Four Seas Ice Cream. - Four Seas Ice Cream: sailing through the sweet history of Cape Cods favorite ice cream parlor

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2012 by Heather M. Wysocki

All rights reserved

Cover images: upper left, painting by Joan Scudder; bottom right, line outside store, Studio by the Sea; middle left, dripping cone, Roots Workshop. All other photos from the Warren family collection.

First published 2012

e-book edition 2013

Manufactured in the United States

ISBN 978.1.62584.080.6

Library of Congress CIP data applied for.

print edition ISBN 978.1.60949.528.2

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

Four Seas is special to so many people, and we are so excited about this book for several reasons. Personal involvement with the business and the author means that our stories are told in a way some of Four Seas fans might never have heard before. Plus, weve always wanted to document our story and share it with our friends, alumni, family and fans.

After my father, Dick Warren, wrote The Complete Idiots Guide to Homemade Ice Cream in 2006, we were hoping that he would do a book on just Four Seas Ice Cream and its long history in Centerville and with our family. However, between publicity for the recipe book and spending time doing his favorite thingsgolfing, skiing and being with his familytime slipped away, and my dad died in 2008 in a skiing accident. A few years after his passing, in 2011, we were approached to do this project. Lucky for us, we have an amazing and award-winning writer, our daughter, Heather Wysocki. She spent countless hours researching, interviewing, writing and combing through photos, newspapers, magazines, awards, books and memorabilia for this complete history of Four Seas Ice Cream. Heather has also worked many years at the store, helps write newsletters for Four Seas and has worked several years writing for local newspapers. I often joke that she was a better writer at four years old than I am now.

Four Seas has been in our family for over fifty years now. Im a second-generation owner. My parents, Richard and Georgia, met while working at Four Seas in the 1950s and ran the place for twenty years. My father continued running the store and, in the 1980s, married Linda. Everyone in the family has worked at the store, from my sister Janice to my late brother Randy. In fact, you could say that as soon as you could reach the counter while standing on a milk crate you were put to work, labeling quarts and pints or helping wash up. Even before that, we were fixtures at the store. My siblings and I have all been told that when our mom was working at the store, we would visit with customers from our playpens. Even though shes a new addition to the family, my wife, Peggy, has completely immersed herself in our crazy and rewarding business, spending long hours at the store and behind the scenes, living on a few hours of sleep every night. We have worked countless hours dishwashing, scrubbing, scooping, painting, making ice cream, doing freezer work, making friends with customers and co-workers and making smiles.

The family tradition continues today. My son Joshua still is one of our managers and ice cream makers, while our daughter Heather worked at the store as a scooper and manager for nine years. My nieces Lindsey, Paige and Eliza have spent summers on Cape Cod and always help behind the counter. My stepsister worked at the store as a teenager and still helps us out at the end of the summer, and my stepbrother, who lives in New Hampshire, also comes down when he can. And Linda gets in on the action too, helping us make sandwiches and keeping the store running smoothly at the beginning and end of each summer when many of our regular employees are in school or away at college. From our decades in the business, we have a unique insiders perspective on Four Seas that were really excited to share with you.

It is amazing to us how many people the store affects, from the customers to the crew. Over the years, we have heard many touching stories and memories tied to the store, and we love hearing them all. It seems like everyone has a joyful experience from Four Seas that they continue to hold in their memories.

In this ever-changing world, it is so fun to be part of a business that is historic, unchanged and creates memories and smiles. We were hoping Chief was going to do this project, but we are proud that Heather was able to write this and share our family business and story with everyone. Hopefully, this book and the store will build memories and bring smiles for a long time to come.

Douglas and Peggy Warren

Owners, Four Seas Ice Cream

INTRODUCTION

Gelato. Sorbetto. Sprinkles and candies and crumbles.

Four Seas does not do these things. Four Seas does not make trendy flavors or follow the low-fat craze. There are no sprinkles on the ice cream cones, no cookies in the ice cream sundaes, no lettuce or tomato on the fresh lobster salad sandwiches. But for over seventy-seven years, thousands of families and visitors to the seaside Cape Cod town of Centerville have flocked to the store and stood in line for hours for exactly that simplicity.

A quarter-mile from Craigville Beach, Four Seas Ice Cream is situated in a quaint village of postcard dreams, complete with the white church where generations have married and the next-door candy shop where generations of those couples children have purchased sweets.

Over the years, Four Seas has become the sirens call for visiting families and some very famous neighbors: the Kennedys, whose love of Four Seas Ice Cream has been documented in local and national newspapers.

But despite national recognition by the media and its stars, Four Seas came from a humble place. In 1934, a Boston insurance man teamed up with a restaurateur friend to transform an old blacksmiths shop into a seasonal seaside ice cream shop. Within just a few years, the business was bleeding money. But owner W. Wells Watson was a New Englander, and the Yankee sensibility of bucking up and doing what needs to be done came through.

After he officially took over from the restaurateur, the business became more successful than any seven-table ice cream shop has the right to be. And it has stayed that way.

In 1960, Richard Warren, a just-out-of-college teacher who worked at the shop in the summers, purchased the business with his wife, Georgia, whom he met when she was behind the counter at Four Seas during her familys summer trips to the Cape. Over the years, the Warren family faced tragedy and divorce but ultimately transformation with the second marriage of Warren to Linda Joyal in 1984, to whom he was married until his death in 2008. In 1999, another change came when Richard and Linda Warren began transitioning ownership of the business to Richards son Douglas and his new wife Peggy, who still run the store. Until 2010, the store didnt even open in winters, despite requests from fans of the ice cream.

Through all these changes, one thing has stayed pretty much the same: Four Seas. While fresh coats of paint have been added and new employees have scooped, the ice cream and the feeling customers have when they bite into a cone hasnt changedand never will. Ask anyone associated with Four Seasfrom customers to neighbors to the former employees whose children now yearn to work thereand youll hear a story of old-fashioned family values, a commitment to quality and a deep love of community.