The Dollar Cone

This may sound more like an advertisement than a blog entry, but since I’m not getting paid and my arm isn’t getting twisted, I guess we’ll call it a blog. I just like sharing about good things and I’ve got a whopper for you. One of my favorite places to go and my whole family agrees is the Dollar Cone ice cream shop on Highway 84 near Wesley Chapel. I love it because the cones are in fact $1. Well, that is not the only reason. The ice cream is good, real good and they will even dip the cones in chocolate or strawberry to make the hard shells just like I used to get as a kid. The atmosphere is cool, too. It’s not just a place to go get a cone for a buck, it’s a destination, a place to hang out. Outside the shop are several chairs, tables and even a cabana-type thingie set up for folks to sit, hang out and catch up with each other and their neighbors. I have passed by the store since they opened a couple of years ago and anytime after 3pm when school is out, the parking lot is packed. Nothing brings all types of people together more than a dollar cone. I’ve seen big, burly guys driving power company trucks and construction trucks, soccer moms and their kids, teenagers and old folks all there eating cones and chilling out, literally. The fame of the Dollar Cone is spreading faster than I expected. Tonight while we sat enjoying our cones a bus pulled up and at least 25 people got out. It’s attracting tourist now. The owner, a really nice lady whose name I don’t even know to further give evidence that I’m not getting paid for this endorsement, has done a bang up job of creating a new landmark in the Wesley Chapel community. I’m personally happy to see it. I have history with the building that occupies this ice cream shop. As a teenager my Dad ran a convenience store there and I spent many summers minding it. Business was so slow so much of the time and I would read. One summer I was going through a period of reading true crime novels and was reading Helter Skelter. At least an hour passed between customers one day while reading and I was soaked in it. Then the front door opened and I jumped out of my shoes! But it was also the place I began courting the young lady that I would eventually marry. Sandra lived about 300 yards from the store and I would get rid of her annoying little brother, Joel, by sending him away with Pepsi’s and cinnamon buns for Sandra. He of course had to have his cut for the delivery fee. This courtship may have driven my Dad out of business, but in the end it has resulted in his three grandchildren. He’s probably okay with the trade and I’m sure that the community is cool with the arrangement now. My Dad didn’t sell ice cream for a buck and that was over 25 years ago. Keep up the great work, Dollar Cone.