Wienermobile and Whistles Redux

Driving up Maine Route 26 on our way to far northern New Hampshire for a long weekend, we passed through the town of Oxford where we chanced upon the Wisconsin-based Oscar Mayer Wienermobile which was touring through southern Maine.  I had an immediate flashback to my younger days in Wisconsin and my first memorable encounter with the iconic Wienermobile.  I have very fond memories of Oscar Mayer hotdogs in my youth. Hot dogs and Oscar Mayer went together.  Our refrigerator was always stocked with its hot dogs and other sliced sandwich meats in packages displaying the familiar red and mustard yellow Oscar Mayer logo.  Who could pass up a chance to reconnect with those distant yet fond memories . . . and to find out if it was still true . . .  “If I was an Oscar Mayer Wiener, everyone would be in love with me.”

But what is so special about the Wienermobile?  In 1912, the company began to use a Model T Ford to deliver meats in and around Chicago, and in 1936 it came up with a new marketing strategy . . . using an automobile chassis onto which an oversized body in the shape of a hot dog was affixed. Dubbed the “Wienermobile,” this 27-foot motorized hot dog originally traveled around Chicago promoting the company’s “German-style wieners” and  the wholesome goodness of its meats.  

I got up close and personal with the Oscar Mayer Company (which is now a division of Kraft Foods and probably owned by the Chinese if you look deep enough), in the summer of 1965, when my family moved to Maple Bluff, an insular suburb of Madison, Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Mendota.  Prevailing winds out of the east would bring with them a redolent reminder of the company’s packing plant - the scent of countless cookouts and breakfasts gone by. The kids of the corporate chairman, a great grandson of the original Oscar Mayer, and the then company president were my classmates at Sherman Junior High School which stands almost in the shadows of the packing plant.

I had heard of and seen pictures of the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile when I was a youngster, but it was during my time in Madison that I saw one up close for the first time at a fall festival held at Tenney Park.  I had always thought that there was one Wienermobile driven by the one and only Little Oscar. That is how it all started out, anyway.  As it turned out, by the time I had my first encounter of the Wienermobile kind, it was one of a growing fleet of Weinermobiles piloted by a phalanx of Little Oscars.  And on that day in Tenney Park I discovered that the father of one of my other classmates was a member of the Little Oscar fraternity and in command of the Wienermobile on site.  At the end of the day, I had the honor of riding with my friend and his dad on the trip back up Sherman Avenue to return the Wienermobile to its garage near the packing plant.  As a parting gift, Little Oscar (at least the one I got to meet and talk to) gave me my very own Wiener Whistle cast in the image of the iconic Wienermobile.

 
Now the Wienermobile fleet is crewed by “Hotdoggers” trained at Hot Dog High, in Madison.  It has been updated and modernized several times over the years.  Al Unser took one of them on a test lap at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1988 and clocked speeds in excess of 90 mph.  Now, that is a fast wiener in anybody’s book.  In these hard economic times a wise shopper tends to select store brands over the big name products.  I seldom buy Oscar Mayer products anymore, but every time I see the familiar logo I think back to the old days and the backyard cookouts and the Wienermobile with Little Oscar at the wheel.

So there was the Wienermobile parked in a Walmart parking lot in Oxford, Maine.   More sleek and modern than I remember it, but there was no mistaking what it was.  So we stopped, chatted briefly with a pretty young Hotdogger who was packing up and preparing for the trip to the next stop on its tour.  She presented us with new Wiener Whistles as we took a few photos for the scrapbook.

As we pulled out of the parking lot to continue our weekend road trip with the Wienermobile right behind us, my wife and I broke into song.

Oh I wish I were and Oscar Mayer Wiener.
That is what I’d truly love to be.
For if I were an Oscar Mayer Wiener,
everyone would be in love with me.




I guess it really is true.