Grads share sweet BYU Creamery stories from their student days.
Clue at the Creamery
By Brianna Parker Stapley (BS ’08), Provo
I worked at the BYU Creamery in the days just before Deseret Towers was torn down. The week of Halloween, we had permission to dress up on our shift, and we thought it would be fun to coordinate our costumes. We decided to put together a game of Clue, Creamery style. Each person on the shift dressed up as a character from the original Clue game. We switched the weapons from Clue with things like an ice cream scoop and a cheese knife, and Creamery locations like the deep freeze, office, and cash register became the crime scenes. As the only married person, I was Mrs. White. A manager drew the cards for the solution prior to the shift—so none of us knew what it was—and there was a paper by the cash register for our customers to vote throughout the shift on who they thought did it, with what, and where. Based on their votes, they suspected Mrs. White, with the candlestick, in the deep freeze. But when the solution was revealed, it turned out to be Mr. Green, in the deep freeze, with the ice cream scoop!
Back to the Creamery
By Natalie Merrill Scherck (BS ’17), East Wenatchee, WA
When I was 11 years old, my oldest sister headed to BYU, and that Christmas she gifted me a BYU Creamery T-shirt. She delighted in seeing me wear it because she thought it made me look like a Creamery grocery bag, and it made her laugh. Three years later I got to experience the Creamery firsthand as an eager teenager at my first EFY. I remember sharing a half-gallon tub of ice cream with a group of friends, digging our plastic spoons in and devouring the entire thing in the way only teenagers can. Fast-forward a few more years, and I found myself living at Heritage Halls as a freshman and frequenting the Creamery each week for some grocery staples and, of course, the occasional ice cream with my roommates. A few years after that, my new husband and I headed to the BYU Creamery, selected the tiniest container of ice cream, and happily shared our student-budget date night. Several years and three kids later, we found ourselves once again on a visit to the Creamery, eager to let each of our children choose a flavor to enjoy and have their first experience there. It has been four years since that trip, and the kids still talk about that ice cream. This year, now more than 20 years since I was given that Creamery T-shirt, we are looking forward to bringing our four kids on a vacation to BYU and giving each of them their very own taste of BYU. We hope they choose to attend BYU, even if it’s just because they want to eat more of that ice cream.
The Creamery Cure
By Conrad C. Smith (BS ’15), Palmer, AK
My wife and I graduated in April 2015, but we decided to stay in Provo for a few months prior to moving to Minnesota. I found a job at the Provo City Cemetery. I recall coming home one evening from the cemetery after an especially hot day of lawn mowing, weed whipping, and sod placement. My wife had made a casserole for dinner, and after eating, I expressed that I didn’t feel well. I dismissed her assertion that I was suffering from heat stroke, persuading her that I frequently drank water throughout the day. By 7 p.m. I wasn’t feeling any better.
We decided to do our best to enjoy the evening despite my condition, so we made our way to the BYU Creamery. As I watched employees scoop for the customers in front of me, I began to smell the aromas wafting from the grill. Each time I stepped forward in line, I felt more conflicted: “Should I order ice cream or get a burger? What about fries? Ice cream and fries? I already had dinner—do I really need more than ice cream? Can I justify paying for more than just a scoop?” As my eyes traced back and forth over the menu and my feet inched up to the counter, I made up my mind. “One children’s meal, please.” A burger, fries, and a scoop of ice cream for $4 was an incredible deal. As I finished the meal, in one of the most satisfied moments of my life, I recognized that my “illness” was hunger and the “cure” was a Creamery Kid’s Meal.
Extra Creamery Credits
By Amy Brinton Blad (BS ’99), Fort Collins, CO
As a freshman living in Deseret Towers and surviving on a meal plan at the Morris Center Cafeteria, the Creamery quickly became one of the highlights of my first year at BYU. It didn’t take long for my floormates and me to grow weary of cafeteria food, so we devised a better plan. By strategically sleeping through breakfast (easy for tired college students), we saved our daily dining credits. The balance added up quickly, and once we had accumulated a small fortune, we headed straight to the Creamery!
Of course we indulged in ice cream—Bishop’s Bash was hands-down the best—but we also stocked up on snacks to stash in our dorm rooms, milk and cereal for late-night cravings, and whatever non-food essentials we needed from the mini grocery section. The ultimate purchase, though, was the ready-made cookie dough. There’s nothing like pulling a tray of warm cookies from the oven—the irresistible aroma guaranteed that half the floor would soon be knocking on our door.
Celebrity Scoop
By Christina Hoffman Clark (BS ’09), Tucson, AZ
During my sophomore year at BYU, one of my roommates helped me get a job at the Creamery on Ninth. I usually worked in the back, preparing items for the grab-and-go fridge at the front of the store, but occasionally I would sub shifts at the ice cream counter or the cash register.
One slow summer afternoon working the ice cream counter, I was prepping some things in the back, and I started hearing whispered rumors from other employees: “Donny Osmond is here!” I wasn’t sure if they were true, but I made my way to the ice cream counter just in case. To my surprise Donny Osmond himself walked right up to the counter with his young son. I asked him which flavor he would like, and he responded by asking which one was the best. I told him that Raspberry Cream Cheese was my favorite. To my surprise again he began to pantomime vomiting! He then quickly grinned to show he was just kidding and said, “Sure, I’ll have that!” It quickly became my claim to fame that I had served ice cream to Donny Osmond.
Call for Stories: What Did You Do for a Freebie?
It may be true that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. But free stickers, T-shirts, snacks, and swag? Those have long been part of the BYU experience. Share a funny or memorable story about what you did for a campus freebie.
Deadline: Dec. 31.
Y Magazine pays $50 for stories published in First Person. Send anecdotes of up to 300 words to firstperson@byu.edu. Submissions may be edited for length, grammar, appropriateness, and clarity.
