At last!

As goofy as it sounds, I fulfilled a lifelong dream this evening – I saw the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile!

Shortly after she got home from work, Maria mentioned casually that one of her reporters came across the Wienermobile today and photographed it.

“Where was it?’

“At the Hays supermarket in Paragould. They were selling hot dogs for charity.”

“What?!?!? Is it still there?”

“I think so.”

“Get your shoes on, we’re going to Paragould.”

I’ve been fascinated with the Wienermobile since I was a kid in the 1950s and have always wanted to see it in person. I even have a link to the Wienermobile Blog over on the right side of this page.

It was 6:45 p.m. when we roared down our driveway and headed for Paragould. I worried that the event would be over and the Wienermobile would be gone.

Sure enough, as we approached the intersection of U.S. 49 and Kingshighway in Paragould, the Wienermobile rounded the corner and headed right at us. I whipped a U-turn in a parking lot and got behind it, handing my point-and-shoot camera to Maria.

We shadowed it at a steady 50 mph to just north of Goobertown, where I sped up and ran on ahead to get a shot when it reached Pine Log Road. I made it and that’s what you see at the top of this post.

There have been Oscar Mayer Wienermobiles since the General Body Co. of Chicago created the first one in 1936.

Wikipedia says:

There are seven Wienermobiles in existence currently, with each assigned a part of the country. The hotdogger position of driving the Wienermobile is an open position to U.S. citizens and the duration of the job lasts for one full year: from the first of June until the following first of June. Every March at Kraft and Oscar Mayer headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin there are final round interviews held for the hotdogger position. Each vehicle holds two hotdoggers, and twelve people are chosen from a final pool of 30 candidates brought to Oscar Mayer headquarters. The 30 candidates are screened across the country from over an average of 2000 applicants. Both current hotdoggers and Oscar Mayer recruiters visit college campuses across the country in search of the next round of hotdoggers. Only college seniors who are about to graduate are eligible for applying to this hotdogger position. Currently there are about 300 hotdogger alumni.

All are plated in Wisconsin and use the following vanity license plates:

• YUMMY
• OUR DOG
• IWSHIWR
• OH I WISH
• WEENR
• WNRMOBL
• BOLOGNA
• RELSHME
• LIL LINK
• BIG BUN
• WNR MBLE

Yeah, I know that’s 11 plates. No explanation about that from Wikipedia. The one we saw was WEENR.