Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey Fought the Police to Sell Ice Cream

You must give props to the Massachusetts delegation to the United States Senate. When they are not tilting at windmills on some cable news network, they look for new ways to draw attention to themselves and their causes.

I suppose it comes with the territory.

I recently reminded you how senior U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren has come to be referred to by some as "Pocahontas." So I figured it only fair to tell how junior U.S. Senator Ed Markey became known as "Mr. Frosty."

Get our free mobile app

Markey is almost always referred to as "Mr. Frosty" by my colleague Howie Carr because before entering politics, Markey made a living by driving an ice cream truck.

He wasn't known as Mr. Frosty, however; Markey referred to himself as "Eddie the Ice Cream Man."

No joke, man.

Markey, born in Malden in 1946, has been in Congress, first as a member of the House and then the Senate, since 1976 – the year I graduated from New Bedford High School.

In a video posted to Markey's Facebook page, Eddie the Ice Cream Man said driving an ice cream truck for the Hood Milk Company was how he worked his way through Boston College.

"I loved being an ice cream man," Markey said.

One night, while peddling fudgsicles to kids on Lexington Green, Eddie the Ice Cream Man ran afoul of the law.

Markey said he was hauled in for violating a 150-year-old ordinance prohibiting the sale of "victuals by means of ringing a bell within the boundaries of the Town of Lexington."

However, Eddie the Ice Cream Man prevailed. Buoyed by 25 angry mothers and their kids, Eddie took his case before the Board of Selectmen, which unanimously overturned the law.

Eddie the Ice Cream Man was free to sell victuals by means of ringing a bell in Lexington, "the birthplace of freedom."

At that point, Markey said to himself, "Maybe I have a career beyond selling ice cream, someday in politics."

The rest, they say, is history.