Memphis ice cream maker Klinke Bros. scoops up Baskin-Robbins award for opening new stores

[Robert Coker]

Interesting story about a Memphis company and Baskin-Robbins.  I was familiar with Klinke Bros. but did not know their connection to B-R.  They not only produce the ice cream but are also a franchisee.

 

http://www.commercialappeal.com/story/money/2017/08/17/memphis-ice-cream-maker-klinke-bros-scoops-up-baskin-robbins-award-opening-new-stores/557332001/

 

I had never noticed the “31” in the B-R logo (31 regular flavors – one for each day of the month).

 

 

 

Raymond and I worked at the old Swift ice cream plant on Madison near Cooper (now known as the Overton Square entertainment area) one summer on the night clean-up crew.  The plant is still active but it is used as a dairy and owned by someone else.

 

Robert

[Paul Sisco]

Robert,

 

Blast from the past.  I had forgotten all about the Klinke Brothers.  What brand of milk did we have in Memphis when we were growing up?

 

My Dad, being a country boy, always distinguished “sweet milk” from buttermilk.

 

Paul

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[Raymond Spence]

Robert,  I am reminded of the great summer job you found for us at Swifts Ice Cream Co. on Madison near Overton Square (now Turner/Prairie Farms).  I "loved" working from 5 in the evening till 3:30 in the morning cleaning that plant a setting it up for the next day's production.

I remember the morning that you thought nobody was around and you eased through a red light at maybe Poplar and Highland at about 4:00 AM and got a ticket.  I was surprised hat you would do it but I felt bad about the ticket.

On Sat, Aug 19, 2017 at 12:00 PM, Paul Sisco <phs...@gmail.com> wrote:

Robert,

 

Blast from the past.  I had forgotten all about the Klinke Brothers.  What brand of milk did we have in Memphis when we were growing up?

 

My Dad, being a country boy, always distinguished “sweet milk” from buttermilk.

 

Paul

 

From: cub...@googlegroups.com [mailto:cubs63@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Robert Coker
Sent: Saturday, August 19, 2017 12:37 PM
To: cub...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [Cubs63:7746] Memphis ice cream maker Klinke Bros. scoops up Baskin-Robbins award for opening new stores

 

Interesting story about a Memphis company and Baskin-Robbins.  I was familiar with Klinke Bros. but did not know their connection to B-R.  They not only produce the ice cream but are also a franchisee.

 

http://www.commercialappeal.com/story/money/2017/08/17/memphis-ice-cream-maker-klinke-bros-scoops-up-baskin-robbins-award-opening-new-stores/557332001/

 

I had never noticed the “31” in the B-R logo (31 regular flavors – one for each day of the month).

 

 

 

Raymond and I worked at the old Swift ice cream plant on Madison near Cooper (now known as the Overton Square entertainment area) one summer on the night clean-up crew.  The plant is still active but it is used as a dairy and owned by someone else.

 

Robert

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[Dave McComas]

  I worked for Swifts Ice Cream for 3 summers too. I was on the 7am - 3pm shift working in the "hardening room."

   After the popsicles, ice cream bars - sandwiches, pints, qts & half gallons of all the flavors were made in the plant, they came up a belt into the "hardening room."

   It had double steel doors opening into a giant freezing room 40 degrees below zero. We wore Navy Insulated suits and worked shifts of 40 minutes in & 20 minutes outside on the dock loving that summer sweltering heat. 

   We took the product off a conveyor, put it on metal trays & used a machine to put the metal trays up into hundreds of racks of like product. 

    Trick one was learning what racks were where. Trick two was dexterity to run the lift & slide the trays down the racks of like product. 

       Punishment one was having to climb up in those racks in that huge insulated suit & get the trays on the ball bearing racks if you missed getting them on with the lift. I am sure OSHA did not exist when we were doing the climbing in the racks. 

   I took home my emptied lunchbox at the end of work full of left overs from the torn package barrel. My family couldn't wait to see me get home from work. 

    I remember making the outrageous sum of $.75/hr first summer & being really proud of my dime raises in Yrs 2 & 3. But I saved it all & paid my Memphis State Tuition with it. 

    My best bud, Mike DeZonia was a "Mixologist" at Swifts. Had the brains to understand the mix formulas & do them right. I remember him in white suits with knee high rubber boots climbing ladders & adding things in the gigantic vats that made up ice cream flavors. 

   Amazing memories to look back on. I had forgotten until now you guys working on the cleaning crews. Probably went in the hardening room & got your share out of the "damaged goods" barrel too!

On Aug 19, 2017, at 1:15 PM, Raymond Spence <rnspe...@gmail.com> wrote:

Robert,  I am reminded of the great summer job you found for us at Swifts Ice Cream Co. on Madison near Overton Square (now Turner/Prairie Farms).  I "loved" working from 5 in the evening till 3:30 in the morning cleaning that plant a setting it up for the next day's production.

I remember the morning that you thought nobody was around and you eased through a red light at maybe Poplar and Highland at about 4:00 AM and got a ticket.  I was surprised hat you would do it but I felt bad about the ticket.

On Sat, Aug 19, 2017 at 12:00 PM, Paul Sisco <phs...@gmail.com> wrote:

Robert,

 

Blast from the past.  I had forgotten all about the Klinke Brothers.  What brand of milk did we have in Memphis when we were growing up?

 

My Dad, being a country boy, always distinguished “sweet milk” from buttermilk.

 

Paul

 

From: cub...@googlegroups.com [mailto:cubs63@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Robert Coker
Sent: Saturday, August 19, 2017 12:37 PM
To: cub...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [Cubs63:7746] Memphis ice cream maker Klinke Bros. scoops up Baskin-Robbins award for opening new stores

 

Interesting story about a Memphis company and Baskin-Robbins.  I was familiar with Klinke Bros. but did not know their connection to B-R.  They not only produce the ice cream but are also a franchisee.

 

http://www.commercialappeal.com/story/money/2017/08/17/memphis-ice-cream-maker-klinke-bros-scoops-up-baskin-robbins-award-opening-new-stores/557332001/

 

I had never noticed the “31” in the B-R logo (31 regular flavors – one for each day of the month).

 

<image001.jpg>

 

 

Raymond and I worked at the old Swift ice cream plant on Madison near Cooper (now known as the Overton Square entertainment area) one summer on the night clean-up crew.  The plant is still active but it is used as a dairy and owned by someone else.

 

Robert

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[Raymond Spence]

Robert and I were not such high level workers.  We started the day picking up wet cardboard and taking it to the dumpster.  when the production run finished, we disassembled all the stainless steel tubing that sent the mix to the freezers.  We cleaned all the tubing with a jerry-rigged electric powered bottle brush and a strong bleach solution.  Our supervisor, Doc or Pop or something like that, hosed live steam through all of the tubing to further disinfect it and to rinse out the bleach.

The fun part was looking at tomorrow's schedule and reassembling all of the tubing to the right freezers and packing lines.  The most fun was setting up to run Neapolitan because we had to run product from three freezers to the packing line.

The uncomfortable part was when Doc would check the QC lab and tell us we had too many colites (coliform bacteria) in last night's testing.

The plant shared liquid nitrogen as a coolant with the milk company next door; I think that was Turner Dairy.  A time or two a valve would freeze up and live anhydrous ammonia would spew across the plant.  Doc would send us outside while he dealt with - fairly dangerous, I guess.

We knew where the cold room was, of course, and raided it for snacks regularly.  But what I liked most was the French Vanilla Chocolate mix that we could pull straight from the holding tank from the valve that was there to collect test samples.

The ice cream plant is gone now and Turner Dairy is becoming Prairy Farms and is having uncomfortable growing pains in a residential neighborhood - too many noisy stinky trucks.

I think we just did it one year.  I do not know why we did not run into Mike and Dave.  Quite a memorable job

[Mike DeZonia]

I spent 3 summers at Swift's, also.  Worked noon to 10:30 pm, 5 days a week making $1.25 hr.  Big $$!  My time was spent calculating the ingredient portions, mixing up 500 gallon batches, cooking them to 160 degrees and pumping them over to holding tanks till the ice cream could be packaged.  Every batch was different depending on the butterfat level in the raw milk used to as a base.  Hard work in the "good ole days." 

[Paul Sisco]

Mike,

Seems like a lot of responsibilty for a high school kid. They must have respected you a lot.

Paul

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[Mike DeZonia]

Paul, I think I was the only one who could do long division and would work for buck and a quarter.

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[Mike DeZonia]

Robert, you mentioned your boss.  I believe that was Gus, a generally unpleasant sort of fellow due mostly in my opinion to his intensity to get his job done.  He liked to get in your face to make his point.  Only problem being you could never tell exactly who he was looking at as one eye was aimed most definitely West while the other wondered off in a Southeasterly direction.  My face, me being 6 or so inches taller than he, was in the North.  Did make it easy for him to talk to 3 people a the same time!  Anyway, Gus worked his way up to plant Mgr or Asst Mgr by the time Dave and I left.  He was very proud of that, told me he made $10,000, which put him in top 10% of salaries in US.  How times have changed!

[Mike Murphy]

I envy you guys being able to work in an ice cream factory during the summer. I spent my time on the family farm. Would have much preferred the cold ice cream to the hot hay fields! However, I'm thankful we all had good working experiences early in life. Good preparation for skills needed later. We have a lot of varied experiences in this group which is just another of the many reasons that make it special. 

Sent from my iPad

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[Christina Winter]

Great memories for us all, Dave.  Think your summer job was more interesting than mine!

Christina S. Winter

christina...@gmail.com

919.868.0287