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Prohibition Hit
Upper St. Clair Hard
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H
oward “Chuck” Greenberger had little choice: If
he wanted customers, he could distribute fliers,
discreetly, to Upper St. Clair residents and hope
that they would buy what he was selling. But that didn’t
help him much. The market was fickle. Customers want
what they want when they want it, not at a certain time
in a certain neighborhood on certain days. And so, he
did what any businessman in his position would do – he
sued Upper St. Clair for the right to sell ice cream to
kids.
The 1986-87 ice cream drought was a long one.
Greenberger’s truck, which reportedly played theme
songs from “Love Story” and “The Sting,” was
prohibited from playing music in Upper St. Clair
because of its ordinance concerning solicitation in the
township. He’d already been fined $300 for playing
music after 9 p.m. You need to sell a lot of Drumsticks®
to make up that kind of hit to your bottom line, so
Greenberger appealed.
Upper St. Clair’s manager, Douglas Watkins, went
on record that the music coming from Greenberger’s
speakers on his truck upset residents. So the warring
factions settled on bells – Greenberger could use the
jingles to draw out heat-oppressed kids. While he wasn’t
100 percent happy with the decision, he complied, and
the children rejoiced.
Greenberger told news outlets that he would continue
to play his music in other nearby municipalities,
probably because nothing says “ice cream” like the
theme from “Love Story.”