Little Miss Dairy Queen comes out for July 4 Parade | Community Spirit

Just when you think Jerry Mehring has trotted out all the collectibles he’s saved – he surprises you with another one.

During the annual West Bend July 4th Parade, the present DQ owners Dan and Ashley Schuster resurrected Little Miss Dairy Queen.

 “That’s an antique, and it was the official mascot for Dairy Queen back in the 1960s,” said the former DQ owner Mehring.

The mascot featured a five-foot-tall little Dutch girl with blonde hair, a blue bonnet, dress, white apron and clogs. The rosy-cheeked girl with black mascara-lined eyes was holding a tray serving a couple ice-cream treats.

Mehring said the outfit was actually something DQ employees wore back in the ‘60s.

“We had head pieces like that and little aprons,” he said. “Actually the girls all wore that, and the guys wore white pants and a white shirt with a black bow tie.”

Back in the day the plastic mascot rotated atop the south Dairy Queen on Main St.

“At night the whole doll was illuminated and then in 1985 when we remodeled the store and put the new addition on the front, she came down and went into hibernation along with all the old signs,” he said.

Hibernation meant Little Miss Dairy Queen was put into storage.

She did come out, once, back in 1990 when International Dairy Queen had her shipped to Hawaii for an International Dairy Queen convention and put on display.  It was the 50th Anniversary of Dairy Queen.

The yellow and red festooning used on the float this past Monday was used in a DQ float in a Port Washington parade in 1960.

“We had an old station wagon and it was totally covered with that yellow crepe paper,” he said.

“There were just two ellipses in the front window so the driver could see out,” he said.

On top of the station wagon Mehring mounted a miniature version of the DQ store and on the hood was a big Guernsey cow.

Over the years Mehring has shared his collection with the community.

He’s dusted off the first DQ Blizzard machine, unwrapped a teal blue dress his wife wore when she was a teenager working at the West Bend Company and current owners Dan and Ashley Schuster still use the Dilly Wagon, an antique Cushman Scooter with a freezer box.