[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Page 18602]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


[[Page 18602]]

              TRIBUTE TO ``THE FOUR SEAS'' OF CENTERVILLE

 Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, it is a privilege to take this 
opportunity to recognize an outstanding business in Centerville, 
Massachusetts, ``The Four Seas'' ice cream parlor. Our family has known 
for decades that the Four Seas has always produced excellent ice cream.
  I am delighted to bring my colleagues' attention today to a New York 
Times article last Sunday on ``The Four Seas'' and owner Richard 
Warren's extraordinary relationship with his employees and the entire 
community. The article recognizes ``The Four Seas'' as a business which 
makes some of the best ice cream on Cape Cod, and which also treats its 
employees with the respect and generosity that make it a model for 
other employers.
  It is gratifying to see the Four Seas receive this recognition that 
it eminently deserves. It is an honor to pay tribute to this 
extraordinary institution that is so beloved at Cape Cod. I ask that 
the New York Times article may be printed in the Record.

                [From the New York Times, July 25, 1999]

              Prized Ice Cream Jobs Create Extended Family

                            (By Sara Rimer)

       Centerville, MA.--Cory Sinclair, 17, was scooping ice cream 
     at the Four Seas as fast as he could and talking about the 
     future.
       ``I want to be President,'' he said. ``I'm serious.''
       Kelly O'Neil, 18, had more prosaic concerns. ``I'm sorry, 
     we don't have jimmies,'' she informed a customer. (As any 
     Four Seas regular knows, jimmies don't belong on good ice 
     cream.)
       Mixing up a batch of coconut, Bryan Schlegel, 22, was 
     feeling restless and wistful.
       ``It's time to move on,'' he said. ``I've been here six 
     summers.''
       The Four Seas, a white cottage with blue shutters and a 
     white formica counter with 12 blue stools, has been an 
     institution on South Main Street of this Cape Cod village for 
     65 summers.
       The owner, Richard Warren, 64, who has been on the job for 
     45 years, makes what is indisputably delicious ice cream. He 
     uses fresh peaches, strawberries, blueberries and ginger, 
     expensive chocolate and loads of buttercream, and he tastes 
     every batch himself. He does not add candy or try bizarre 
     flavors.
       But what also distinguishes the Four Seas is the help.
       Summer after summer, the young men and women behind the 
     counter seem as unchanging as the decor, the ice cream and 
     the oldies on the radio. They are clean-cut and sport no 
     visible tattoos or strange piercing. They are alert and 
     polite, even when the customers are rude.
       They are the class presidents, newspaper editors and honor 
     roll regulars from Barnstable High School who have been 
     handpicked by Mr. Warren, a retired math teacher and guidance 
     counselor there.
       They start serving up cones at 16, and they stay through 
     college, ending their careers--and career is the word they 
     use--as ice cream makers and managers, like Mr. Schlegel.
       ``It's the best job you can get on the Cape,'' said Tava 
     Ohlsen, 18, who graduated at the top of her class in June, 
     plans to go to medical school and moved up this summer from 
     ice cream scooper to sandwich maker. ``People say, `Oh, you 
     work at the Four Seas. You're a good student; you're good 
     with people.' ''
       From the week before Memorial Day until the week after 
     Labor Day, the staff races from the counter to the ice cream 
     and back to keep up with the crowds. There are higher paying 
     summer jobs--the Four Seas is minimum wage, with tips 
     bringing it to about $10 an hour--but Mr. Warren never has 
     any trouble finding help.
       He solicits recommendations from the faculty at Barnstable 
     High, and summons those with the highest ratings for 
     interviews.
       ``It's known that you can't apply,'' Mr. Sinclair said.
       To be called by Mr. Warren is to become a member of his 
     extended family.
       ``He's like a second dad,'' said Jahni Clarke, 19. ``I tell 
     him about everything, from school to money to my love life.''
       At the end of every summer Mr. Warren throws a staff party, 
     with dinner and a live band. He organizes an all-expenses-
     paid ski weekend in New Hampshire every winter. He writes his 
     employees' college recommendations, and when they get to 
     college, he visits them.
       He brings ice cream to their weddings (romance, 
     predictably, blooms behind the counter, and there have been 
     seven Four Seas marriages so far.
       He has periodic reunions; at the last one, in 1988, only 4 
     Four Seas alums, out of more than 200, were not able to make 
     it.
       Mr. Warren is married, with four grown children. Each 
     season he gives out scholarships totaling several thousand 
     dollars in memory of his son Randy, who was killed in 1983 
     when he was hit by a car while crossing the street in Fort 
     Lauderdale, Fla. He was 21.
       ``I was never close to my dad,'' said Mr. Warren, who was 
     talking recently between greeting customers and making ice 
     cream. ``He was 46 when I was born. I longed for a 
     relationship with my children. Randy and I were so close. We 
     won the state father-son golf tournament. We'd ski all day, 
     play tennis till we dropped. He wanted to run this place 
     someday.
       Randy lives on, in a way, Mr. Warren said, in the young 
     people who work beside him each summer. ``Bryan is like a 
     son,'' he said as he and Mr. Schlegel poured frozen pudding 
     ice cream into cartons. ``We just played in the father-son 
     golf tournament.''
       Mr. Schlegel graduated this spring from the University of 
     Massachusetts at Amherst. He was recently called for an 
     interview in the customer service department of a Boston 
     investment banking firm. By fall, he said, he hopes to have a 
     permanent job.
       Meanwhile, Mr. Clarke, who is a junior at the University of 
     Massachusetts, just moved up to manager. ``I'm the first 
     black manager,'' said Mr. Clarke, who was freshman class 
     president, and editor of the newspaper at Barnstable High, 
     which is mostly white.
       Things do change at the Four Seas. As hard-working as his 
     25 employees are, Mr. Warren said that most do not want to 
     put in the hours that previous generations did.
       ``They don't need the money as much,'' he said, adding that 
     whereas workers from summers past arrived on foot or by 
     bicycle, or were dropped off by their parents, almost all of 
     the employees now drive their own cars.
       But the biggest change, the one everyone is talking about, 
     is that Mr. Warren's son Doug, 36, is back from Las Vegas, 
     where he had been running a restaurant and selling computer 
     software. The plan is for him to take over the ice cream 
     parlor. The elder Mr. Warren is talking about retiring in a 
     couple of years.
       His staff is skeptical. ``The chief will never retire,'' 
     Ms. O'Neil said.

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