Wednesday, April 5, 2006
Merrymobile for Sale
Posted by John Branston on Wed, Apr 5, 2006 at 4:00 AM
If you don’t remember Merrymobiles, you didn’t live in Memphis in the 1950s and 1960s. These round, three-wheeled vehicles with their distinctive red, white and blue canopies putt-putted along the streets of our city, selling popsicles, ice cream sandwiches, and other treats to local kids. The company went out of business in the late 1960s, and most of the old Merrymobiles wound up in junkyards.
But one somehow managed to survive, parked outside an auto-shop in Millington for years, where it gathered rust and — somehow — lost its wheels and engine. That’s where Joe Patty, owner of the Lickety-Split Ice Cream Company, saw it. Two years ago, Patty purchased the old Merrymobile, totally refurbished it, installed a golf cart engine and transmission, and added it to his own fleet of vehicles.
But now it’s for sale, and for $6,500 you can purchase your very own original Merrymobile. Patty has posted pictures of the thing, pre- and post-restoration, on his company Web site.
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