FAMOUS FRANK

From the converted bakery truck’s makeshift sound system, 92Q kicks out a steady stream of Rihanna, Drake, Lil Baby, and Lizzo. The music is just loud enough to overcome the low roar of the twin electric generators powering the slightly battered green vehicle, a kind of mobile corner store known as a “candy bus” in Baltimore parlance.

- Ron Cassie

SHELLBANKS ROAD

It’s late afternoon, and the bus has just pulled up to this Cherry Hill street curb and plugged in. Almost immediately, a couple of teenagers walk over to the window on the side of the truck and ask the woman inside for a Snickers bar and a bag of chips. One of the young guys then turns toward the familiar man leaning against a big Chevy pickup, which carries extra supplies, in front of the candy bus. Its bed is stacked with two dirt bikes—and two massive plastic coolers filled with bottles of iced tea, soda, and water.

“Yo, Uncle Frank, you got any tea?”

Cherry Hill, unlike most neighborhoods in this city, does not have any corner stores. Or walkable convenience or grocery stores. Filling that void are a handful of candy buses, like this one owned and operated by Frank Hudson, also known as Uncle Frank, also known as World Famous Fat Frank. “Sure,” Hudson says, digging out bottles of sweet tea and lemon tea. “Which one you want?”