Mr. Lemon enters its 50th year, but without ‘Mama Lemon’
Mr. Lemon, the iconic frozen lemonade stand in the North End of Providence, is entering its 50th year, but the milestone will be bittersweet because it follows the loss of “Mama Lemon.”
Eileen M. Rao, who cofounded Mr. Lemon in 1974 with her husband, Joseph, died in December at age 94. Joseph died in 1986.
”Mr. Lemon was our mother’s heart and she wanted the legacy that she and our father built to continue as she grew older,” her three children wrote in her obituary. “We will honor her memory by following her footsteps in the Mr. Lemon business.”
So now that spring has officially arrived, the question arises: Will Mr. Lemon open this year?
”Hopefully yes,” Janice Valedofsky, one of Mama Lemon’s daughters, said Thursday. “We really are still in shock about our mother, and the three of us haven’t gotten together. We plan on opening, but nothing is really definite yet. This will be our 50th year. It’s so hard to believe.”
Mr. Lemon has a legion of true believers, and one is Rhode Island State Librarian Megan Hamlin-Black. Along with her friend Lindsey Ravizza, she has created a spreadsheet listing every flavor of lemonade offered at Mr. Lemon over the past three years.
At other lemonade stands, the choices don’t extend much beyond lemon and watermelon. But at Mr. Lemon, the options have included Boom Boom Blast, Dipity Dang, Rooty Snooty Beer, Sassy Peach, Chillin Cheech, Happy Life, Pucker Power, Buckle Berry, Rockin Ringo, Flossy Freeze, Super Tang, Double Dipper, Ruby Red Fluff, Pop Pop Bam, Dynamite, Jolly Jan Jan, Clown Candy, and (be sure to try) Happy Slap Slap.
Valedofsy said her sister, Colleen Rao-Sales, comes up with the names. “She goes to bed thinking about the next flavor’s name,” she said.
Last year, Mr. Lemon named a flavor after the late state Senate Majority Whip Maryellen Goodwin, mixing her favorite flavor, Smackin’ Apple, into a new flavor called Majority Whip Whip Goodwin.
With a laugh, Valedofsky recalled that Goodwin’s late father, funeral director Thomas Goodwin, used to drive a hearse past the lemonade stand and stop right in front of the customer window, yelling out: “Who’s your undertaker?!”
One day, Mama Lemon was sweeping outside when Goodwin pulled up and yelled, “Who’s your undertaker?” She came inside alarmed, saying: “The darndest thing just happened.” But her children reassured her: “Oh, that’s just Mr. Goodwin — he does that every time he goes by.”
Last year, during a WPRIChannel 12 debate, eight Democratic congressional candidates were asked if they favored Del’s Lemonade or Mr. Lemon. Gabe Amo, who’s now in Congress, was the only one to raise his hand for Mr. Lemon.
”We like to think we had something to do with his win,” Valedofsky said. So will we see a flavor named for Amo? “That is a good idea,” she said.
While not a Rhode Island native, Hamlin-Black understands that Mr. Lemon is one of the unique things that makes Rhode Island so Rhode Island. It’s not a franchise with locations all over the place. There’s just one Mr. Lemon — a small, white, wooden building with a metal awning slung over a curbside window and a giant lemon with eyes and legs painted on the side.
”It feels like the lemonade is being handed out of someone’s house window. It feels really good,” Hamlin-Black said. “Standing in line on Hawkins Street and around the corner, figuring out what flavor to get and holding the Dixie cup as the lemonade melts in your hand — it feels so summer.”