Community, Connections, & Commerce Episode 4 with Kirke Porterfield

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Welcome back to community Connections and Commerce.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Imadrik Watson is always joined by Wendy Anderson and our
special guest. Very special guest today, Kirk Porterfield, owner of
Kirk's ice Cream in Saint Clairsville. Kirk, it's a pleasure
to have you on this morning, and we really appreciate
you taking the time out of your day to come
spend your time with us, and we couldn't be more
excited to get you on this morning.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Good morning, I glad to be here, Okay.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
So I want to start first of all by talking
about first of all what you do kind of in general,
and then how you got your start and where you
you know, where you kind of came from.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
Well, we farm, that's probably our number one priority. My
family moved here in eighteen oh nine and farm just
south of Saint Clairsville, and then in eighteen sixty five
they bought the farm where I'm at now. So that's
where I lived, just northwest of Saint Clairsville. So that's
how we started out as farmers and still farm.

Speaker 4 (01:07):
Okay, So where did the ice cream shop come into play?

Speaker 3 (01:12):
Well, my grandfather, Herb Walker, made ice cream. He started
in nineteen twenty six over in Coleraine, and then in
ninety he died in seventy eight. In ninety two, I
decided I want to make ice cream. So we built
a building where we're at now and just worked real hard,

(01:37):
made ice cream.

Speaker 4 (01:38):
And look at you now, you are absolutely exploding all
over the Ohio Valley.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
Yeah, it really has grown. We just set up a
new fella. He has coffees in Parkersburg, Beverly and Calwell
or Mcconnollsville. Yeah. He just picked ice cream up yesterday
for the first time. Nice.

Speaker 4 (01:59):
Nice, So you've been in it a long time. And
the one thing I noticed when I go into your shop,
you employ students and that is your basically your employer base, right.

Speaker 3 (02:13):
Is right, very young people. We always look for somebody
a little bit older. So when the kids go back
to school, we have somebody we can open at noon.
You want a job, Wendy noon to two thirty.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
I got okay, Well, I was going to ask you.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
About the challenges of scheduling younger students that have to
go to school and also balance that with a job
at your place, and then also what you what you
kind of look for out of that. I mean Obviously,
I don't know that you're checking grades, but there's a
certain kind of person I would imagine that you're wanting
to work at Kirks.

Speaker 3 (02:45):
Yeah, you want somebody that's friendly and out going. And
Judy does all the scheduling. She works around their schedule,
the singers and volleyball and softball, and then the girls
always trade schedules. Hey, hey, something turned up, and they trade
amongst themselves. They just know somebody has to be there.

Speaker 4 (03:04):
Right, and let's let's for the audience sake. Judy is
your wife, yes, my lovely your lovely wife.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
Yes.

Speaker 4 (03:12):
So she's in charge of scheduling, and I know that's
a lot for her because these kids have so much
going on.

Speaker 3 (03:20):
Yeah. Yeah, the schedule changes a lot, you know things.
Does you know the kids think they know what they're
on and then all of a sudden, the coach or
the teacher said, hey, we've got to practice, we've got
to do this, and things change. They have to be flexible.

Speaker 4 (03:33):
So the one thing that I was thinking of, why
why stay in the Ohio Valley? What is your reasoning
for staying in the Ohio Valley?

Speaker 3 (03:45):
Well, I guess you know we've been here. You know,
two hundred plus years and the valley has been good
to us. We enjoy it. You had no well, of
course with a farm, it's gone hard to pack it
up and move. Sure, but no, I don't know why
anyone buddy would want to live anywhere else. I mean,
it's just a great place to be.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
It is agreed, and we've had it.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
You're kind of different in that way from some of
our other guests and that they have, you know, they
are from here and then they've left and looked for
opportunities or maybe gotten inspiration to do other things, and
then they've come back and now they're a force in
their community. You've kind of stayed and been a force
for a long time, over thirty years. And I tell
you just compliment that the ice cream shop and I
live on that road Upbream Road, and there's nothing better

(04:28):
than that first day that you guys are open, walking
down there and getting the thing of ice cream and
going out to the gazebo. And actually I want to
talk to you about you know, kind of the decision.
Was it your decision to kind of lay things out
the way that they are. I mean, it's a certain
kind of feel that you get there that you don't
really get anywhere else, so you don't get it at
any kind of We talk a lot of times about
different corporate places and now in recent times, other spots

(04:53):
around Saint Clair's Ville and in the valley, you guys
kind of have a different feel and more at home feel.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
Is that by design or how did that come about?

Speaker 3 (05:00):
I guess that's just how it worked out. You know,
we built a store and we just had a couple
of seats inside, and then I think the following year
we built the addition to the west the seating area,
and then last year we added on to the east
side towards sheets on for more production.

Speaker 4 (05:19):
Yeah, so you are also very let's say very you
have volunteerism in your heart and soul, and so you
also belonged to Rotary And what other clubs you belonged to?

Speaker 3 (05:37):
Rotary is probably the biggest one. I guess. We started
out on the fairboard Bella County fair board. My great
great granddad was on, my granddad and my dad and
then I was on for several years. And you just
want to give back to the community and help out.
And it seems like the more you volunteer, this life
is better.

Speaker 4 (05:56):
It is now that that's a really great statement. But
have you seen a decline in volunteerism over the years
and the age of volunteers. What do you see with that?

Speaker 3 (06:10):
Yeah, I think a lot of the I guess just
environment that older folks grew up in. You just you
did more for your church and the community, and now
it seems like husband and wife both worked and they're
hauling the kids around the different activities and they just
don't have any free time to do anything.

Speaker 4 (06:30):
So you give back. So what are the things that
you have done in your years in the ice cream
store to give back to the community.

Speaker 3 (06:42):
Probably the most enjoyable. I was on the board of
directors for Belco for eight years and I really enjoyed that.
That was a real, real enjoyable volunteer job. Belco works.

Speaker 4 (06:55):
Yeah, so you do you work with you and way too,
Stacy Stevens correct.

Speaker 3 (07:02):
Yeah, we just had a so what do you do
with that? We had a celebrity scoopers last week, had
folks in. I think the BEMA account or the police
chief was from High County was in and some radio personalities,
TV attorneys, just good people came in and volunteered an
hour of their time, and we donated one hundred percent

(07:25):
of the proceeds from the ice cream sales. So I
haven't talked to Stacy exactly how much she raised. I
know we went through about two thousand dollars worth of
ice cream, but then a lot of people, you know,
give tips and other donations. So I think it was
a pretty pretty big thing and very enjoyable for the

(07:47):
folks at United Way.

Speaker 4 (07:48):
Yeah, I've done that before, and I absolutely I loved it.

Speaker 3 (07:52):
You were supposed to be there this time, but she's
in Milwaukee. Yes, old Wendy.

Speaker 4 (07:59):
I was, and I missed it because that's one of
the things that I look forward to because I love
that that that oh that it's that thing, that fun
thing that we do with each other. And but you
know that, oh my god, I can't think of the word.
You lost your words.

Speaker 1 (08:19):
It happens to the best of us, I know.

Speaker 4 (08:21):
Anyways, Uh, that competition between two rivals if if you
say rivals or you know, partners, and that to me
is a lot of fun. But you you also you
do set up your ice cream. You have an ice
cream truck too, correct.

Speaker 3 (08:39):
We have a ice cream truck. We call it the
Calvan and then we have a trailer that we take out.

Speaker 1 (08:45):
What's what's what's your radius? Like, how far out do
you go?

Speaker 2 (08:49):
What's the furthest you've ever gone with that?

Speaker 3 (08:55):
Well, we go down to New Martinsville once in a
while and so we do a lot of the plants,
the chemical plants and power plants, and we did a
lot of activities like that. We're up in Brilliant I
think in a week or two at AEP.

Speaker 4 (09:08):
You were just at Toronto too, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (09:09):
In Toronto, we were in Richmond over the weekend. Yeah,
so probably on a thirty forty mile radio something like that.

Speaker 1 (09:15):
So do you ever come to wheeling. We just talked
on the previous episode.

Speaker 2 (09:18):
About kind of this, you know, seeming divide between Saint
Clair's ban wheeling and you know, people there's some hesitancy
to go across the aisle or go across the river
and it can really maximate you just mentioned New Martinsville.
I'm sure you know that it maximizes your opportunities to
go across the river and connect with different folks over there.

Speaker 3 (09:40):
Yeah, we're we were last month. We were at wheeling
downs in the parking lot. They had a fun fest
on July fourth, and then I think this coming Friday
or the next Friday, they're having another party in the
parking lot. So that was a lot of fun. We
do a good bit of stuff at the river front
where it will be a good Yeah. So just wherever

(10:02):
they want us, we try to go if we can
fit it in our schedule.

Speaker 4 (10:06):
So you have large family, five boys.

Speaker 1 (10:09):
Yes, So.

Speaker 4 (10:12):
Isn't it Mark who's kind of working his way into
the ice cream?

Speaker 3 (10:17):
Yeah, the youngest son. He's helping. He does a lot
of the production, helps out a good bit and does
a lot of the running and stuff. And right now
he's planning on opening up a store in Shady Side,
really ice cream store.

Speaker 4 (10:32):
Yeah, a Kirk's ice Cream, so it would be Kirks
two or.

Speaker 3 (10:36):
Just you have Kirks and coffee. They're gonna do coffee too.
I think he wants to do that, so nice. I
think that's that. So that should open. Well, you know,
you have the architect and you have all the stuff
to go through, but hopefully later this fall.

Speaker 4 (10:53):
So what about your other boys?

Speaker 3 (10:55):
Brian runs a farm, Kevin runs a fab shopp on
the farm, and the surprise is Blake he lives in Vietnam.

Speaker 4 (11:04):
I know that is a very interesting story.

Speaker 3 (11:06):
He teaches school over there. He's a world traveler. I
think he was in He's been in twenty six countries
over the last couple of years with nothing but a
backpack and his thumb out hitching a ride. So he
was back for a couple three weeks, and he went
back this past weekend. He said, I'll see you in
a year. But he really likes it over there. He said,

(11:29):
Vietnam is beautiful, the people are nice, very little crime,
little petty theft, but yeah, no drugs. He said, you
couldn't buy drugs over there if you wanted them. Really,
he's really impressed with Vietnam. Lives on the beach. It's beautiful.

Speaker 4 (11:45):
Well you know what struck me was that out of
your out of all your kids, four of them has
stayed local, has stayed here in the Ohio Valley, in
Saint Clairsville, And that has to be really make you
very proud.

Speaker 3 (12:01):
Yeah, yeah, they're all close. And then Doug one I
didn't mention he has a small trucking company. He does
that out of the farm. But yeah, they like it here,
and so all right.

Speaker 4 (12:12):
So what would you like to see in the Ohio
Valley that we don't have or that we could build
upon that we already have?

Speaker 3 (12:24):
Oh boy, that's a good question. Uh you know I
really have stumped. Yeah for me, for me, Kirk. We
have everything here, Okay, you know I'm tackled to death.
You know, if we get a hockey, we got to
the football games. There's just a lot of stuff. You

(12:45):
got the Capitol, you can go see they have a
great entertainment capital. And down at the West Banco Arena.
I mean, you always need more jobs, better jobs, I guess.
But yeah, I think life's pretty good here in the valley.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
I'm glad you made one of the points you did,
because there's nobody in this room that's more pasion about
high school football than I am. And I want to
ask you about how that impacts maybe your sales or
kind of how you view Friday nights in the fall.

Speaker 1 (13:13):
You get a lot of folks come in around five
six o'clock.

Speaker 3 (13:16):
No, it doesn't seem like I don't know. Actually it's
Fridays are a pain. We have I bet. Okay. We
have cheerleaders, we have kids in a van, we have
boys that work for some of them play football, you know,
so you know everybody likes holidays and weekends. Sure, that's
where we run into this casually in truffles. Okay, and

(13:39):
the prom, graduation, homecoming. Yeah yeah, I think we'll recruit you,
Wendy for home coming because I don't think you're going.

Speaker 4 (13:48):
Nobody's asked me to the prom so or the homecoming,
so I think we're safe there. So what is your
most popular day?

Speaker 3 (13:57):
Sundays? Sundays are the big day family days.

Speaker 4 (14:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (14:00):
Yeah, Sunday is by far the biggest day in the
ice cream business.

Speaker 4 (14:04):
So Judy also has her own little business going on, right.

Speaker 3 (14:08):
She does catering a little side us. Yeah, she does.
She's doing a catering job Thursday for Sheriff David Lucas.
They're having an open house at a new dog park
cutting yet So we're taking ice cream out and she's
making sandwiches and fruit bowls and whatever else she has.

Speaker 4 (14:28):
So I know personally firsthand that she's an amazing caterer.

Speaker 3 (14:33):
She does an excellent job.

Speaker 4 (14:34):
She's done a couple of things for me and she's
very very good. So that is really the reason why
you add it onto the East Side of the building.

Speaker 3 (14:43):
Yeah, to give her a little more room dog ry,
but we're kind of crowded her out because the ice
cream business is going faster than I anticipated. Since Mark's
been helping. He's been on the Facebook and all that
other stuff, and I think that's.

Speaker 1 (14:58):
Probably more social media.

Speaker 3 (15:01):
Yeah, yeah, how many?

Speaker 1 (15:02):
How many discussions do you have about the.

Speaker 2 (15:04):
The efficacy of social media and marketing and everything like that.
I mean it's tough to kind of, i'd imagine gauge
it when it comes to Kirk's ice Cream and Saint Clairs,
because everybody knows about it. But if you're trying to
reach you know, maybe that one new family just moved
in from from Illinois and they don't know anything about it.
You know, how many discussions have you had about the

(15:25):
effectiveness of that?

Speaker 3 (15:28):
Not a lot. He just does it. He just puts
stuff on and I don't see it. I just I
just know, you just know. I know. We've been extremely busy.
And Sunday morning, I was making ice cream at five am.
Monday morning, I had a wholesale account there at five

(15:50):
thirty am picking up ice cream.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (15:52):
So yeah, we've been putting a lot of hours in
and and so Yeah, he just he just keeps putting
stuff on and that's awesome. And then our mascot, Wilbur
the Bulldog. Yeah, he's all over the place. So a
lot of people come and say, hey, where's Wilburn as well.
The health department doesn't like him here case, but we

(16:15):
take him to a lot of the events we do.
Unless it's just super hot. He doesn't like the heat
too much.

Speaker 4 (16:21):
So what is the favorite ice cream and what is
the least favorite ice cream that you have?

Speaker 3 (16:29):
The favorite, there's probably half a dozen White House, cherry,
black raspberry, Chocolate, peanut butter butterby Colln Vanilla, and Chocolate
cat Dog, which is cookie dough and oreos blended together.
That's real popular. At least we probably make orange pineapple

(16:50):
maybe once a month, black walnut probably once a month.
Chocolates will make three or four times a week.

Speaker 2 (17:00):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (17:00):
So we keep forty I think forty four forty five
flavors out all the time. But we have a lot
of odd flavor not odd but old flavors, but butter scotch.

Speaker 4 (17:11):
That you bring back.

Speaker 3 (17:12):
Yeah. The people that we have that people like, and
you know, you can't get a lot of banana is
very popular, really banana banana peanut butter, and a lady
asked me, he said, you use real bananas in the
banana ice cream? And I said, yeah, the plastic ones
got real expensive. Do you have your own personal favorite butterscotch? Butterscotch? Okay,

(17:35):
I've been meeting that track. I don't think that I
ever have, Wendy.

Speaker 4 (17:38):
What's your favorite? Well, okay, mine is his new sweetcorn
ice cream.

Speaker 3 (17:42):
Really. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (17:43):
When I saw Mark put it on Facebook, and at
first I thought, I don't think so, but I tasted it.
It's amazing yours.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
I used to always like the what's it called deer tracks,
Deer tracks, deer Tracks.

Speaker 3 (17:57):
I used to always get that. And I also really
like the black raspberry.

Speaker 2 (18:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (18:00):
I think that's my daughter's favorite too. Yeah, and she
likes white House cherry. That white House cherry is an
old flavor that that was my mom and my grandma.

Speaker 3 (18:10):
That was from what I can figure is Dolly Madison. Yeah, back, yeah,
when she was at the White House, you.

Speaker 1 (18:17):
Know, Okay, she's very socialism.

Speaker 3 (18:20):
Yeah, and she liked vanill I Scream with cherries in it.
So that's how came up the name white House or
that's just that's that white ch that's a story on
the street anyway.

Speaker 4 (18:31):
Okay, all right, well we thank you very much for
coming in on this early morning, and is there anything
else that you want to maybe talk about or say?

Speaker 3 (18:45):
Thank you? Guys pretty well covered it. I mean just
work hard and yeah, and just whatever it takes to
get the job done. That's what you need to do.

Speaker 2 (18:55):
Yeah, we'll say if there's anybody that's you know, perhaps
my age or the age of a lot of the
folks that you have working for you, what you would
kind of say to them and what advice you would
give them.

Speaker 3 (19:06):
Yeah? I tell people, you know, you don't care what
day it is, and you don't care what time it is.
You just do what you have to do here. You know,
I'm in my late sixties and you know, like I said,
at five am, I'm making ice cream, right, and you know,
no regrets at all. I mean, I wake up, I'm
ready to go.

Speaker 4 (19:25):
Well, I do have one more question I forgot, So
do you take suggestions of ice cream?

Speaker 3 (19:32):
Like?

Speaker 4 (19:32):
Will people call you or set right you or put
tell Mark on Facebook? Hey what about this?

Speaker 3 (19:40):
Yeah, there was a lady we were at the Amphitheater
in Saint Clair's on Thursday night and a lady wants
us to do something keto friendly.

Speaker 1 (19:48):
Oh so that's that makes sense.

Speaker 3 (19:50):
That's our next project.

Speaker 4 (19:52):
I guess, oh that makes sense.

Speaker 3 (19:54):
Okay, all right, yeah, But if anybody has a request,
they can alos get hold of Mark. And if sometimes
it's easy and sometimes like no.

Speaker 1 (20:03):
Right, all right, we're gonna have some fun with that.
I'll have some fun with it.

Speaker 2 (20:06):
I'll drive back home and I might even stop in
on the way back to the house. But we certainly
appreciate your time this morning. I love your insight and
we do appreciate you coming on and giving us your
time and for Wendy Anderson, Kirk Porterfield again, thank you.

Speaker 1 (20:20):
I'm Drake Watson. This has been community Connections and commerce.

Speaker 3 (20:22):
Thanks for listening.