A snowy curb

A so-called “new normal” has come into existence since the outbreak of the coronavirus where individuals as well as businesses are trying to come up with new and creative ways of making the days go by. One business in Ville Platte is doing just that by offering curbside snoball service.
“It’s going well,” said Kevin Veillon of Super Snow. “The customers stay in the car. I have a worker who goes take the order at the car, collect the money, and bring the change back to them. When we’re busy, one person gets down and picks up at the pick-up window. Other than that, we will bring it to them.”
“For the most part,” Veillon continued, “the customers probably love curbside because they’re not waiting in the hot sun in line. They’re sitting in their cars and playing on their phones. When you go to their car or call them to come get their order, they’re not paying attention because they lost track of time.”
Veillon began his snoball stand in May of 2001 to give his children (Taylor and Torrian) their first summer job.
“I wanted to give them the opportunity to make a little extra money and to show them management skills and kindness to the people,” Veillon said. “It got them to deal with a little money giving out change.”
“In 19 years,” he continued, “I’ve seen a lot of kids who don’t know how to give change. Let’s say if someone orders $14.50 of snoballs and they pay with a $20 bill. You know that $5.50 should be coming back, but some kids can’t figure it out without a calculator.”
Having his children and step-children (Sydney, Breanna, Ava, and Callie) work at the snoball stand over the years gives Veillon his most enjoyable memories.
As he said, “They enjoyed it. It was air conditioned at 70 degrees inside. They met their friends outside. They hung out. They played music. It was like a little hang out for them. They would see some of their friends in the summer when they were not seeing all their buddies because they weren’t in school.”
All-in-all, hiring kids to work in the snoball stand provides Veillon with much joy because he gets to watch their transformation.
“For the most part,” he said, “it’s always the first job of the kids who come work here. You see how nervous they are and see their mistakes, but it’s not a big issue. I train them for about a week.”
Veillon continued, “For the most part, it’s new people every year. Everybody is excited and pumped up about their first snoball of the season when we first open because we’ve been closed for six months. That’s when we’re the most busy and when the new people are nervous. You see them with the deer in the headlights look. They don’t know which way to turn.”
One of these deer in the headlights is one of Veillon’s own step-daughters. “She was terrible her first year,” he said. “I’m telling you she’s one of the best now. She’s at UL now and came help us the other day. Everybody brags on her. She does a good job and knows just how much juice you like and how much juice you don’t like.”
The genesis of Veillon’s stand came while he was delivering ice to snoball stands in the area for City Refrigeration and Ice Company.
“I started telling my dad I’d like to have one of those snoball stands,” Veillon expressed. “Todd Ortego owned this one, and I heard he was thinking about getting out of the business. At first, I had a small stand here. It was a tiny white and blue stand. I bought this stand that was at Video Expo. Sidney Roberie had opened a snoball stand, and this was it.”
“I kept the one I bought from Todd Ortego here five or six years,” he continued. “I bought this one and kept it at Mr. Sidney’s for two years. It didn’t work out. A lot of people don’t remember this, but I moved this to the old Wal-Mart parking lot. I had it in Johnny Darbonne’s parking lot. My parking was the old Wal-Mart way in the front by Cajun Crawfish. I kept that for two years. It didn’t work out, so I decided to sell my little stand and put the big one on Main Street. It’s really gone well since then.”
Over the years, Veillon takes pleasure out of bringing enjoyment to children. “When you stand at the machine making a snoball,” he said, “you can feel somebody looking at you. You kind of turn your head a little bit, and those kids are just high enough to see over the counter.”
He continued, “Their smiles are from ear to ear because they’re watching you make their snoball. They’re watching that white snowy ice come out of the machine, and you can hear them say ‘That’s mine, momma.’”
The snoballs, however, also bring enjoyment to adults.
“I have a new customer,” Veillon shared. “He and his wife drove up three days in a row. On his third day, I was working the road taking orders, and he was in the passenger seat. He wanted to know what addictive stuff I’m putting in the snoballs because he hadn’t eaten three snoballs in a row since he was a 10-year-old kid.”
Veillon continued, “I had a lady drive up, and she wanted me to put some kind of liquor. I said that I thought she was on the wrong side of town and said she needed to go to Gator’s. I’d like to know how many times the adults want the snoball with the liquor, but they’re so happy to get a snoball for their kids.”
One of the most popular flavors with adults is a new flavor Veillon started making about two years ago called strawberry cheesecake deluxe.
“It’s a large strawberry cheesecake snoball with fresh cut round strawberries around the rim and three or four cheesecake bites in the middle with the drizzled cream on top,” Veillon described. “A lot of adults love it.”
“Personally,” he continued, “my favorite is the good ole blue bubble gum and the green spearmint.”
Nowadays, while the world is still caught in the throes of the pandemic, what brings Veillon the most joy is knowing he is bringing joy to others who are self-isolated.
“A snoball is an enjoyment food,” he said. “It’s a comfort food. In this time and age, especially with the coronavirus, we are taking all the precautions we can possibly take to give people in their cars a good snoball.”
He concluded, “I had a grandfather thank me the other day for being opened. He said his grandson is stuck in the house all day long. It’s a doom time. He’s not seeing his friends at school. He’s depressed. But the grandfather said he can drive a couple of miles, stay on the side of the road, and know we’re doing everything we possibly can to be safe. When he looked in the back seat of his car, he saw his grandson eating his favorite snoball which is ice cream with ice cream on top. And, he’s smiling. Just for that five or 10 minutes, it made him very happy.”