THE bygone ice-cream vendor's call of 'Hokey pokey, a penny a lump...' is explained for us by an Eccleston customer of this column.

J. A. Sweeney, of Daresbury Road, picks up on recent reference to this mysterious street call, remembered with affection by our grey brigade but never now heard in this modern age of ice-cream van chimes and jingles.

Presenting his understanding of the 'hokey pokey' term, J. A. says: "Ice-cream was perfected in Sicily where they enjoy the ideal climate for its development; snow in the mountains to freeze it and hot by the sea to create a market for it.

"Its manufacture and consumption spread to Italy, and in the late Victorian era many Italians and Sicilians emigrated to Britain and started selling ice-cream in the streets."

And here comes that explanation . . .

"They drew attention to the cheapness of their product by calling out in Italian 'O che poco (Oh, how little)' And, quite naturally, this was soon corrupted by their British customers into 'hokey pokey.'"

THANKS, J. A. for that welcome explanation. Have a big cornet with lashings of raspberry flavouring on me!

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.