Homewood firefighters honored for 3 Outstanding Calls

 

Kamrin Cox was one happy 9-year-old Thursday. The day was warm, the sun was shining, and he had a free ice cream cone in each hand.

Kamrin was at opening day of Homewood Dairy Queen with his friend Jason Ballard, 9, and Viver Ballard, who also had ice cream cones in hand.

The line of people waiting for ice cream went down the block much of the afternoon as area residents welcomed the traditional sign of spring in Homewood. 

Viver Ballard said it was her first time at opening day.

“Usually I don’t know about it,” she said. “But the children did, so this is our after-school activity.”
 

She said Kamrin scored two cones because he had a coupon for a free cone in addition to the complementary free cone traditionally given by the store on opening day.

Erica Nielsen, and her husband, Garrett Gruberman, were there with their four kids.

Garrett said they were there “because it’s tradition.”

Asked if they had their order in mind, three of the kids said no, but Owen Gruberman, 7, said his was cookie dough. He goes to Willow School.

Veronica Tovar, with sons Chris and Adam said the event was a tradition in their family.

“We come every year on opening day, even if it’s freezing,” she said. “We’ve done the winter coats on opening day but today it’s nice.”

Adam ’s order was a “waffle cone fig-a-ma-jiggy that has cream with strawberries and chocolate syrup.”  

Brother Chris said, “I think I’m just going to get a cone.”
 

The wait in line only built the anticipation for some, but youngster Taylor Hudson passed the time jumping rope.

She was there with her grandmother, Cathy Harris, who said it was their first opening day.

“We planned for it. We’ve been watching the numbers every day as they counted down,” she said, referring to DQ’s posting on the front of the store the number of days before opening day. The countdown began about two weeks ago. 

She said the children were excited about the event.

“Everybody in school was talking about it,” she said.