by Jessica Pope • photos by Pat Gallagher
Before joining forces and opening The Scoop Ice Cream Parlor & Sandwich Shoppe in the 400 block of Northside Drive, 56-year-old Vicki Edwards and 69-year-old Dorothy Goodloe worked as a licensed practical nurse and a receptionist, respectively, for Dr. Frank Q. Smith, a local specialist in the areas of obstetrics and gynecology. At one point, they even operated a traveling concession wagon and a stand at a local sports complex.
Born and raised in Moultrie with a younger sister and brother, Vicki learned a good deal about meal preparation from her mother. She simply enjoyed every minute spent in the family kitchen, and she often prepared lunch on weekends.
“I used to make a deal with my mother: If she did not make me work in the yard, I would clean the house and fix lunch on Saturdays,” Vicki shared. “I think I was 11 when that started. It was perfect for my mother because she loved to work outside, and it was perfect for me because I did not.”
Vicki’s specialties back then included hamburgers and french fries and potato salad. And she learned the hard way to be especially careful when around a hot stove working with grease.
“My knowledge progressed from there,” she said.
At the age of 18, Vicki moved to Lowndes County and registered as a nursing student at the Valdosta Technical Institute. She graduated with a licensed practical nursing degree sometime later, accepting a position with Dr. Smith. One year or so later, she met Dorothy.
Born in Coffee County and raised, at least in part, in Perry, Florida, Dorothy moved to Valdosta as a preteenager. Like Vicki, it was her mother who taught her how to cook, and she often prepared an evening meal for her family, including a younger brother, as her mother often worked late. Also like Vicki, there are not many dishes this grandmother of three cannot prepare, except maybe homemade biscuits and dumplings. She noted that she never did perfect those.
“I always had a meat, a vegetable, and a starch at every meal,” she shared. “That’s how I was taught to cook from the very beginning. I cooked like that for my own kids (she has a 46-year-old son named Wally Goodloe and a 45-year-old daughter named Diane Johnson) when they were growing up, but I cannot say that I do that much anymore.”
Dorothy spent a few years working in Anchorage, Alaska, as a bookkeeper, a skill she mastered as a student at Valdosta High School. When she moved to Valdosta, she joined the staff at the office of Dr. Smith as a receptionist, working her way up to the position of office manager. She noted that she and Vicki became friends instantly.
“We’ve never had an argument,” Vicki said.
“She’s the sister I never had but always wanted,” Dorothy said, referring to Vicki.
In the early 1990s, Vicki and Dorothy decided to make a little extra money on the side and fill their desire to feed others by purchasing and operating a concession wagon. The duo traveled to large and small festivals throughout Georgia and Florida on weekends selling all sorts of yummy eats.
When Vicki and Dorothy grew bored and tired of the traveling thing, they entered into a contract to operate the concession stands at Vallotton Park in Valdosta. They could be found at the park working four nights a week and on Saturdays.
“We wanted to do something on the side, outside the doctor’s office” Vicki said. “Looking back, it is easy to see that God had a plan for us and maybe the wagon and the stands were his way of steering us in the right direction ... that or we were crazy.”
Vicki and Dorothy did not stop maintaining the concession stands until they got the idea to open an ice cream shop on Baytree Road. They spent two years conducting research before opening The Scoop Ice Cream Parlor & Sandwich Shoppe in July of 1999 at 1575 Baytree Road. Initially they served ice cream and hot dogs, but when ice cream sales dropped off during the winter months, they added chili and other items to their menu.
“We’ve always been flexible when it comes to our menu and what we offer our customers,” Dorothy said. “Once we got started, everything just sort of fell into place. We did a lot of praying and ended up with a great business. And it’s a fun business, but it’s also a lot of hard work.”
In October of 2005, Vicki and Dorothy opened a second location of The Scoop Ice Cream Parlor & Sandwich Shoppe at 401-C Northside Drive. When operating both stores got to be too much for them, they sold the Baytree location in July of 2007.
“We discovered that we are stronger together,” Vicki said. “We simply did not like one of us at one place while the other was at the second place. We feel better and enjoy the work more when we are together.”
Vicki is married to Dale Edwards, her husband of 20 years and is the mother of four children — Clay Edwards, 17, a student at Lowndes High School; Greg Jennings, 39; Travis Edwards, 19; and Sarah Lynn Edwards, 11, a student at Lowndes Middle School. She has a 10-year-old granddaughter and a 5-year-old granddaughter.
Dorothy is married to Pardee Goodloe, her husband of 51 years. The couple met as students at Valdosta High School and dated five years before marrying. Her three grandchildren — ages 6, 3, and 1 — live in Texas, and she visits them every chance she gets.
