Remembering Snelgrove's Ice Cream

Snelgrove's 21st South flagship eatery underwent numerous transformations before it finally closed it's doors on June 7, 2002 (shown here). Noticeably absent were the counters and stools along the store's west edge where you could order a triple thick malt and receive the metal container with whatever portion of the ice cream confection that wouldn't fit into your glass. Also changed from year's past: on the back wall there used to be dozens of round, painted wooden disks of various colors with ice cream flavors designated. It seems like the colors scheme ran more to pale green and salmon colors then. 

One thing never changed: the wait. Service at the ice cream store was always slow, especially when you finally made it to your booth. The waitresses wore stodgy dresses with aprons and usually seemed to be from decades long past. I remember Paul Sommer once ordered a vanilla shake. When the order finally came out he was given a banana shake. He asked the waitress what was up with banana and she told him, "I couldn't believe anyone would come here and just order vanilla!"

Some may remember the night in early 1970 when Brighton successfully won the Region 3 Wrestling tournament and Coach Neff, his wife, Coach Jesperson and most of the team filled a back room to celebrate the victory. Brighton was brand new and had difficulty winning at any sport. Coach Neff elevated wrestling to something that made the student body proud. As usual, the wait for the ordered ice cream was a long one. Kelly 'Bubba' Brown made some unfortunate public observations on the nature of marshmallow topping. We never took him out for ice cream again. Here's another photo of three guys who spent way too much time with ice cream.