“I met Jacquie when I was in the Army. I came home on leave, a friend of mine introduced me to her, and that’s where it started. We were living in Monroe until I retired, and after that, we wanted to do catering: cook in a hall and host weddings and banquets and whatnot. That’s when my brother-in-law, who was living in Linwood, told us that Loha Mussell, the owner of Mussell Beach, was looking to sell the business. ‘Why don’t you come up here and look at the place?’ he said.
But I didn’t want to. We were looking for a place downstate, where we were living. But he just bugging us. So I said, let’s just go up there, look at the place, and tell him we don’t like it so he’ll get off our backs about it.
We drove up on the 1st of October, pulled in, and when I saw it I thought, ‘Oh, this ain’t what I was thinking.’ I thought it was going to be smaller. But it had a restaurant area on the side and a house on top of it! An apartment that was very comfortable. It was old, but very clean.
We were campers, and wherever we went camping, every night we would go out for ice cream. And the state park and campgrounds are right here! The water, the trails, deer and wildlife everywhere. It’s a perfect location. You can walk to the beach from here, and that’s something I used to do as a kid. It reminded me of everything I grew up with. You couldn’t ask for a better spot, and we couldn’t figure out when nobody was buying the place. It wasn’t until after we bought it we found out that Loha was waiting to sell to the right people, people who thought the place was as special as she did.
So after we left, me and Jacquie were driving in the car. We were just really quiet—I was thinking and she was thinking. I don’t think we said anything to each other until we got to Birch Run.
Then I said, ‘I can’t find nothing wrong with it.’
And she said, ‘Me neither.’
21 years ago, we decided to buy Mussell Beach. After that, everything fell into place, almost like we were meant to be here. We fell in love with the business. We fell in love with the people and the community.
And people have loved us back, especially my wife. Sure, this was a place where she could cook and sell ice cream. But for Jacquie, it was more like inviting people into our home. She loved to talk to people. She would get all the food cooked up, and then come out and everybody was going to get a visit from Jacquie.
There was so much love between here and our customers that they started calling here ‘Ma’. People started calling her ‘Ma’. We even had one adopted son, Arthur, who was 97 years old ask us if he could call her that!
She loved this town, and the town loved her right back. After she passed away, there was never any question about continuing the business. This place was so important to her and we’re just trying to make her proud.”
—Ed Larner, Mussell Beach Drive In in Bay City, Michigan
“My mom said something a long time ago that when customers come here, they’re coming into our house. It’s like when you have a party at your house—you’re excited to have people over. So every time a customer comes here, they’re not just coming to an ice cream shop or a restaurant, it’s our home.
That’s always stuck with me. When someone comes here for something to eat or for a treat, I want them to leave with the best experience.”
—Mark Larner, Mussell Beach Drive In in Bay City, Michigan
“It was really something our mom always wanted to do. She was known for her baking and cooking, and wanted a place where she could do that. But there were six of us kids, and we were 15 and 13 at the time, so it was going to be something that happened ‘later on’.
But our uncle just kept pushing, ‘There’s this place in Bay City for sale. Just give it a look!’ he said. Eventually, Dad said, let’s just take a peek. If we don’t like it, we don’t buy it, but we’ll go check it out. When they came back, they were a little too quiet, so we knew something was up!
They bought the place, and Mom and our brothers moved in up here while Dad stayed with us downstate so we could finish the school year. They would work on the place during the week, and then Dad would drive us up on the weekend. We were learning the ins and outs of this place, how to work the machines and the grill and everything. We would do our homework and learn how to make ice cream. Then early Monday morning, we would wake up, Dad would drive us back to Monroe, and we would go to school.
We couldn’t ask for a better community. Parents bring their kids here, and those kids grow up to start their first job working behind the counter. Customers became friends, and friends became family. To them, my mom was ‘Ma’. It started off as ‘Miss Jacquie’, but then we started hearing, ‘Hi, Ma!’ or ‘What are you cooking today, Ma?’
That’s who she was, and my mom was the soul of this place. She made people feel like part of the family. Even now, three years later, people will say, ‘I can’t believe she’s gone.’ She’s the reason that all of us, after she passed away, said ‘ We’re doing this together as a family and for her.’
Mussell Beach is mom’s legacy, and we want to make her proud.”
—Catie Beffrey and Liz Larner, Mussell Beach Drive In in Bay City, Michigan
