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Mack’s is short for McDaniel’s, but in York County it means ice cream

The talk is about hunting and road maintenance at Jim Mack’s Ice Cream shop in Hellam Township in this 2004 York Daily Record/Sunday News file photo. Six shops in York County bear the Mack’s name, synonymous with ice cream and good conversation. Also of interest: York’s Shady Dell’s in bad shape: ‘It still has a pool table and ice cream bar …’ and Baltimore screamed for York County ice cream and About Avalong Dairy and Melvin’s Drive-In: ‘I am some what familiar with the history of the area’.

Mack’s and ice cream.
In York County, they go together like Bricker’s and french fries, Smittie’s and pretzels and Bury’s and burgers.
One of the Mack’s, the original ice cream shop in Spry, York Township, is moving a couple of hundred yards to a former Burger King.
No longer will Little Leaguers be able to lick their cones and pump their arms to evoke the trucks stopped at the nearby light to blow their horns.
So the original Mack’s is moving, to gain more elbow room and expand its menus from hog maw and other Pennsylvania Dutch standards to steak and seafood.
We hereby offer some Mack’s facts, gleaned from a Weekly Record story (8/14/07) on area ice cream parlors:


The original recipe: Mack’s ice cream, made from the original recipe, is available at four locations in York County: Bill Mack’s in Dover and Hanover, Mack’s by Godfrey near Red Lion and Jim Mack’s near Hallam. (Actually, there might be slight variations from the original recipe.) Some locations offer up to 70 flavors, available on a rotating basis.
Original owner: Owners of those shops are descendants of William McDaniel Sr., who founded the third-generation business in Spry in 1935.
Two more: The South Queen Street shop in Spry, the one that’s moving, and the shop on Mount Rose Avenue, which shares its building with a self-service laundry, are not owned by family members and use their own ice cream recipes.
Quotable: Todd McDaniel, owner of Mack’s in Hanover and Dover, stated that his father, William McDaniel Jr., “grew up in the business in Spry and opened the business in Dover in 1963. I am the second-generation owner of the store in Dover.”
Most popular flavor at the Mount Rose Mack’s: Vanilla.
Additional posts on York-area hangouts, past and present:
Just try to resist this memory-tugging photo of White Oak Park.
Stadium will be site of The Oaks music reunion
Wanted: Old photos of teen hangout.
Memorabilia from ‘the Oaks’ hard to come by.
Memories of The Oaks pile up.
Memories of The Oaks pile up – Part II.
The Dell: ‘It was like family’.
White Oak Park welcomed Blaw-Knox workers .
For scores of posts on York County locales that evoke nostalgia and memories, click here.