ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, March 10, 1997 TAG: 9703100002
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BRISTOL
SOURCE: HERALD COURIER
The high school was right next door when the store first opened, and the shop thrived on walk-in traffic at lunch and after football and basketball games.
For generations of students at Virginia High School and Virginia Middle School, the Courtesy Ice Cream shop has been a favorite after-school stop.
Now, 50 years after it opened, original customers bring their own children, sometimes just to say hello to Jim Orfield, who still dishes it out after all these years.
``We started here in '47, turned it into almost a drug store without the drugs, taking care of all the school kids,'' Orfield said. ``We manufactured our own products. We had rather long hours, controlled by all the school kids. This was their home for years and years.''
Orfield quit making his own ice cream in the 1980s, when it became economically unfeasible. He said the ice cream he serves now isn't as good as his own recipe. ``There's no doubt, it was 100 percent better,'' he said.
The high school was right next door when the store first opened, and the shop thrived on walk-in traffic at lunch and after football and basketball games.
``They used to let out for school here, and this was the home of all the football and basketball boys and all that stuff. They'd come in here, and we'd have uniforms and equipment all over the place. I would close up at 11 o'clock at night.''
At one time, the shop employed eight people to work the counter and others to make deliveries. Now it's just Orfield and his wife, Evelyn.
Under the counter, Orfield still has the old molds that were used to make sculptures in the form of wedding bells and wedding slippers, lilies of the valley and other items no longer offered.
The present shop was built in 1952. The original building has since been razed. But almost all the equipment is the same, right down to the counters and the seating around the wall.
Orfield still has a few of the old promotional materials, but he wishes he had kept more. He has kept a card with the 1953 Virginia High School basketball schedule on one side and the shop's name and address on the back - and the old-style telephone number, N-1874.
He also has a box of wooden nickels, good for 5 cents on the purchase of an ice cream cone.
At 75, Orfield still enjoys coming to work every day and has no plans to retire.
``It's my life,'' he said. ``It's the reason I'm 75 years old.''
LENGTH: Medium: 56 linesby CNB