Dairy Queen marks 75 years in business, more than 60 years in Sask.
This summer when you indulge in a Dairy Queen treat, you can thank Jim Penny for helping to introduce the franchise to the province. He was the second to open a DQ store in the province — June 10. 1954 in Estevan.
"I was looking for something where I didn't have to spend the rest of my life in the mine," Penny said.
Back then, he was working in the coal mine at Roche Percee. He knew he found his ticket out when he tasted his first Dairy Queen soft ice cream.
It was 1952, and he and his wife Hazel were driving their new car back from Oshawa, Ont. They passed through the Wisconsin Dells "and that's where we discovered Dairy Queen".
Melville home to first DQ in province
Back in Saskatchewan, Don Patrick was putting a Dairy Queen store into his quick-freeze plant in Melville.
Jim and Hazel drove up to see him.
"He thought it was going to be a really good thing, and so we took the plunge," Penny recalled.
They got strong local support. With around 5,000 people living in Estevan at the time, the Pennys could call a lot of their customers by their first name.
Back then, Dairy Queen was one of the few fast-food franchises around. Jim and Hazel turned a profit by running their outlet themselves, seven months a year. It demanded long hours, seven days a week.
At the end of the day "Hazel and I would sit down and have a sundae," Penny said. Hot fudge with pecans remains his favourite.
Their next venture was to move to Medicine Hat, Alta. where they built another Dairy Queen. In 1958, they also opened an A & W there.
"It put our children through university, and ultimately my grandchildren through university. It bought houses," he said.
It also made it possible for Jim and Hazel to see the world.
"We've been on every ocean and every continent."
The Dairy Queen chain turns 75 this year.
