Katie May
Northern News Services
Published Friday, July 11, 2008

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - One Yellowknife man goes to work each bright summer day only to be chased by hordes of young, screaming fans waving their arms and jumping up and down.

Tamer "Tim" Akbulut is an ice cream man.

"I feel admired, you know," he laughs as he stops the truck on the side of the road near Fred Henne Park and motions to a group of kids who have excitedly dashed out in front of the truck.

"They make noise when they see me. It's good."

It's a cloudy, mosquito-filled Sunday evening but the overcast sky isn't discouraging Yellowknifers young and old from standing in line for a banana split, a soft-serve sundae, a fruity slushie or an ever-popular chocolate- or butterscotch-dipped cone with sprinkles.

Those are the trickiest to make, Akbulut explains as he stirs the liquid dip and prepares to submerge the cone upside down. When he first tried his hand at dipped cones, the ice cream would regularly plop out of the cone and into the vat of dip.

"It's pretty easy. It takes some practice. But not that much."

Now, after pulling the evenly chocolate-coated cone from the vat, Akbulut zips around the truck, filling up the soft serve machine with packs of liquid ice cream, pumping just the right amount of flavoured juice into each slushie and serving eager customers in less than 30 seconds each.

Then he starts up the music again and moves down the street to the next spot, where a man hurries a group of kids over to the pick-up window and plunks a handful of change down on the counter.

"I've got five kids," he says. "Can you hook us up with some ice cream?"

So Akbulut serves up five baby cones, liberally dishing out sprinkles for the grateful kids.

This gig is more fun than his winter job driving cabs on the night shift, he says.

"(My) favourite part is first of all that I'm working with the kids and I'm working with sober people. You see, that is really very important."

And after spending a few seasons in Alberta driving an oil rig across icy roads, handling an ice cream truck is a piece of cake.

Originally from a small village in Bulgaria, Akbulut moved to Yellowknife two and a half years ago and bought his truck - complete with that instantly recognizable, nearly hypnotic jangling tune - in time for prime ice cream season last summer. He used to drive an ice cream truck in Toronto and he has added 50 cents to Toronto ice cream prices to cover the higher costs of shipping supplies to Yellowknife.

He says sales are highest at festivals such as Aboriginal Day and Folk on the Rocks and in places such as Fred Henne Park and Ndilo, though every few weeks he heads out to Rae, where he's wildly popular among the children.

"Oh my goodness, you should see the people in Rae," he says. "They were very excited."

Akbulut sets his own working hours, travels to lots of different places in and around NWT and constantly brings smiles to children's faces creating delicious treats. But like any job, working as an ice cream man does have its hazards - not everyone likes the vehicle's music.

Akbulut says when he passes a residence in Old Town, a man doing renovations yells at him to stop the music.

"Now I know the place and every time I go by I turn off the music," Akbulut laughs. "Although his equipment is noisier than my music, he doesn't like the music."

That's not the case for six-year-old Lonan Bulger and his three-year-old sister Regan. They dance ecstatically around their front yard on Ballantyne Court as Akbulut pulls up to their driveway, and ask him to keep the music on while they wait for their ice cream.

The kids are regular customers and Akbulut has been stopping by their house daily since last summer to serve up their favourite chocolate milkshakes.

Their mother, Gail, usually calls Akbulut on his cell phone to see if he's coming through the neighbourhood.

"They love him. Just about every day they have milkshakes," she laughs.

Akbulut says it's good to have regular customers, particularly since Yellowknife's summer is so short. He'll keep the truck running until late this month, when ice cream sales start to dip, and then head down to B.C.'s Okanagan Valley to finish off the season.

"All in all it's just a fun job," he says.