Dickie Dees & Chip Wagons

One thing I found lacking when I moved to the US, and this might be regional- is the deficiency of chip wagons in the midwest. There is also a scarcity of donut shops, however I am seeing more of those- at least, lately. Additionally, and also maybe regional- and maybe limited to a certain time period; the ice cream vendors on tricycles. The alternative for this in the US naturally is/was ice cream trucks.

I was truly amused to hear the creepy- but happy music playing through my American neighborhood one day, which was followed by seeing a whole entire vehicle dedicated to serving ice cream and frozen treats. It makes me wonder how safe it was to have kids running out to a moving vehicle as compared to running out to a tricycle.

We would hear the ring of the rack of bells on the Dickie Dee bicycle V.S. the cute music from the loudspeakers on the ice cream trucks. I've read that customers (kids) would run out to the DD with change they'd saved, or even Canadian Tire money! I'm told this was acceptable payment- as repairs+parts for the tricycles were bought at Canadian Tire.

Now lets talk CHIP WAGONS. What is wrong with you people here in the US? The closest I can find to chip wagon fries is- NY Fries or 5 Guys. For the uninitiated, chip wagons at least where I am from in Canada were mostly permanent vehicles like a food truck, that tended to be open seasonally. Some of them were actually mobile (under their own power) if parked on streets. Some were mobile at one point, but stayed on a site rather permanently. Later, small buildings became popular, and those tended to stay open year round.

On doing some research I find chip wagons were popular mainly in Ontario and the Maritimes. Some of the foods you would find at these casual dining locations were of course fries- hot dogs, pogo dogs, burgers, and poutine. You'd also find pop sold by the can, and sometimes specialty items like dill pickle fries. Me personally, I loved the combo of a medium fry (salt+vinegar halfway down) with 2 Pogo dogs topped with honey mustard. Many a lazy weekend lunch were had sitting in the car eating fries and Pogos.