A native of Chicago and a graduate of the University of Missouri, Eric Bernsee has enjoyed residing in Greencastle for more than 25 years. Years of consuming McDonald's iced teas, Dairy Castle flurries and Marvin's GCBs have helped make him the man he is today.

For one shining moment, Dairy Castle on national TV

Posted Monday, March 21, 2022, at 12:00 AM

Illustrating the number of small ice cream shops that popped up across America to compete with Dairy Queen, the History Channel dropped in a visual of the Dairy Castle Sunday night.

It’s always a bit of fun to see local people, places and things pop up in television settings.
Remember when a character on the old series “Joan of Arcadia” suggested the group “eat at Marvin’s.” Tracking down that connection was like being a private investigator. Turned out one of the assistants was a DePauw University graduate, well versed in garlic cheeseburgers, or GCBs by Marvin’s lingo.
Then, less than a month ago, DePauw made a cameo appearance on the Showtime cable-TV drama “Billions.” The Paul Giamatti series shared a supposed shot of fictional Indiana A&M, which was actually a photo of Holton Quadrangle at DePauw, showing Roy O. West Library with Asbury and Harrison halls.
DePauw was not identified in the shot nor acknowledged in the credits. Nor did its iconic East College building even get a bit part in the episode. So that mystery of why DePauw was chosen lingers.
Next comes Sunday night, and after a weekend of basketball and watching Purdue march to the Sweet 16, I had settled in to enjoy one of my guilty pleasures, “The Food that Built America,” a History Channel series featuring foodie Adam Richman.
That’s what brought about the Dariy Castle’s one shining moment.
The episode detailed how Carvel ice cream battled Dairy Queen and its predecessors for control of the American ice cream business just prior to Pearl Harbor, which put a halt to ice-cream making. And by the time the war ended there was increased competition for Carvel, which essentially owned the East Coast, and Dairy Queen, which opened its first store in Joliet, Ill., in 1940.
After the war, American ice cream stores mulitplied like there was no tomorrow. The number of shops went from 100 to 10,000 nationally after the war.
To illustrate that, the History Channel show flashed a number of ice cream store signs before our eyes. Dairy this and Dairy that until I glanced up and spotted “Dairy Castle,” on the screen for a second but in your heart forever. The American Pickers would have gone nuts.
Thank goodness today’s televisions come with a pause button and you can rewind and watch what you missed, or in this case, substantiate what you thought you saw.
That appears to be the old sign that was on the shop when I moved here late in 1975.
Julian Steele, a neighbor of mine in my first Greencastle home, opened Dairy Castle with wife Lois on May 30, 1963. The couple also owned The Dari-ette ice cream stand up in Bainbridge at the time. On a personal note, I can’t pass through Bainbridge without stopping for a vanilla milk shake.
Gerald and Rovilla Lykkens were the longest owners of the Dairy Castle, from 1970 to 1993, probably the era of the sign in question.
Howard and Peg Chase had owned it from 1966-1970. Since then, Ronnie and Rhonda Crain ran it, followed by The Jacksons Inc. 1993-2002 and Nancy Brock in June 2002, then Rob and Jane Best for 12 years through 2019 when Dairy Castle was sold to current owner Deven Patel.
The old sign may be gone but Dairy Castle remains a local landmark Who’s ready for a vanilla Coke?