A yellow-clad man with wide brown eyes shuffled across a dirt parking lot. He stopped to take in the view—ice-cream themed corn hole, a tent for face painting, and a two-story milk can adorned with balloons and a cow.

“This is something here,” said George Salvador, before ordering vanilla and butternut crunch ice cream from Len and Beth Gauvin, owners of Salvador’s Ice Cream.

“He’d love to do this," said Salvador of his father, Augustine Salvador, who had purchased the milk-can-shaped shack in 1935 with his wife, Lillian. The couple had moved it from the Fort Rodman area in New Bedford to its current location on Smith Neck Road, where they began their ice-cream operation, the following year. The Gauvins bought it in 2005, and are currently celebrating its 80th birthday.

“It’s great that a place like this has such history,” said Rebecca Busansky, who first visited the stand the day before with her family, a mix of California and Massachusetts residents who gathered in Dartmouth for a reunion.

It’s not just tourists that buy up the average 400 ice cream cones the Gauvins sell each day though, said Beth Gauvin. Locals have become loyal visitors.

“I used to come here when I was this big... maybe four,” said Ron DaCosta, moving his hand below the picnic table he sat at. The Dartmouth resident said he has frequented the shop for more than 60 years. “My uncle [Manny Arruda] used to work here as a milk man.”

The 12-9 p.m. party was staffed consistently with eight employees, along with family and friend volunteers, to push out cones and burgers, and run the activities, said Beth Gauvin. Inside the kitchen, employee Haley Brabant made mini banana splits—the special for the day—while Cali Andrade whipped up a coffee Oreo frappe.

Outside, neighbor Phil Cusick flipped hamburgers with the owners’ son, Ryan Gauvin. “Salvador’s has been great neighbors,” said Cusick. “It’s been like that for years.”

Dartmouth resident Meghan deBarros stopped by for lunch and dessert with her family. “We live near, and we come here once in awhile. I heard ‘facepainting,’” she said, looking at her two little ones. Her husband, Tristan deBarros, planned on enjoying a grapenut cone, while their daughter Adriana said she’d be looking for something with a chocolate, marshmallow combo.

Across the property, Salvador's employee Falin Fagundes painted a shark on Henry Caron's cheek. The eight-year-old then took off to play corn hole with his friends. The games were part of a month-long project for Len Gauvin, a teacher at the Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School who had spent his April vacation repainting the can its silvery color for the birthday party. He also built the face cut-out for photos, where visitors were encouraged to tag themselves in an ice cream sundae backdrop, #SalvysSplit.

“I’ve got a little bit of a creative side,” said Len, explaining that the ice-cream-shaped bags for corn hole are dog toys he found in the supermarket.

Vanilla cones—complete with sprinkles—adorned most young faces, including that of three-year-old Claire Silva, who quickly ditched her blue lollipop when her grandfather, Gerry Snee, mentioned ice cream.

“It’s nice country fun,” said Beth Gauvin, a point of pride for the owners now celebrating their eleventh year in business. “It’s not a storefront in a strip mall,” she said.

“It’s been a great turnout,” Len added.

At a picnic table, Snee fed ice cream to a baby boy in his lap. “He’s eating his sister’s,” he said, explaining that Griffin Silva had already finished his scoop before moving on to Claire’s cup of strawberry ice cream.