World Ice Cream Day: Yorkshire ice cream man still putting a smile on faces after almost four decades

World Ice Cream Day, celebrated on the third Sunday in July (this year July 20), was introduced in 1984 by ex-US President Ronald Reagan who wanted to commemorate a treat enjoyed by over 90 percent of the US population.

To celebrate World Ice Cream Day, we caught up with Ian Smith who owns Mr Whippy Leeds.

His family have been selling ice cream since the early 60s.

Ian said: “My dad started in 1962 in Leeds selling ice cream. He was a van boy at 15. He managed to get himself an ice cream van when he should have been at school and he's been in it ever since. So I've been born into it.

“I've been selling ice cream all my life. As a child, I used to help out, stock the vans up. I've even sold ice cream to customers from about seven, eight years old. And then when I got to 18, passed my driving test, I set out on my own and then I've just graduated from that really. We run seven ice cream vans now. It's family business, myself, my wife, my daughters, my granddaughter are all involved in it.

“It's a good job. It's hard work, long hours, unsociable hours. Everybody else is doing things on weekends, going to weddings. We just, ‘no, sorry, no. When is it? We can't do that.’ That's how it's always been, but we're used to it.

“We won Mobiler of the Year. It's an Ice Cream Alliance competition. It's nationwide. We won it in 2020. Basically the best ice cream man in the country. That's the accolade.

“And then this year, they did things slightly different. They did it so all the existing winners over the years could all compete against each other for champion of champions. So we entered. I thought, well, I won't have a chance, but I'll go for it. Anyway, I got into the first three and then we had to go for two more interviews in front of a panel. It's a point scoring system. And then it was awarded on the ball night. It's a bit like the Oscars really. It was a fantastic night. We didn't expect to win. I was just happy to get third place. What an achievement. But to actually win it, brilliant.

“99 is actually a name, Cadbury's Flake 99, which Cadbury's named the chocolate in the early 50s. Nobody actually knows why it's called a 99. Not even anybody who works at Cadbury's. This has been a big discussion for years. But one thing is it's not 99p. It's never been 99p.

“When I first started in [1987] on my own, when I was 18, 99s were 15 pence. Now, nobody wanted to come and hand over 99p over the counter because it was only 15p. But now, because of inflation and the price of everything else, 99s are usually around about £3, wherever you go. So, people will now come and say, why are they not 99p? Which is madness if they've never been 99p.

“This job is great because you're putting smiles on people's faces. When you make somebody an ice cream and pass them it, they're always smiling. It's a happy thing. Happy memories. So, we've got a fantastic job. There's a lot of bad points to it. But we have got a fantastic job because we make people smile. Bring on the heatwaves. That's all we say. Bring on the heatwaves.”