By ALLISON CHAMBERS and LEAH WEATHERSBY

It is summertime again and along with the season comes those familiar music box tunes, echoing down residential streets, sure to draw hungry kids into the hot weather. It is none other than a sweet tooth's best friend: the ice cream man.

Very early ice cream trucks started on the East Coast by the Good Humor company. In 1961, a firefighter in Seattle named James McCoy started an ice cream truck company of his own called Joe Confection Company, which is based in Lake City.

McCoy bought his first truck to provide a summer job for his then-18-year-old son, Mike. At the time, Mike McCoy was a college student who had already worked for another ice cream truck company in town. As the owner of that company began to look towards retirement, he started selling his trucks to James McCoy.

McCoy started his business with just one truck that happened to have "Joe" written on it, hence the company name. Although Mike McCoy only sold ice cream for one season, James found the business successful enough that he bought more trucks every summer, and built a warehouse in Lake City near his home.

The Joe Confection Company eventually built its fleet up to 40 trucks. In the mid-1990s, 15 trucks were sold to independent drivers not affiliated with the company.

James McCoy retired from the fire department in 1966 at the age of 50, but continued to run Joe Confection Company until 1984 when he handed it over to one of his daughters, Linda, and her husband, John Drake, who live in the Roosevelt neighborhood. Now 83, James McCoy is no longer actively involved in the business.

Over the years, a few changes have been made to Joe Confection Company. For instance, the trucks, which originally played tunes produced by an electronically powered Swiss music box, now use CD recordings. Most of the trucks now play the song "Bicycle Built for Two." John Drake said the up-tempo rhythm of the song gets kids out of their homes and over to the trucks faster. "The faster the song, the more ice cream they sell," he said.

Of course, not everyone likes the sound of ice cream trucks. Joe Confection Company made national news in 1998 when a letter writer from Seattle wrote the syndicated advice column "Dear Abby" to complain about the company's noisy trucks. Columnist Abigal Van Buren advised "Ice Cream Truck Hater" that the next time he hears an ice cream truck approaching, "cover your ears and observe the delighted expressions on the faces of the children gathered around it. The good humor may be contagious."

The ice cream products that Joe's trucks sell have changed over the years. John Drake said ice cream, back in the 1960s and '70s, used to come in only a few, classic flavors.

That's not the case today. Many of this year's big sellers are "face items" that reference popular culture. Joe trucks now carry not only popsicles, ice cream cones and ice cream sandwiches, but fruit-flavored Spider-Man and Sponge Bob frozen desserts as well. And of course, the prices have changed, too. No longer a dime, today's ice cream treats will usually set you back 75 cents to $2.

The ice cream truck business works like this: the company rents out their trucks to drivers, who buy the Good Humor ice cream (from Joe) that they wish to sell. Typically, a Joe truck carries 12-14 varieties at a time. Other independent ice cream truck drivers may buy ice cream from Joe as well, but may not violate copyright in effect. Drivers who rent out trucks have a fleet number for the truck, which is posted on the rear, and are assigned a "route" or set of boundaries to adhere to - which are usually a few square miles. Joe trucks have gone as far as Mount Vernon, and cover all of the Seattle area.

Most Joe ice cream trucks today are actually old Jeep trucks once used for mail delivery, which explains why on most of them the driver's seat is on the right-hand side. They are painted with the traditional orange stripes and outfitted with Styrofoam coolers in the back. The ice cream is kept cold by small slabs of the dry ice wrapped in brown paper.

Recently, signs were added to the back of the trucks asking, "How is my driving?" John Drake said this has minimized many problems among their relatively young drivers.

Joe drivers are usually college students, although Drake said he has employed some drivers as old as in their 70s. This year, the oldest Joe truck driver is 48.

While the dot-com boom of the late 1990s made finding young workers tough in recent years, John Drake said the current economic downturn has done wonders in terms of finding job applicants interested in becoming Joe truck drivers.

"This is really the best summer we've had in a while," he said.