Six Decades of Smiles and Soft Serve
By Caleb Hale | Editor, SIU Alumni Magazine
As a business owner in downtown Carbondale, Mark "Wazo" Waicukauski '79 has two standing records he'd rather not break anytime soon. He's been open on every Halloween, and he's never had a window smashed -- quite a feat since his landmark ice cream shop is more than a third glass.
Formerly a classic walk-up Dairy Queen store, today, the shop has a new name, Wazo's Big Chill. When the American Dairy Queen Corporation issued a cease-and-desist order for the store to stop operating as a DQ in 2023, locals feared it was the end for a place that had been part of downtown Carbondale, serving community members and Southern Illinois University students since 1952.
Waicukauski, however, regrouped and reopened as an independent shop, even updating and replacing the iconic neon sign atop the building. For him, the prospect of closing his store in the heart of Carbondale's Strip is untenable.
Sitting on a simple chair, shaded under the awning of the Big Chill on a modestly warm Tuesday in early June, Waicukauski confidently and happily says, there's simply no other place he'd rather be.
"Last night, that front step was filled with families," he said, gesturing to the sidewalk along Illinois Avenue in front of the store. "Just people sitting, eating their ice cream, enjoying the evening. It brought me joy seeing that. Truthfully, I've been rejuvenated since I went out on my own."
Independence has its perks. Now, Waicukauski said, not only can he serve a version of the treats that have fallen off the menu of Dairy Queen, he can respond to specific customer requests.
"When we lost the Dairy Queen name, I wasn't that upset. I knew that I'd been here long enough that I could give people what they wanted. The Big Chill tries to give people what they want."
"Going to SIU was a great time. I want those memories to live on, and that's why I like to keep the place like this."
Mark "Wazo" Waicuskauski '79
Waicukauski is a Carbondale native and entered SIU in the 1970s to major in mathematics. After discovering the subject "too abstract," he pivoted to business.
"They called it administrative science back then, so that's what my degree is in," he said.
Ask him what it was like at SIU during his time as a student, and his eyes light up so much that not even the sunglasses he typically wears on the job can hide his enthusiasm.
"Whenever I think about it, it brings back so many good memories," he said. "Going to SIU was a great time. I want those memories to live on, and that's why I like to keep the place like this."
Upon graduating in 1979, Waicukauski thought about moving to Chicago. A weekend visit changed his mind.
His father, Joe, had bought the ice cream shop in 1966, after an early career in local farming. Since city life was now out of the question, Waicukauski began helping his dad and took over the business completely in 1981.
The 1980s and '90s were busy and magical times for downtown Carbondale. Thriving nightlife, a multitude of local bars and restaurants, and SIU's party reputation gave what was otherwise a modest midwestern town an aura that attracted crowds.
In 1980, the late comedian John Candy visited Carbondale during Halloween for a show that aired on NBC. Candy's film crew set up on the roof of the shop to film the action.
Unfortunately, Waicukauski was too busy that day to meet him.
Mark Waicukauski with the mural painted across the side of Wazo's Big Chill to celebrate Saluki pride in Carbondale.
Candy was one of only a few missed opportunities Waicukauski had to interact with people over the years, because his favorite part of the job is meeting and talking with as many of his customers as possible.
One can scarcely imagine the number of people the shop has served over six decades, including Wazo himself.
"I couldn't hazard a guess; it's a bunch," he said.
What's important is that the Big Chill, for many, seems like a place held in time, a living memory that remains intact, even as other establishments in downtown Carbondale come and go.
"What I really like to see are the people who've graduated -- some years ago -- come back downtown and see everything's changed," Waicukauski said. "But then they see this place, and it brings back the memories they had of when they were students or when their parents used to bring them down for ice cream. I just love that."
In the last couple of years, the city, university, and SIU Alumni Association have hosted Homecoming street festivals that effectively shut down the Strip, allowing thousands of students and community members to experience a taste of Carbondale's most active days.
It's difficult to recapture that era exactly, Waicukauski said, but he's ecstatic to see the area come alive again.
The Big Chill surrounded by a massive crowd during the 2024 farewell concert of Jungle Dogs on the Strip in Carbondale during SIU Homecoming weekend.
As for his shop, Wazo doesn't plan to quit anytime soon.
"I hope to keep it the same for as long as we can," he said. "Sure, we'll evolve as we need to, but I want to keep it a place where people can still come to enjoy the area and each other."
It's just past the store's 11 a.m. opening on a weekday, when Wazo surveys the Big Chill's interior, checking supplies and machines for yet another shift. The smile across his face, the one that's been almost permanently affixed to it since 1981, lights up as the first customers of the day walk up to the counter.
A layer of soft serve ice cream swirling into a cake cone is all he needs to know that everything is right with his world.
