Today we have three stores, and we've been expanding into other areas. We have three or four little markets that we do, and we have a couple of little restaurants that we work with. So we make ice cream almost on a weekly basis during the winters.
My wife and I moved here permanently in '78. Actually, we moved down on what was probably the coldest day of the year in December '77—the house never got above 50 degrees that weekend. We lived in the house next door, which was Captain Nathaniel Wixon's house. The middle school here in town was named after him—he was also a fisherman and a selectman. We actually bought the property from his daughters. Where the parking lot is now used to be a field that Captain Wixon used to dry out his fishing nets.
This whole area at one time was called Wixonville because there were so many Wixons. It's one of those old Cape names that you see everywhere. We were doing some cleaning in the house one time, and we found an old dance card that had fallen between the cracks. Around the turn of the century, they used to have dances where the Harwich Junior Theatre is now, and this was a card where you wrote in who you danced with and you could book who you danced with. It was pretty neat. The names are all the same: Wixon, Eldridge, and so forth.
Some of the other towns are nice towns, but their beaches can't compare to Dennis. The south side of Dennis is still very affordable for families. People can still afford a two- or three-bedroom cottage, go to the beach every day, get ice cream, play miniature golf—that makes Dennis attractive.
Dennis is a great town. I miss some of the old timers like Bob Briggs—he was at the Wee Packet down the street for 50 years. He was a great neighbor. One of the first times I'd met him, my wife and I were out in front of the store. He had just got done scalloping and he came over and shucked a scallop right in front of us—coming from Milton, I wasn't even really familiar with what a scallop looked like in the shell. It was about 10 a.m. and we were eating scallops raw in front of the store. He was a real character and a terrific person.
The most popular flavor is always the same at any ice cream place you go to and that's vanilla. That's because of the sundaes—most people, if they get a hot fudge sundae or if they bring a quart home for apple pie, they're getting vanilla. But after vanilla, Oreo is probably the most popular. In the old days, we used to buy the Oreos at the supermarket and break 'em up. Now we buy Oreos in 25-pound cases already broken. We've got Coffee Oreo, Oreo Crunch. Grasshopper is ice cream and mint with Oreos. We've done a lot with Oreos.
The '38 Chevy Ice Cream Truck out front is probably one of the most photographed items around. In the summer of 2008, two separate bridal parties came to have their pictures taken in front of it.
We went to two Sundae School weddings this last summer—they were kids that all met here. One of the weddings had something like nine kids from Sundae School. The maid of honor met the bride while working here and they became best friends.