Sarg’s ice cream

Kregg Halstead

You might be from Storm Lake if... you remember that in the 1970s and 80s with its delicious, creamy, fantastic and incredible taste, Sarg’s ice cream was almost worth dying for.

And my personal example — playing basketball at my family’s house at 1813 W. Sixth St. (we had a pretty good court). Must have already been April as the temperature was warm enough to play outside and I would say in 1977 since my oldest brother, Kevin, had not yet gone away to ISU, meaning most of the participants in our game were his high school friends (putting me in fifth grade). In scrambling for the ball and we played very roughly, I took a knee not just to the head, but smack dab to my temple. It stunned and rocked me.

This happened though right as we were knocking off for the day — I’d say around 6:30 p.m. on a Friday (I recall the NCAA Men’s Final Four was the next day which was a huge, big deal in those years). My friend Matt Oatman and I had already planned riding our bikes to the Vista Theatre, about two miles away, to attend a movie (I don’t remember which). And we made it there, bought our tickets, went into the theater and sat down.

About 30 minutes into the movie, I was already having problems. I felt just terrible — literally like I was dying as had an excruciating headache. I begged Matt that I can’t stay. And although we had again paid for the tickets, Matt was a really good friend and we promptly left. But after seeing a movie, we always hit Sarg’s (especially considering it was an overall four-mile bike ride — so there were some opportunity costs in making it to downtown Storm Lake). So, notwithstanding my dreadful condition (my vision had also become blurred), we went to Sarg’s and despite everything, I still managed to wolf down three scoops of banana (maybe cost 90 cents).

We ate and left, and I hardly could remember how or by what route, but somehow again on our bikes, we made it back to my house. Matt told my parents what had happened, and I immediately went to lay down. And as soon as I was on my bed, everything starting spinning and (you guessed it), I hurled all three dips of the banana ice cream everywhere all over my bedroom (my poor mother who had to clean it up).

My parents immediately took me to the hospital emergency room and they diagnosed a concussion and admitted me. I stayed overnight but by the next afternoon, I was feeling better and they let me go home that Saturday evening. I had no interest though that day in watching the Final Four but on Monday evening in the Championship Game did watch Al McGuire and Marquette win it all. I never regretted though our going to Sarg’s even in my condition. That ice cream was that good — indeed almost worth dying for — any ice cream available in 2026 can’t compare.

Kregg Halstead and his family lived in Storm Lake from 1972-1986 and he graduated from Storm Lake High School in 1984. He was a two-year starter on the boys varsity basketball team and also the No. 1 man on the boys tennis team all four years of high school, finishing fourth and sixth in state singles and first in state doubles. He graduated from UNI in 1988 and the University of Iowa College of Law in 1991. He has worked most of his professional career outside of the U.S. on USAID funded good governance and rule of law projects over the course of 30 years working in Armenia, Bangladesh, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Pakistan, Russia and Ukraine. Prior to the elimination of USAID by DOGE in the spring of 2025, he was serving as the director of the largest USAID funded good governance project being implemented in Ukraine. He has made use of the newly unexpected free time writing up his cherished childhood memories of life in Storm Lake during the 1970s and 80s.