Such a Cool Place

Lettie Carter serves Nutter’s ice cream to Chris and Mark VanMetre. 

For 30 years, Sharpsburg residents and tourists from afar have screamed for Nutter’s ice cream

By Laura Forrest Hopfauf 

I don’t remember what time of year it was the first time I went into Nutter’s Ice Cream, but I remember getting my cone. I remember it being big, really, really big. I remember that my mom didn’t seem bothered by the price and said we could come back again soon. I remember thinking that I couldn’t wait to come back. I was 5-or 6-years old then. I’m 35 now, and I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been back to Nutter’s Ice Cream. But if I had to guess, I’d say it well over 100. And I know that I’m probably in good company as a regular.

For 30 years now, Nutter’s Ice Cream has been serving flurries, snowballs, milkshakes, banana splits, lollipops, soft-serve, and hand-dipped treats to locals and tourists from all over the country and as far away as Australia and England. 

When Debbie Nutter’s job was outsourced from National Geographic and her late husband Donnie was about to retire from the prison 30 years ago, the two decided to open their own business. They were throwing ideas around when Donnie suggested ice cream. And Debbie said, “I think you’re right there.”  

Debbie Nutter.

In May of 1996, Nutter’s Ice Cream opened their doors. Back then only Debbie, Donnie, her late mother Sandy Jean Henson, and her sister Brenda Kretzer worked for Nutter’s. Over time, that list of employees has included other members of Debbie’s family, teachers, high school kids, and friends. Scooping the perfect cone or pulling the perfect soft-serve isn’t as easy as they make it look though. It’s an art to get ice cream not to topple out of a cone, especially at the height Nutter’s makes it, and it takes a few weeks for new employees to master the art of scooping.  

On the first Monday of May this year, Debbie and Nutter’s Ice Cream celebrated their 30th anniversary by bringing back the original 1996 prices for three of their mainstay treats. A small snowball was 75 cents again, a small soft-serve 95 cents, and a hand-dipped cone a whopping $1.25. The line, which almost always stretches out the door and down the street as soon as the weather turns warm, went out the door, around the corner, and clear to the library at the corner of Main Street and Alley 15.  

But if you are a fan of Nutter’s Ice Cream you know the line is part of the process. And unlike most places waiting in line isn’t a bad thing.  

“Waiting in line they meet the people in front of them and behind them, and if they don’t know each other when they get in a line, they know a little bit about each other while they wait,” Nutter says. 

People talk to each other in line at Nutter’s. It’s hot out here. What flavor are you going to get? They talk in line inside. It’s almost our turn. I can’t wait to eat my ice cream. They talk on the benches, licking cones. Do you want to try mine? I needed this. How’s your mom? 

Nutter’s hasn’t just served ice cream in our community. They’ve served our community. Nutter’s has sponsored soccer, basketball, Little League, stock cars, and fishing teams. Having grown up in Sharpsburg, I can say with 100 percent certainty being on the Little League team Nutter’s sponsored was always a coveted spot. 

But the best part of owning Nutter’s for Debbie is simple.  

“Just seeing how much everyone enjoys it. We keep prices low so families can still come and bring their whole family and have a treat. I’ve watched a lot of them grow up and now their bringing their kids,” Nutter says. 

Nutter’s isn’t just about the ice cream. It’s about the feeling. Nineteen ninty-six doesn’t feel that far away in line at Nutter’s. When I step inside the doors, it looks mostly the same as it did when I was a kid. It certainly feels the same.  

I get that rush of cold air that gives me a shiver. I get lost looking at the antiques on the shelves. I try to keep my fingers off the glass now, but I still have to lean down and look through the case to see all the flavors.  

A summer tradition in Sharpsburg is the line forming waiting to get into Nutter’s Ice Cream.

I lift my daughters so they can see them, too. For a few minutes, I can almost believe that the internet still makes that weird noise to dial up, phones hang on the wall with a cord that keeps you tethered to the conversation, and Michael Jordan is still indisputability the greatest basketball player alive. 

It’s not about it being a simpler time. It’s about connection. It’s about community. It’s about getting a treat, sitting down on the corner, and having a conversation while watching traffic go by, waving at the people you know. It’s a favorite past-time of mine. It has been since I was a kid. I think it’s a favorite past-time of a lot of people. 

It’s a tradition that Nutter’s created in 1996 and has kept alive for 30 years. Nutter’s isn’t just a place you get ice cream. It’s a place that lets the young and the old have a few minutes where the world and its problems cease to exist, and the most pressing decision is what flavor are you going to get and which bench are you going to sit on while you eat it?