Hot Dog Day

Once upon a time...there was a day, like no other...a day dreamed about endlessly...of wondrous feasts, a nice little piece of heaven...erasing the stark reality of blubbery bologna, moldy tuna & sour ham salad sandwiches...

...(keep going)...

...O.K. just add any other wretched, lifeless lunch, we were forced to consume every single school day...too...

For this unique & splendid day...obliterating our senses was...Hot Dog Day...

This delightful day of dogs...relished with mustard...never could come soon enough...for us misbegotten children enslaved to an ordinary droll existence...ready to boom, burst wide open, onto our playground, outdoors, ready to run amock, with a frenzy, towards the line for the ladies dishing out the dogs...

All the girls, all the boys...had that wild look in their eyes, as our teachers led us from our classrooms, towards the doors, that day. Our hearts pounding/racing, our minds ablaze with pure delight...

In our small pockets, our coins & dollars all jumbled together, we never had quite enough cash, to buy the amount of mouth-watering goodies, our minds felt so certain, we could consume that day...

Maybe $2.00 to $3.00...was all our parents would dole out...and we were all just rabid little fools, anyway...."Honestly, look at yourself, your eyes are bigger than your belly", our parents would say, laughing at us...sheepishly, with such a knowing wink...

By the way...the hot dogs weren't that great...

Plain old, run-of-the-mill Oscar Mayer hot dogs, boiled in a big silver kettle...nothing special, seemed like something created by the gods that day...We devoured those doggies, in nothing flat, out there, on the black-top pavement...our playground... Our church & school parking lot, transformed into a sea of blissful children, caught up in the wild moment...

A moment so incredibly rare, a moment we wished we could have, at least once a week, or once a month....Couldn't we have Hot Dog Day....every day...???...

No way...Jose'...!!!...

The school, our Principal...kept our day of deliverance down to one Spring day...usually in early May...until demands made it a two time...holiday...after the ruckus, us kids made, because our passion to celebrate this special event took on a life of its own...

And every year, we grew older & wiser, in our pursuit of perfection. Making the most, of that sumptuous half-hour...planning a mad dash, for any line, that looked thin...Sure, the shortest line, could be anything...The line for a can of Pop...the line for mini bags of Jay's potato chips...the line for ice cream sandwiches...and of course, that killer line for hot dogs...

That Hot Dog line...seemed like it always was 20 kids deep...and our anxiety of wondering if they would run out of hot dogs or maybe, they would be icky cold, by the time we got one, made us twice as anxious to get that damn dog...ASAP...

It's funny, how our passion for Hot Dog Day, dissipated as we grew older. By the time we hit 8th Grade, it seemed almost a farce...us kids jaded by our enormous egos, of thinking it was little kid stuff...We no longer basked in the glow, of piling those hot dogs into our tummies with glee. The fun was done...The moment as boring as any other day...Why...was this so...???...

For once upon a time, our little voices, screamed with madness, when the word got out, when Hot Dog Day, was declared...A hearty rush, of happiness poured forth...brimming with excitement, because there was nothing quite like it...Ohhh, those were happy times...

Sure, I can taste the rubbery dogs, right now. The salty potato chips, the orange pop, the ice cream sandwich which dripped & dripped & dripped all over our school clothes...It didn't matter.

Because rare is the beauty, the sight of children, immensely proud, they had acheived this mark, of excellence. Wolfing it all down, like baby tigers. Mustard on our hands, mustard on our mouths, mustard, mustard...did I mention, plenty of mustard...???....

Of course, we'd give a kings ransom to re-live that moment. It was a timeless treasure. The sun always seemed to beating brightly down that day, and not one kid was ever, ever sick on Hot Dog Day...You cannot deny the sheer silliness of it all.

For it was a day of dogs and a day of laughter. Also, a day of sunshine and a day of sharing. The sharing of pure goodness, from one end of the loud & boisterous playground, to the other...

There...at old Saint Thomas More school....long, long ago...

Yes, if you listen closely, you can hear the echoes of kiddie chaos, in your minds. Our minds enriched, with such gentle thoughts, never lost from our precious memories. Always there, any time, we care to gaze back, back so fondly and so dearly, upon Hot Dog Day...

...good old Hot Dog Day......

(BTW...John "Chet" Feely, set the bar high, by consuming 8 hot dogs, at one time, one Hot Dog Day, back around 1976...While this doesn't seem like much, Chet, had started off his day, with his Mom's, stick-to-your-ribs, Irish breakfast, consisting of a pound of bacon, a dozen eggs, a tub-full of oatmeal & enough French Toast to feed an army. Only kidding Chet, we know, for sure, you would give Kobayashi & Joey Chestnut a run for their money, and then some, at any "Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest", on Coney Island, in NY...anytime...especially, back in your STARVING HUNGRY, don't-throw-that-in-the-garbage...I'll-eat-that, CARE-FREE, YOUTH...)