It takes something fairly spectacular to drag my attention from Lady Gaga singing "Poker Face" on my headset at 6 a.m. on a warm March day, but Bill Marchal did it with a simple statement.

"You know what. March 19."

Say no more. But dang. That's still a week away -- seven days too many.

Those of you who live where soft-serve ice cream (and all the related foodstuffs that accompany it) is available year round won't understand what happens when Bill Marchal opens his Dari Freeze for the season. Marchal's ice cream palace -- the "Whippy Dip" to a certain crowd, but "Benny's" to those who know the history and have been eating there for at least 30 years -- opens every year in mid-March and the hoardes literally come out to feast.

From all directions they come...by foot, on bicycle, motorcycle, stroller, car, truck...some at a run. It's as if Marchal invited everyone to a party, which -- in a way -- it is. A party to mark the end of the cold, snowy yuk that is Ohio.

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