5574-R5_ML&P_LSLA_2018_Web_SummerNewsletter_Web

Ice Cream Boats and Little Sebago Lake: An Illustrious History

Hello Little Sebago Lake!

Ice Cream Boat! With the inspiration from her father, and a small loan, (you’ll notice a theme here) Jeanette purchased a second-hand pontoon boat, a freezer and a generator. A sign was painted, the freezer was stocked with delicious ice cream novelties, and she was in business.

Many of you know me, but for some of you I’m sure this will be a first impression, so I’ll do my best! My name is Joe Newlin, and for the last four years I have run the Good Ship Gelato -- Little Sebago Lake’s latest iteration of the ice cream boat. During my tenure on the water I’ve been lucky enough to get to know many of you on a first name basis, and share summer memories with you on our little slice of heaven-on-earth, Little Sebago Lake. Every winter, as I pine for sunny days and warm water, I daydream endlessly about what to add to the ice cream boat experience. This year I have decided to write a brief history of Ice Cream Boats on Little Sebago Lake. While perhaps dull for those merely attached to Dark Chocolate Caramel Sea Salt Gelato, I hope it will appeal to those, like me, with a love of history and a soft spot for nostalgia. As many of you know, and I’ll be the first to tell anyone who asks, I did not invent the ice cream boat idea. I stole (borrowed, re-purposed) it from an enterprising and engaging young man named Jake Viola. My childhood lake memories are distinctly punctuated with images of Jake piloting the SS Ice Cream Float from dock to dock to the tune of Jimmy Buffett’s “Margaritaville.” However, this story starts long before that. According to my sources (mostly fellow Little Sebago Lake nostalgists and former ice cream boaters themselves!) the first ice cream boat appeared on Little Sebago Lake in the warm, languid summer of 1992. The root that all of this madness can be traced back to is when Jeanette Hayes, a woman after my own heart, rejected the idea of a “normal” summer job. In 1992 she was 15, and her father, Gary (the true genius of the story), had a moment of inspiration. What would satisfy his daughter who rejected the idea of working inside all summer long as a cashier or waitress? An

Operating out of Farwell Cove, the boat was an instant hit, and a Little Sebago Lake tradition was born. In her first year, Jeanette paid back the loan and made a name for herself throughout the lake. Her crew was three-part, including her younger sister, Patricia, in the all-important role of “sign-holder” (man, I wish I had one of those!) and their dog, Blaze, who was notorious for lounging placidly in the front of the boat as they meandered along the shore. Jeanette operated the Ice Cream Float for two summers before handing the reins to her younger brother, Andrew. After taking his turn in the ice cream boat game, Andrew passed the torch onto Timothy, the third sibling in line. Timothy was in business for two summers, and by the sound of it, landed quite the haul. After purchasing his first snowmobile with ice cream boat-acquired funds, Timothy figured he’d achieved all a teenage boy could hope to achieve and became the third Hayes to retire into legend. While that could have been the end of the story, luckily it wasn’t. In 2010, a new legend, be-decked with a white

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