As a pre-teen and teen, my sister Marie, helped man the Village Outlet for my parents. As in any family, you pitch in where needed. On many occasions I joined her, but at the young age of three, I was most likely of no help, more of a maintenance issue added to her daily responsibilities at the Outlet. This probably led to her moments of escape through daydreaming. In her only place of respite from being one of the older siblings in this (so far) family of four, was where the dream came alive to open an ice cream shop...some day. A place where local families could gather and create lasting memories and traditions. The first idea for this came from the ice cream wagon in the Outlets parking lot. A local couple ran the wagon for a short period. After its closing, it was obvious to my sister, that people were still wanting a local ice cream shop. Many years passed, junior high turned into high school and then off to college. Life happened. All the while, the dream, although pushed to the back burner was still simmering through the years. Finally, in 1987, Marie, with her then sister-in-law, Janet, decided to take the plunge. A lot of no nonsense hard labor: cleaning, scraping, painting and with the help of a certain handy man had a counter built. The two used dipping freezers and a hundred dollars starting cash (note: there was no cash register), and they were in business! On a mild May day in 1987, Village Ice Cream was no longer a dream in a Little girls imagination, this dream had come true!