Ice cream truck treks through county

Surely the manufacturer of this little red van did not expect it to be used like this.

After somehow making its way across the Pacific Ocean, the van landed in Pennsylvania, where it was sold to a dealership in St. Johnsbury. Now, the vehicle that was once employed as a Japanese fire truck treks through Vermont’s residential roads — capturing attention of kids and adults alike through its unique look, as well as the island jams echoing from of its windows.

“We pull into a development, we turn up the reggae, and we roll through at about two miles an hour,” Josh Leggett said. “It’s been quite a scene.”

Leggett and his family set out for the van’s maiden voyage on Memorial Day weekend — ready to roll out for its new purpose: selling ice cream.

With Josh and his partner, Renee, and their three kids — Sawyer, Shamus and Sebastien — out of school for the summer, they saw a perfect opportunity to start a roving family-run enterprise.

“It’s been fun and interesting, and the best part about it is we can all fit in the van,” he said. “It’s been a really great experience.”

Josh grew up in Hinesburg, where he helped his father and grandfather run Ballard’s Corner Store on the corner of Route 116 and Shelburne Falls Road before it was sold to Jiffy Mart.

“I’ve been kind of in that food industry for a while and I’ve always wanted to have a food truck,” he said. He originally envisioned a wood-fired pizza truck but was hesitant to commit to what would have been a major investment.

“We had been looking for a bit and I said, ‘Let’s go with an ice cream truck to start,’” he said.

The truck appeared out of the blue. Renee’s cousin who works at the dealership in St. Johnsbury queued the van up for a camper, but those plans never panned out. So, the family bought the van and threw a cooler into the backseat.

With only 6,000 miles on it, the truck is in great shape.

“It’s a great rig — the motors in great shape, the body is in great shape,” Leggett said. “It’s a good fit.”

The business has gotten off to an excellent start. They’ve been made a preferred vendor with the South Burlington Recreation Department, getting access to all its events through the summer, and people have reached out for private birthday and graduation events.

The family has also worked Underhill’s food truck night on Fridays, among other events.

The ice cream truck was at South Burlington’s Dorset Park on June 24 for the city’s Camp Out in the Park event and worked in Williston for the town’s Fourth of July parade.

Both Josh and Renee work full-time, so the ice cream truck remains a weeknight and weekend operation. But it stays flexible, they said, and they can pick and choose what events they can do.

They also do door-to-door sales as well and have made their way through South Burlington and Williston among other communities — surprising, perhaps, for folks who may visualize a classic white truck playing jingles when they think of an ice cream truck.

“It’s a different vibe than the Mr. Ding a Ling piece,” he said. “We carry around reggae music on our speaker and just kind of put the island vibes in. We’re just trying something a little different,” Leggett said.

“It’s a new school vibe to an old school tradition.”