The Toll Gate Ice Cream sale

Tomorrow, bright and early, there will be an estate sale at the old Toll Gate Ice Cream parlor in Slingerlands. This will be the first and only chance to purchase memorabilia and fixtures from the old ice cream parlor in the nine years since it closed its doors. The listings, courtesy of Empire State Sales, are here.

Trust me, they’re not messing around with this. You can purchase nearly everything – plates, ice cream scoops, wall fixtures, kitchen fixtures, the lamps on the ceiling, even the urinals – over the next two days. I’m presuming it’s part of the renovation involved for the potential new owners of the building.

And I can say this – I have many mixed emotions about what’s happening here.

First off, I understand that the new owners might want to clear out all the old junk and replace everything with new equipment. But if you’re nostalgic, and you want to build that nostalgic “ice cream parlor” look of the place, once these items are gone, you can’t get them back. And if you try to stock the building with retro-nuevo materials, it’ll look just like a Johnny Rockets parlor, for all that that entails.

And yeah, there are different memories for me of this place. I remember it as a small three-business enterprise – the Toll Gate for tasty sandwiches and ice cream, the neighboring post office with its old PO boxes that required dialing two distinct knobs to different embossed letters to open your mailbox; and a clothing store in the back called the Clothes Horse, which as a kid I thought was the funniest thing – I mean, who puts clothes on a horse?

I’ve also used the Toll Gate for various photography projects. Back in the final years of Kodachrome development, I captured a shot of the front of the Toll Gate building, and later submitted that photo as part of a London gallery showing on the effects of Kodachrome film.

My First Kodachrome Test Shots

Later on, when I experimented with three-dimensional photography, the Toll Gate became part of my photo mix.

Toll Gate Ice Cream in 3-D

But after Toll Gate closed in 2017 … and fell into disrepair and abandonment … I went back to the little store and captured a shot of the creeping ivy as it engulfed the building. That photo later became my award-winner We Serve Wayward Strangers.

Rejection … rejection … re –

So yeah, I’ve still claimed a kinship to the Toll Gate.

And yeah, I’ll still have all these tender memories. And I’ll still have these digital captures. And yeah, I’ll probably add some plates or ice cream scoops or even that four-slice toaster to my kitchen.

But among all that, there’s still a bit of sadness. This was a life, a business, a central point in my life. And now it’s reduced to parts and cleanout.

I know. Nothing lasts forever. All the great places of my Capital District youth have vanished into the mists. That clam fry place is now a Verizon call center. That drive-in is now a Kohl’s parking lot. The old baseball field is now a multi-purpose strip mall.

Those things are gone. All that’s left of them is the happiness we once enjoyed by their existence.

So if I get some treasures from Toll Gate this weekend … at least I’ll be able to enjoy those treasures one more time. If on my own. If personally. If just one more smile from an ice cream scoop.

If one more.

That’s all we want. If one more.