Walter and Margaret Tuttle

Walter and Margaret (Scharer) Tuttle are both remembered in the Mausoleum at Sandusky's Oakland Cemetery. Margaret Tuttle passed away on June 24, 1983, at the age of 70, and her husband Walt died on October 7, 1994. Mrs. Tuttle had been a realtor for the Bayland Realty Company. She was a member of Sts. Peter and Paul Church, the American Businesswomen's Association, and Zontal International. My memories of Walt and Margaret Tuttle go back to my youth, when the Tuttles operated Tuttle's Dairy Queen in Bay View, in the 1950s and 1960s. When my siblings and I were very young, Dad often did work as a plumber for the Tuttles at the Dairy Queen. On many a hot summer evening, he took us all up to the Dairy Queen, and Mrs. Tuttle would make us these delicious vanilla sundaes, complete with whipped cream and a cherry on top. She only charged us a quarter for each sundae! (I think she appreciated Dad's expertise as a plumber.) Tuttle's Dairy Queen sponsored several youth baseball teams in the 1960s. If the ball team won, they would go up to the Dairy Queen and the whole team would line up for an ice cream cone. I am pretty sure the only choices were vanilla or chocolate, no fancy sprinkles or dip-top back in those days.

My very first summer job was working at Tuttle's Dairy Queen. It took me a while to get the hang of swirling that ice cream just right, underneath the soft serve dispenser. We had a terrific crew of teenagers who worked there. The onion rings were so delicious, as were the chili dogs. My starting salary was 85 cents an hour! All I can recall of Mr. Tuttle is that he was quiet and gentle. Mrs. Tuttle, on the other hand, ran a tight ship at the Dairy Queen. Though the Tuttles are no longer with us, and neither is the Dairy Queen, they brought joy to hundreds of happy customers at the Tuttle's Dairy Queen in Bay View during the 50s and 60s.