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Personal Narrative: Working At Kline's Ice Cream

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Three days a week, Jim Kramer wakes up at 4 a.m. It is not to milk the cows or feed the chickens, it’s to make a fresh batch of ice cream. His morning at Kline’s Dairy Bar lasts until 10:30 AM, when the serving begins. “We get deliveries [of mix and extract flavorings] twice a week. We use two mixing cans for the special. Two for the chocolate and for the vanilla. So, we have a different special every week that changes [like mint chocolate chip] and then we always have chocolate and vanilla,” Kramer said. Kramer has been working at Kline’s for four years after teaching and coaching at Spotswood Elementary School. Due to his acquaintance with the Kline’s owner, he was recommended the a job as a Kline’s ice cream maker, an opportunity for …show more content…

“So I started being an assistant manager about three years [ago]. I've worked here since I was 15, it was my first job so I've been here for 16 years,” Minnick said. “[Here at the store] we have ice cream makers and their sole job is making ice cream. They come in early in the morning do all the production and they are out of the store typically so they’re not in the way cause we have less …show more content…

“We try to sell them on the fact that it is something special. [Although] sometimes people don’t necessarily get it and that can be frustrating. [What helps is that] a lot of people who come here have stopped at the visitor's center downtown and [they say that they’ve heard Kline’s] is such a great place and that they have to to [come here].” As constantly growing business, Kline’s has developed other strategies to reach even more customers and make visitors familiar with their ice cream. They have expanded gradually to nearby cities partially due to the pull of James Madison University students who help recognize Kline’s outside of its local presence. Their expansion hasn’t just included permanent establishments as Kline’s has in recent times found themselves on a roll. “We recently purchased a bus that we’ve converted into an ice cream food truck. We’ve been going to some festivals since [food trucks are] starting to become popular, so we are looking to do more of that. Maybe even do events like weddings [and] birthdays [since] instead of traditional catering [people] are having food trucks,” Minnick said. “It’s not like an ice cream truck where we are have music playing and we are serving on the street, not that kind of thing but more so set up in one place for special

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