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Oldest DQ Opens On Schedule Despite Frigid Temps

MOORHEAD, Minn. (WCCO) -- You wouldn't think it possible, but the crowds gathered in Moorhead for Dilly Bars and Peanut Buster Parfaits probably warmed up on those cool treats this weekend.

Temperatures plunged well below zero for the first few days of March, but that didn't stop throngs from lining up to buy their first ice cream of the season in Moorhead.

The country's oldest Dairy Queen, in Moorhead, has opened on the first day meteorological spring for decades.

Many years, that opening date makes for a brisk but hardly arctic first day of business. But thanks to this winter's persistent Polar Vortex, Saturday's high was 11 degrees below zero there. That beat out the previous record for the coldest high temperature there on the first of the month, which was a comparatively balmy negative 2 degrees.

According to the Fargo Forum, there were constant lines of bundled up customers throughout the day.

The Moorhead Dairy Queen is within walking distance of two college campuses -- Minnesota State University Moorhead and Concordia College. Walking distance, that is, when the temperatures are actually warmer than the ice cream being sold there.

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