In this rapidly changing world there is one constant -- the hot dog.
At 68 years old, I have difficulty understanding the world around me -- AI, influencers, phone apps for everything from parking your car to buying popcorn at the movie theatre. Add to that the changes in my own body. Not long ago I played men’s pickup basketball, ran 5Ks and half marathons, did triathlons and tough mudders. Now my knees hurt just getting up from my chair, I need glasses to read and to drive. I drink a beer and I am ready for bed, my wife and I watch TV every night, sometimes the same shows we have already seen.
And now our youngest daughter, the last of three, is off to college, five hours away. For the last decade our lives and weekends have been about youth sports, swimming, soccer, softball, and mostly basketball, from grammar school teams to town travel, to high school championships and endless AAU tournaments in far flung cities. All that is over. Now, if I want to watch her play, it will be streaming on TV other than the one or two games a season, my wife and I may make the long drive south. Our house is empty. What is an old man to do, but eat hot dogs?
Back in 2013 I wanted to write a small book called Great Hot Dogs of Connecticut, a guidebook that might be on the shelves of the local Barnes and Noble in their Connecticut section next to 50 Things to Do in Connecticut and 20 great Connecticut Hikes. It wouldn’t just be a guide to great hot places in the state, but a story of a father and his daughters enjoying an American tradition, filled with humor, a touch of wisdom and some hot dog lore. People would buy it, enjoy a light read and maybe visit a few of the places mentioned on their weekend trips about Connecticut.
We visited a number of places together back in 2013 and 2014, and I posted about them in a blog aptly named Great Hot Dogs of Connecticut. Soon however, life got in the way.
Jump ahead to 2026. Facing the great void, I think about returning to the hot dog project.
Times have changed. Now instead of going to a bookstore to find a book on great hot dog places, you can easily Google Best Hot dog places in Connecticut.
Not only will you find lists, there are now food influencers galore with videos where they walk out of a restaurant, showing the viewer their dog, then chomp it down at close range and scream about how AWESOME! One local kid even does somersaults after he downs his food. Not the greatest somersaults, but certainly better than I can do.
I don’t want to do somersaults. I just want to write a small book about hot dogs. But I am worried people don’t read books anymore. I still do, but a lot less than I used to. I am the author of seven books, four published by national publishers, three independently. I am a paramedic, and most of my books have been about responding to 911 emergencies. My first book was a Literary Guild selection, my fifth was an Amazon best nonfiction of the month. But none of them were best-sellers, each book has still sold less than the previous one. I sometimes feel like what is the point?
But I am not ready to give in the dying of the light. So barring a change in mind about scarfing hot dogs on Youtube or TikToc, I am going to go ahead and work on this.
Hot dogs are important. They have been in my life since I was a child when my mom would cut Oscar Meyer Weiner dogs into small bit size pieces to feed me in my high chair, to Friendlies restaurant where we would go as a family and I would would get a plain hot dog in a toasted New England style bun, to having dogs at Fenway Park where I used to go every year when I was younger and later brought my daughters there to eat Fenway Franks when they were young. You eat a hot dog and it is delicious, it is American, it is a moment in time when all is right with the world.
Call it an old man’s hobby. I will be happy if I just get it done, and if I am happy with the writing, I can then print up an on-demand copy that anyone can buy on Amazon or read on their Kindle, or I can print and give copies of my hot dog book to friends as presents.
I will use this blog to generate material,
Stay tuned.