The Mishap: It was a summer job of many years ago that almost gave me a permanent distaste for the frozen delight. The job was driving an ice cream truck, not the “Good Humor” kind, but a large Ford F-8 with refrigerated box that was capable of delivering large quantities of product to grocery stores and markets. I was to replace the vacationing route drivers and the job involved carrying cash, since back then the transactions were mostly COD.
Things were going pretty well for over 2 months with just the normal problems, until that infamous day. It was a late Friday afternoon and I was hurrying to finish up. My next stop was a small store and gas station out in the country. I was pushing the old truck for all it had, which wasn’t much. Since I was the newbie and junior guy, I got the oldest and most tired of the fleet.
As I pulled into the store parking area, I noticed a cloud of smoke in my rear view mirror and figured the old girl’s engine was on its last legs. Coming to a stop, I pulled the hand brake as I always did and shifted into low gear. I noticed brake handle didn’t seem to have any resistance, but, being in a hurry, I went in the store to take their order.
The Mayhem: Some minutes later, a man rushes in saying “There’s a truck on fire.” Sure enough the old F-8 was ablaze. The emergency brake had evidently never released from the last stop. It had overheated setting a collection of old papers and trash under the front seat on fire. I tried to get the fire extinguisher and rescue rolls of coins that I kept in the glove compartment, but the smoke was too much. The coins were later found in melted gobs. The next concern was the truck’s gas tank which was behind the seat.
Then, before the local volunteer firemen could arrive, the truck’s starter shorted out from the heat and began to operate. With the truck in low gear, no emergency brake, and the starter spinning, the blazing vehicle began to slowly creep toward the store’s gas pumps and all we could do was stand back and watch the pending disaster.
The Miracle: The firemen arrived at almost the time the starter died and the crisis was averted. Whew!