My father ran away from home in Pennsville, NJ, in the summer of 1948 at the age of 15, to earn enough money to buy a car. He went to Atlantic City and took a job selling hot dogs from a cart across from the Steel Pier in Atlantic City. In those days, as he told me, folks like Danny Kaye would walk out to the boardwalk between shows for a smoke, and shake hands and sign autographs. My father also would pas the time watching the man in the straw boater across from him under the umbrella stand, slicing tomatoes all day long to sell KitchenMagicians. Of course, that many was Ed McMahon. Many years later they corresponded and Ed laughed that my father remembered him from way back then. My father returned home after the summer in triumph, first buying a broken 1939 Plymouth, and then trading it for a running 1937 Plymouth to a man who needed a larger car, broken or not. Imagine those entertainers today walking around under the AC sun, smoking and signing autographs...Old times. I'm a huge hot dog fan to this day, and I favor the Ball Park Angus or the Nathan's. Hebrew Nat'l works too, and I try to recreate the chili dogs of my 'Jersey youth.
