixes it with love
And makes the world taste good
(Makes the world taste good)

Who can take a rainbow (who can take a rainbow)
Wrap it in a sigh (wrap it in a sigh)
Soak it in the sun and make a groovy lemon pie
The Candy Man (the Candy Man)
The Candy Man can (the Candy Man can)
The Candy Man can
'Cause he mixes it with love
And makes the world taste good
(Makes the world taste good)

(The Candy Man makes everything he bakes)
(Satisfying and delicious)
Now you talk about your childhood wishes
You can even eat the dishes

Oh, who can take tomorrow (who can take tomorrow)
Dip it in a dream (dip it in a dream)
Separate the sorrow and collect up all the cream
The Candy Man (the Candy Man)
Oh, the Candy Man can (the Candy Man can)
The Candy Man can
'Cause he mixes it with love
And makes the world taste good
(Makes the world taste good)

(The Candy Man makes everything he bakes)
(Satisfying and delicious)
Talk about your childhood wishes
You can even eat the dishes

Yeah, yeah, yeah
Who can take tomorrow (who can take tomorrow)
Dip it in a dream (dip it in a dream)
Separate the sorrow and collect up all the cream
The Candy Man (the Candy Man)
The Candy Man can (the Candy Man can)
The Candy Man can
'Cause he mixes it with love
And makes the world taste good
(Makes the world taste good)

Yes, the Candy Man can
'Cause he mixes it with love
And makes the world taste good
(Makes the world taste good)
A-Candy Man, a-Candy Man, a-Candy Man
(Makes the world taste good)
A-Candy Man, a-Candy Man, a-Candy Man
(Makes the world taste good)
A-Candy Man, a-Candy Man, a-Candy Man

I would have been four or five when The Candy Man was a hit on the radio (and I feel badly for poor SDJr if he really did despise singing this, his only #1) and it was probably the kid-friendly theme that I most appreciated; in a world before Teletoon and Disney Radio, there wasn't too much out there specifically pointed at kids. 

This song is linked in my mind with going for ice cream with the whole family; me hoping to get the front seat between my parents; slipping around on the vinyl seat (no seatbelts for us!) and concentrating to keep my feet up on the carpeted hump in the floor so they didn't slide towards my Dad's foot and the accelerator. This would have been in Saint John, NB, and we always went to The Big Scoop (and when I looked it up just now to see if it could possibly still exist, all I found was this obituary for the woman who owned it with her husband). The Big Scoop was an ice cream stand, and although there may have been some picnic tables there, I seem to remember Dad always being impatient to get back home and we would need to eat our cones in the car, with serious threats not to make a mess on the seats. And that was my Dad in a nutshell: give with one hand and take away with the other; pat the seat beside him invitingly, and then get angry if my foot slipped over the hump; get us excited to go for ice cream and then growl all the way home because we had to eat it in the car and we couldn't help making a mess. Of course, if I was four, Dad was twenty-four, with a wife and three kids; he almost gets a pass for these early years; it's a wonder to me that I can recall him taking us to The Big Scoop at all; we never went anywhere.

Here's what I remember about the ice cream: I thought that vanilla was a base flavour, the plain ice cream that actual flavours were added to; I never ordered vanilla. My Mom would usually get something with nuts -- like Maple Walnut or Pralines and Cream -- and so I thought those were grownup flavours (akin to drinking a glass of wine) and I never ordered those. As I recall, my Dad usually got chocolate, so I let that be "his" flavour, and I always got strawberry -- and I'm thinking that's because the bright pink colour was the furthest I could get from plain vanilla white. I don't especially like strawberries, and I would never buy myself a strawberry cone today, but I'm sure that sitting in the front seat between my parents, asking my Mom to turn up my favourite song on the radio, and trying very hard to keep my feet on the hump while not dripping any ice cream, that strawberry cone from The Big Scoop represented the most exotic luxury that I could imagine; talk about your childhood wishes.