SISTER LAKES — On a summer afternoon, temperatures were in the 80s and both old and young residents of Sister Lakes surrounded Jim’s Ice Cream Truck of Michiana, grabbing their strawberry shortcakes, Spiderman popsicles and ice cream sandwiches.

The man handing out the treats, Jim Lee, the owner and operator of his own ice cream truck bought the vessel from Summer Song three years ago, when they went out of business.

Lee has been driving ice cream trucks for more than 30 years and now he is delivering ice cream to the residents and resort goers of Sister Lakes at least once a week.

Back in 2000, Lee also drove an ice cream truck for Summer Song in the southern part of Cass County, both Edwardsburg and Granger were on his route. Now, as an independent, Lee decides his own routes.

“As an independent, it gave me more freedom to choose the territories that I wanted to go to, Lee said. “I did a little expansion last year into Marcellus and Vandalia and was working on getting into Sister Lakes.”

Last summer, Lee was in contact with Silver Creek Township trying to get approval, but a battle of phone tag did not get him an eventual start date until the third week in September, which is basically the end of ice cream season, Lee said with a laugh. This year, Sister Lakes is officially an addition to his route.

“I took a drive through [Sister Lakes], and the people have just been wonderful from the sheriff to the undersheriff and Silver Creek Township staff. It’s been great,” Lee said. “Just Cass County in general has been great. I mean, they’re fun.”

Things have changed a lot for ice cream all over the country, and technology hurt ice cream trucks, Lee said. The worst thing that ever happened to the ice cream truck industry was Nintendo, since children aren’t outside to hear the ice cream truck anymore when Lee drives through, he said.

However, Facebook became a big help for Lee. He uses the platform to post his daily runs and the different neighborhoods he plans on driving to.

“Sister Lakes has been great, especially when they started sharing,” Lee said. “I’ve been working on this Facebook page for quite some time and they got it. They shared, and it was a treat to see how connected the people are in Sister Lakes. People were coming out to my ice cream truck because of other people’s shares. I so wish that would happen in some of the other areas like Marcellus or Edwardsburg where I’ve been for 16 years.”

Lee starts getting ice cream at the end of March from his distributer. Usually around the last week of September or early October, ice cream starts getting scarce, he said.

“If I can’t get certain things from the distributor, I won’t even go out,” Lee said. “If I don’t have strawberry shortcake and chocolate eclair, how can I claim myself as an ice cream truck?”

When Lee makes a run to Sister Lakes, he stops at Indian Lake, Dewey Lake, Cable Lake, Crooked Lakes and Magician Lake, which takes up a whole day.

In addition to his weekly runs, Lee also travels around the area to attend birthday parties, family reunions, block parties, employee appreciations or any event.

“Sometimes, it’s just because of timing. There have been days I’ve done three events in one day,” Lee said. “I do quite a few birthday parties not just for children. As you see on the back of my card, I serve all ages 6 months to 106 years young. When you come to my truck, you are just one of the kids.”

For Lee, it is never a dull moment being an ice cream man, even being in more of a rural area like Cass County, he wouldn’t change a thing, he said.

For more information, readers can contact Jim Lee at Jimsicecreamtruck@gmail.com.