Picture South Windsor - Then And Now

SOUTH WINDSOR, CT — Today's throwback offering is a bit different than our usual format, as we're reviving a very popular piece we ran several years ago. We found 14 years' worth of ads in high school yearbooks for Dell's Ice Cream, formerly on Route 5 next to Hartford Arena (now South Windsor Arena).

The first Dell's ad was spotted in the 1959 edition of Ellsworth High School's yearbook, The Ellsworthian. The owner started out in a very clever manner the first three years, showing pictures of students eating at the counter, with captions like "Eddie and Mickey stopped at..." and "Roger and Bob highly recommend the hot dogs at..."

In 1962, which was also the final Ellsworthian, what are presumably the owners are shown. They went back to the student pictures in 1964, and a year later, the only ad ever to show the outside of the building ran (our lead photo above).

By 1966, just words appeared on the page. An attempt was made in 1970 to add a cartoon logo, but by the final ad in 1973, it was back to words alone.

Here are some ads from the yearbooks, corresponding to the dates mentioned earlier in the story.

When we first published this throwback story, reader Pat (Capano) Bartomeli wrote, "I graduated SWHS in 1966. Dell's was the primary hangout for our class (Henry's Pizza was second)."

For the past 20 years, the site has been home to the Rasham Restaurant, offering genuine Pakistani cuisine. Here is a more contemporary look at the location, courtesy of Google Maps.

Do you have a photo of an old South Windsor business which no longer exists, to which you own the rights and which we could feature in this column? Email tim.jensen@patch.com.