By Sarah Fertsch
Staff Writer
If you’ve driven down Zion Road in Egg Harbor Township recently, you probably noticed something different.
The 20-foot raisin holding an ice-cream cone beside Little’s Ice Cream Shop looks just like new. That’s because the raisin received a paint job and a new fiberglass hat with an “L” on the front.
The hat was handmade by Joseph LaPort, the co-owner of Little’s along with his wife, Laura.
“The hat itself is about 80 pounds, and we sculpted it from wood and fiberglass. We had to make sure that the hat would be able to survive snow storms in the winter,” Joseph said.
LaPort, with a little extra help from friends and neighbors, hand-painted the raisin while standing on a ladder. Once the raisin was recoated, they used a rope to pull the hat on top of the raisin’s head and secured it.
“We had a whole group of neighbors watching the show and cheering us on,” said Joseph.
When asked to speak on his new appearance, the raisin declined to comment. He just stood there with his ice-cream cone, smiling and staring off into the distance.
The raisin was erected in the 1980s, when California raisins were a big thing in pop culture.
A miniature golf course owner built the raisin to draw crowds to his Wildwood business. Unfortunately, the course went out of business in the 1990s. So Mr. Little, the original owner of Little’s since its beginning in 1973, hauled the raisin up the coast onto his front yard across from his ice-cream stand.
The wrinkly icon became a local legend, and customers stopped calling the shop “Little’s,” instead calling it “The Raisin.”
The LaPort family took over Little’s in 1999, unsure of what to think or do with the giant raisin.
Laura LaPort confesses that this year, she hoped to remove the raisin from the premises, claiming that the bizarre statute was falling apart and couldn’t be fixed. When she pitched this idea to her staff of 12 girls, they unanimously voted to keep the raisin and fix him up.
Little’s is a family business through and through, run by Laura and Joseph, and one of their three children, who trains new employees when she isn’t teaching in the Egg Harbor Township School District.
All three of their children scooped ice cream by the time they reached age 13, according to the LaPorts.
On any evening during the summer, Little’s is the place to be. Families, couples on dates and sports teams stand in line under the old-fashioned hanging lights, craving flurries, soft serve ice-cream, sundaes and novelty treats.
Each ice-cream girl is polite and moves quickly through the line. The store is shockingly clean, with its shiny ice-cream machines dating back to the 1960s.
The menu is extensive, offering options for every taste. Smiles are on everyone’s faces, happy to enjoy a cold treat on a hot summer night.
The LaPorts plan to host an employee reunion for the many workers they have had over the almost 50 years of being in business.
“Some girls, now women, are in their 60s, even older than us,” said Joseph. “There must be over 100 former employees, all connected by the same experiences, like having chocolate sauce all over your arms or smelling like sweet cream.”
Laura and Joseph look forward to the 50th anniversary, and are actively brainstorming specials and celebrations for next summer. For now, Little’s will continue to serve the public until the end of their season in late September.
The LaPort family dedicates this article to Richard Little, the founder and original owner of the ice-cream stand, who sadly passed away in 2021. His legacy lives on through the old-fashioned ice-cream shop, and the raisin he rescued all those years ago.
