Indianola Assistant Fire Chief Bill Alford has spent his entire career battling the heat, and over the last several months, he has been serving up ice cold sno-balls.
Since last fall, Alford has been operating Mr. Bill’s Rockin’ Sno-Balls.
Along with his firefighting duties with the city, Alford and his wife Mary have operated Alford’s gift store on U.S. 82 for a little over a quarter of a century.
Retirement age for Alford hasn’t quite hit yet, but it was close enough in the last couple of years that he and his wife had begun to consider some alternative streams of revenue for the couple.
“We were looking for something that I could do that I would enjoy,” Alford told The Enterprise-Tocsin. “My dad was with the Civitan (Club), which was a civic organization in Jackson, and when I was growing up, we would always help him with the concession stand at Veteran’s Memorial Stadium… I always enjoyed that. It always stayed in the back of my mind…I had always said that if we could do something concessions-wise, it would be neat.”
A number of snow cone and sno-ball businesses have operated in Indianola over the last several years. Alford said that he kept a close eye on the market, and when the opportunity presented itself last year, he jumped on it.
“Everybody who has a snow cone stand here has done wonderfully,” Alford said. “It’s just a very time-consuming business, and I mean I have learned that in the short amount of time I have been here.”
The Alfords took the plunge last spring and ordered the red custom trailer that came with all of the machines, something Alford said took about six months to deliver.
When the trailer came in last September, a lot of snow cone businesses were packing it in for the fall.
Mr. Bill’s started rockin’.
The response was great, he said.
“People were still buying them,” Alford said. “We stayed open pretty much for the rest of the year.”
The Alfords are no strangers to building businesses and a loyal customer base.
They opened their store in 1998 in a smaller location at the old American Legion building on U.S. 448.
By 2005, the business was expanding, and they had the opportunity to grow their footprint by purchasing the building on U.S. 82.
“It grew exponentially over the years,” Alford said.
Alford has also grown a number of side hustles, including as a roller skate disc jockey in the 1980s, the sound man for Indianola Academy sporting events, a gameshow host and others.
But his biggest love was always playing music.
Mr. Bill’s logo is a tribute to that musical past, with the headphones around his ears and a mirror ball on top of the snow-ball.
The ice, Alford said, is also unique. It is called New Orleans shaved ice.
“We have come to find out that here where we are in the Mississippi Delta, that our customers love the sno-balls that taste like snow, real soft,” Alford said.
Alford said that the trailer was outfitted with the New Orleans ice machine that makes that possible.
They make blocks of ice, which about 50 can be stored at a time in the freezer, and the machine shaves it into the snow-like ice that makes a Mr. Bill’s sno-ball unique.
In early April, Alford said he and his staff received their first big test, setting up at the World Catfish Festival in Belzoni.
“We learned a lot (that day),” Alford said.
There were lessons, but it was a success.
As the business approaches its first summer shaving ice, Alford said he hopes to expand on flavors, food offerings and the trailer’s footprint.
He hopes to combine his musical past with the sno-balls, setting up a tent and playing music and hosting activities wherever he is set up.
“I’m trying to throw a party. It’s an event when we show up,” he said.
He said he should have a full staff by the end of the school year, and he is looking forward to being open seven days a week, although the hours have not been set in stone.
Alford also said customers can check the Mr. Bill’s Rockin Sno-balls Facebook page daily for updates on hours of operation and new flavors.
Alford is looking forward to continuing to serve his city as a firefighter, and he is also looking forward to helping a lot of the citizens stay cool this summer.
“People know me as Mr. Bill,” Alford said. “I’ve got such a deep love for this town, and I love everybody, and everybody has been so nice and so patient with us while we try to figure all of this out.”
