What better topic for a Labor Day post than… more hot dogs?
Is there any way OTHER than grilled to have a hot dog? This blogger sure doesn’t think so!
We have an answer to a long-debated mystery on this blog, regarding you guessed it, Sears hot dogs.
I think almost everyone I’ve spoken with agrees that they were some darn good dogs. But the question had come up, what brand were they?
Ed kindly e-mailed me and said Sears’ hot dogs were Medford brand. I wondered how he found out, and it was, well, kind of obvious. “When i was at the old Sears store I looked behind the counter after they filled the hot dog rollers and saw the empty box,and it just stuck with me ever since,” he said.
Chelsea Collins said, “when I was reading this … I was just as confused as the rest of York County, so i went to my grandfather for the answer and he told me MEDFORD — hopefully this brings many confused minds to rest.”
I even got a phone call from Norma Newman who said the dogs were from Medford Meat out of Lancaster; she knew this because her friend Dot was a hot dog lady at the York Sears in the ’60s!
Then Keith Collier writes: “I worked at Sears in the mid-late 70’s, and remember well how many folks always commented on those Medford hot dogs! (imagine if they had served those award-winning smoked dogs from Sechrist’s in Dallastown)! … In addition, chili dog afficionados always raved about the James River brand chili used on their dogs! Once while I worked there, a competitor convinced the manager to try their brand; after only a week or 2, chili-dog sales had plummeted such that they HAD to bring back the James River stuff! Ah, memories!”
Jak Hoffman agreed with both the dogs and the James River comments. “I droolingly remember those Sears hot dogs. With some mustard and diced onions it was a great combo. They also scooped some pretty good ice cream from that stand. At 15 years old, I worked at the Stonybrook drive-in theater. The James River BBQ was a staple there – yum!”
Wow, thank you all! So that, of course, brings me to my next question: Is there anywhere you can still get a Medford dog??
