Collector Recalls The Sweet Life

By GEOFF FOX The Tampa Tribune

Published: Jul 23, 2007

DADE CITY - In his white pants, white cap and white Good Humor shirt, Tom Small looked like a character Norman Rockwell might have drawn for a Saturday Evening Post cover.

It didn't hurt that the retired 65-year-old, also wearing white shoes, was sitting atop an antique Good Humor delivery tricycle from the 1950s.

The trike is one of several oldfangled ice cream vehicles Small has collected through the years, including a 1928 Model A Ford that now sports a Good Humor ice cream box on the back.

The vehicles are part of an ice cream-themed collection that might leave curators at the Smithsonian Institution salivating.

"Later on in life, I got fascinated and started collecting scoops and signs and fountains and on and on," Small said.

A Kansas native and father of three adult children, Small retired a couple of years ago from Earl J. Small Growers in Pinellas Park, a large greenhouse facility his father started after World War II.

With time on his hands, he indulges his passion for ice cream and memorabilia.

The house he built in a rural area near Dade City is part dwelling, part ice cream parlor.

In a cavernous room off the foyer, checkerboard tile leads to a large, working soda fountain, replete with countertop and chairs, made in the 1950s. Near the soda fountain is a box filled with ice cream scoops from the 1910s, '20s and '30s.

Small's extensive collection includes several penny licks, molded glass dishes that people used to eat ice cream before the cone; a soft-serve machine from the 1950s; a Hamilton Beach malt maker; antique ice cream makers, and a large wooden barrel root beer dispenser.

When Small throws a party, he makes ice cream. Just about everything in his collection works.

"When people come over, I like to make my malts," he said. "It tastes like back in the '50s.

"I can't cook, but I can make ice cream."

Russell Smith of St. Petersburg has known Small for about 20 years.

"He sets it up just like a soda jerk, with all the attire," Smith said of Small's parties. "He likes to dress up [in his Good Humor outfit] and does a lot of shows for the guys in the motorcycle club here and the car club.

"He's a nice guy, man. He gets into everything, likes old stuff and likes to preserve everything."

Whenever he can, Small dons his Good Humor outfit and attends events throughout the Tampa Bay area, serving ice cream in one of his antique ice-cream-mobiles.

His home parlor also serves as something of a shrine to the 1950s.

The jukebox is stocked with Little Richard albums, and the walls are adorned with antique signs and posters advertising a B.B. King concert and Elvis Presley's "Jailhouse Rock" movie. Smith's old telephone booth and candy-dispensing machines seem like artifacts of a simpler time.

"I guess I just like to relive the '50s," he said with a grin. "We've all forgotten about it now, but I remember when a bottle of Coke went to 6 cents, and we just had a fit."

Reporter Geoff Fox can be reached at (813) 948-4217 or gfox@tampatrib.com.