babu-babu

25 years ago, in my hometown, Ma-yuan , a desolate countryside in Taiwan, the ice cream man is very popular. He always rides a motor cycle with a big ice cream box. He rode slowly through the countryside with a peculiar horn sound: 'babu-babuba---bu'. When We children heard this musical horn sound, we became exciting and restless.

When the ice cream man stopped under the cool shadow of big trees, we'd drop whatever in our hands, except the coins, and gathered around the motorcycle. Minutes later, every child hold an ice cream cone carefully, smilingly.

We call the ice cream man 'babu-babu'.

Now, the 'babu-babu' almost vanishes; though I still saw some babu-babus somewhere, the horn sounded, without children gathering around.

The grew up children, who were once faithful customers of babu-babu, prefer the ice cream in McDonald, or Haagen-Dazs.The next generation maybe never heard of this musical sound:'babu-babuba---bu'.