On hot summer days, like today, people line up at Wells Station and Reed in East Memphis to get a cool tasty treat. Lines are often to the street outside the bright pink and turquoise building that used to be a Sinclair Gas Station. You can still see remnants of the car wash here, but that’s from a long time ago because Jerry’s Sno Cone is in its forty-sixth year.
A Jerry’s Sno Cone is not your typical snow cone in a cone-shaped cup with a rounded scoop of ice one top. No. It’s served in a Styrofoam cup with a spoon.
Megan Turner is 12 and lives in Memphis. She just got her snow cone from the side window. As I peer into her cup, she tells me she got a “John Deere with ice cream.”
“Okay, what’s the John Deere?” I ask.
Turner says, “It’s vanilla with bubble gum.”
Any snow cone with ice cream at Jerry’s is called a supreme. With or without ice cream, the flavors are wild, including Wedding Cake, Spiderman, Mango Tango and many more.
Shaveeka Elliott lives in the Raleigh-Millington area. She’s a regular. With sweat pouring down her face, she’s waiting near the side window for her afternoon treat.
“I’ve been here a lot of times.” Elliott continues, “Maybe 50 in the last three years.”
Beware, you run the risk of a brain freeze when you go to Jerry’s.