I’m not truly a morning person and this morning (July 23) at our breakfast table I really had to blink. At first I thought Suburban News had enlarged the size of their printed pages. A second look made me realize I was looking at an article about our favorite ice cream stop in Florida. When Jimmy Alexander opened his present store in Clearwater, we did not know him. But we saw the historic photo of Spencerport on the wall and questioned him about it. Elaine Hay, who lives on Canal Street, in Spencerport, in a double house where we resided for several years, sends us the Suburban News and we pass them on to a minister, Rev. Kenneth Luff and his wife, Pearl, who once ministered in the village. They, in turn, pass them on to Jimmy at the ice cream shop. During winter months, Dick and Doris Costine of Coleman Avenue have a chance to read the papers since they live opposite the Luffs on Heron Road in our mobile home park in Clearwater. What a small world. The 10 years we lived at 8 Canal Street are remembered as some of the most enjoyable of our lives. Living in the village and walking the canal paths was such fun. Love your Suburban News. Lois Bircher from the Floridian: “My grandfather went to work in a candy store in 1912 and learned to make ice cream,” he’ll say. “I make all the ice cream myself, there in the back,” (Jimmy said). His grandfather’s picture is on the wall. Jimmy thinks he was a handsome man, in his striped shirt, behind the counter in his old-fashioned ice cream store, only it wasn’t old-fashioned then. Jimmy was named after his grandfather. When he looks at that picture, his voice might crack. Jimmy used to play in that store. He got in everybody’s way. His grandfather had a refrigeration plant and several trucks taking ice cream to stores and schools in the Rochester area in New York. All Jimmy’s friends knew his family was in the ice cream business, and Jimmy could eat as much as he wanted. Around 1961 the family moved to Florida. Jimmy’s grandfather, James Matheos, helped build the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church on Coachman Road, and his name is on a sign out front. He helped Jimmy’s father, William Alexander, buy the Pier Pavilion on Clearwater Beach. They ran the whole thing: the gift shop, the umbrella stand and, of course, the dairy bar. “Everybody remembers it,” Jimmy says. He went to work there at age 14 and stayed 31 years. “We would have lines of people 100 feet long, people waiting in the sun to get ice cream.” ... Dad taught his son to make an ice cream sundae. Put toppings on the bottom, not just the top. Nobody does that anymore, Jimmy says. He taught him the recipes for maple walnut and rum raisin and a dozen others. They spent more time together than they had in years. They called it Jimmy’s Dairy Delight. Jimmy has the place to himself most of the time now. His dad told him, Jimmy, don’t serve it if you wouldn’t eat it yourself. He told him, Jimmy, you can have the best ice cream in the world, but if you aren’t friendly, they won’t come back. Jimmy, don’t raise your prices, you’ll cut your throat. And keep the counters clean, “I always try to keep it up really good, ma’am.” ... “I’m just a little guy,” he says. “I’m the end of a generation.” |
