ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, August 11, 1996 TAG: 9608120003
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV18 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: DONNA ALVIS-BANKS STAFF WRITER
It's 1:45 p.m. at Christiansburg's Ridgewood Pool, the last hot Friday in July.
Greg Feuchtenberger swings his red-and-white truck into the parking lot - bell jangling - and parks it on the grassy lawn next to the pool house.
The clanging draws children out of the cool chlorinated water. They line up, dripping and shivering in neon swim suits, at the side of Feuchtenberger's truck. Waiting a turn, they study brightly colored pictures of ice cream treats splashed across the side of the truck.
Feuchtenberger fetches a chocolate ice cream bar for his first customer, a towheaded boy browned as a ginger snap.
"Thank you, buddy!" he shouts. "Don't freeze to death!"
Nine-year-old identical twins Mary and Maddie Price are next in line.
Maddie, ice cream already in hand, drops a fistful of coins on the driver's seat. Feuchtenberger counts them for her.
"Give me a nickel if you can, Maddie," he says. "If you can't, that's OK."
In Christiansburg, Greg Feuchtenberger is the Emperor of Ice Cream - not to mention the coolest Mr. Rogers in the neighborhood.
"I got a degree from Virginia Tech and started selling ice cream," the 41-year-old says with a grin. "I got tired of going around asking for jobs."
Feuchtenberger - who earned his degree in psychology in 1980 and claims he has used it every day since - decided to take the plunge and try to make a go of his mobile mission in 1982.
"My brother used to do this, and he said he did pretty good at it," he says. "It took awhile to build up the business, but now everybody knows me and sees me."
Feuchtenberger still drives the trusty old postal truck, a 1969 International, that he bought soon after he started the undertaking.
"It's an antique," he says as he slaps the transmission in gear and pulls away from Ridgewood Pool. "The engine's a six cylinder, so it doesn't use a lot of gas."
In addition to the familiar truck, Feuchtenberger also has an old Datsun station wagon that his two employees, Jenny Sizer and Karin Michel, take turns driving to sell snow cones to customers in areas outside Feuchtenberger's regular route. His business, Greg's Fun Foods, is licensed in several localities around the New River Valley.
"The business has grown every year," Feuchtenberger says. "We start in April and try to go into October, seven days a week."
"I work until something breaks down or it rains. You got to get it while the sun shines."
And what about the long, cold winter? What does Feuchtenberger do then?
"Go hungry," he quips.
Feuchtenberger and his wife, Kathy, have been married for nine years. Two months ago, they had their first baby, Kate Ann.
"I hate to leave her to come to work," the proud father says.
When he's not selling sweet treats, Feuchtenberger does a few odd jobs and keeps his eye on the stock market. There's only one place he says he would rather be as he rolls down Christiansburg's South Franklin Street on this simmering day: Wall Street.
"The only thing I'd rather be doing is working as a stock broker. I do watch the stock market during the winter. I'm trying to invest for my family."
As Feuchtenberger cruises this neighborhood, he spots a small boy waving a dollar bill. He checks his mirrors and pulls to the left, stopping the International at the boy's front yard.
"Hello, buddy," he says. "Did you have to wait a long time?"
"I want Bubble Gum Eyes," the boy says.
"Got it," Feuchtenberger says, producing a frozen delight from a large generator-powered refrigerated box.
Although snow cones are still his biggest seller, he tries to stock all the popular frozen sweets his customers crave.
Feuchtenberger - an ice cream lover himself - says at one time he had sampled every concoction he offers, but now his inventory has exceeded his appetite.
In addition to such standards as Nutty Buddies, ice cream sandwiches and Drumsticks, Feuchtenberger has treats with names like Choco Taco, Chilly Chips, Shoot Hoops! and Sonic the Hedgehog.
He even has the Mask with Eye Poppin' Bubble Gum Eyeballs, Bozo Cups, (``You've got to be careful when you open those" he warns one child. "He'll jump out.'') and Cyberbites (``It's a frozen pop that changes flavors as you lick your way through," he explains).
"I want a Gargoyle Exploding Pop," one child demands. "They pop in your mouth."
"Yeah, those are good," Feuchtenberger agrees.
Pam and Larry Epperly are waiting for Feuchtenberger in front of their house on South Franklin Street in Christiansburg, holding twins Will and Martha on their hips. Today is a special day, they tell the snow cone man.
The twins are 2.
"Well, happy birthday," Feuchtenberger says.
"How is your baby doing?" the couple asks.
"Oh, I've got pictures," Feuchtenberger says, reaching for the envelope of his daughter's latest snapshots. The Epperlys admire the pictures while Feuchtenberger beams.
"My children wait for him each Friday," Pam Epperly says. "Martha hears the bell on his truck and she comes through the house lickety-split. We love him."
"That's what keeps me going," Feuchtenberger says as he turns onto Alleghany Street. "I really like the people in this town."
Kids, he claims, are the most interesting people.
"I like working with kids. I probably see 250 of them every day."
"These are my BIG kids here," he adds, swerving the International into the Shelor Chevrolet lot on Roanoke Street while playing a little tune on the bell attached to the side of his truck.
The big kids come running.
"I'd like a snow cone," a woman says.
She orders a strawberry daiquiri flavor; her two male companions order pina coladas.
"Do you need to check our IDs?" they joke as Feuchtenberger scoops ice out of the cooler.
Sales manager Robbie Caldwell is next in line.
"He's one of my best customers - buys a Haagen-Dazs ice cream bar every day," Feuchtenberger says.
"Hey, you better not tell that," Caldwell cautions. "My wife thinks I'm on a diet.''
And so it goes. Feuchtenberger keeps up a running conversation as he bustles around Christiansburg, stopping at the day care centers, the ball parks, the local businesses and construction sites.
"There's not enough hours in a day," he says. "From 2 to 4 in the afternoon, it's real hectic. You don't have a minute to spare.''
"I feel pretty safe here," he says. "People go on vacations and come back telling me about ice cream trucks with bars on the windows. I wouldn't want to work like that."
Christiansburg parents have learned to trust Feuchtenberger over the years, and that's something he's proud of. He says he understands concerns about the dangers children face in the world today.
"These days, parents even have to worry about people tampering with Halloween candy," he says, shaking his head.
Feuchtenberger has been at this job so long he's now selling ice cream treats to the children of the children who used to be his customers. And kids still tell him they want to be like him when they grow up.
"I've got one little boy who says he wants to work for me. I tell him he's got to learn to add and subtract first.''
Feuchtenberger says he doesn't know how much longer he'll keep doing what he's doing. He is sure about one thing, however.
"This is one job you never forget," he says, wiping his rainbow-colored hands on a cloth. "It's a sticky job, but somebody's got to do it."
LENGTH: Long : 158 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Photos by GENE DALTON Staff photographerby CNB1. - 2. Greg Feuchtenberger rings his bell (right) to alert
customers at Ridgewood Pool in Christiansburg as the first customer
tries to make a decision from the menu. Feuchtenberger makes a
rainbow snow cone - a mixture of three different flavors - for one
of his customers (below). color
3. - 5. . Four-year-old Gina Marie Scognamiglio (left) holds her
money for the "Ice Cream Man" as she stands beside the van. "Is this
enough for a snow cone?" she asks. The big kids like ice cream, too.
A stop at Roberts Towing & Repair (top) brings out regulars Robert
Marshall and Jerry Bland. Travis Winters and Justin Akers, ages 6
and 7, jump with excitement as Feuchtenberger's ice cream truck
(above) heads toward their house. color
6. Ashley Keene holds her snow cone and puppy "Rocky" as she waits
on friends to get their snow cones in her Christiansburg
neighborhood.