As a boy growing up in humid Louisiana, it was like a holiday when we would load the family in a car and visit the closest A&W Root Beer restaurant. For those of you who are old enough, do you remember the Papa Burgers, Mama Burgers and Baby Burgers? And the root beer… well, they brought it to the table or to your car in the really cold frosted mugs. Man, it just didn't get too much better than that.

I guess that was when I got hooked. You see, I don't drink beer. I very rarely drink alcohol of any kind. But you mix cola or root beer with good old-fashioned vanilla ice cream and I'll give you the shirt off my back. However, since moving to Silver City almost five years ago, I don't mix floats as often as I would like to. You see, there is something special about the mixture of standard old-fashioned ice cream with cola or root beer being poured gently over the frozen cream. The foam comes up to the top of the mug or glass… and it tastes good as you suck it before over-spilling the top of the container. Then you take a long spoon and begin sampling that rich taste of ice cream and root beer or ice cream and cola. Once the ice cream has disappeared, you have this wonderful concocted blend of the soft drink and the real cream that tastes so good it can actually cause you to lapse into a blissful moment of total euphoria.

So why don't I mix floats more often? We have three, count them… three grocery stores/super markets in our wonderful hamlet of 10,000 people. So, you would think it would be easy to purchase a gallon of regular old-fashioned vanilla ice cream. Well it isn't easy at all. You can always find low-fat vanilla ice cream. You can find vanilla ice cream with artificial sweeteners in it. You can find small containers of regular ice cream. But if you want a whopping gallon container of wonderful old-fashioned ice cream to make you one of the best mixed drinks developed by mankind… you may have to go out of town. It's kind of like Whipped Cream. You will find tons of tubs of low-fat whipped cream, but when you want the "real McCoy" - a tub of regular genuine, creamy, rich and sweet whipped cream with fat… it is sometimes impossible to find in Grant County.

I'm pretty certain this is some sort of conspiracy!

Moving on… The Chamber of Commerce welcomes three new members to the Chamber of Commerce. The Philipp Merillat Corporation, the Wednesday Farmers Market and At-Home Personal Care Service, LLC have become our latest new members.

Phillip Merillat Corp. has an office here in Silver City and an office in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. Phillip Merillat deals in real estate, art and gems. Phillip paints large landscapes on location through-out the southwest. He can be reached at (505) 500-7345.

The Wednesday Farmers Market is gearing up for another great season in front of the Ace Hardware Store on Highway 180 East in Silver City. In fact, there was one brave local grower selling their goods last Wednesday during the snow storm. If you have questions, call Rick Bohart (Poco Loco Produce) at (575) 313-4224.

At-Home Personal Care Service, LLC is a new company to Grant County. At-Home Personal Care Services provides Non-Medical at-home care for the Elderly and Disabled. They are devoted to provide the highest quality of at home patient care with compassion, respect, reliability, and efficiency. For additional information, please call their office in Deming, New Mexico at (575) 546-5320.

If you have questions regarding our community, the Chamber of Commerce or the Grant County Conference Center, please call our office at your convenience. The phone number is (575) 538-3785, or you can call toll-free at (800) 548-9378.