Hot diggity dog! Fans relish time with Wienermobile

Randi Garst said her 4-year-old son, Ashyr Redman, got to see the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile once before in Springfield.

“They were on their way out of town so we stopped for a quick picture,” Garst recalled. “I said, ‘Let’s go where we can actually enjoy it for a little bit.’”

So there were Garst and Ashyr along with dad, Chris Redman, Sunday at the Rochester Public Library Farmers Market getting a close-up look at the 27-foot-long iconic Wienermobile.

Not that mom and dad didn’t enjoy it either.

“I don’t know,” Garst admitted, “if it’s more nostalgia for mom and dad or the 4-year-old.”

The Wienermobile has a way of doing that. It was actually rolled out in 1936 when Carl Mayer, nephew of hot dog scion Oscar Mayer, marketed the idea in Chicago.

The two “hotdoggers” driving the version visiting the Springfield area over the next week or so — Chloe Kersh and C.J. Zabat — are both recent college graduates and had to actually take a two-week driving course at the company’s headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin.

“This is one of six Wienermobiles,” said Kersh, who is part of the “East Team” with Zabat.

While Sunday’s stop in Rochester was an appointed round, Kersh said teams freelance or see what other opportunities are available in the area. They have stopped by Cozy Dog Drive In and Route 66 MotorHeads Bar, Grill & Museum and have done drive-bys at Heritage Health and Aperion Healthcare.

The Wienermobile will be at the Route 66 Drive In Theater Saturday and back at the farmer’s market Sunday.

Kersh, a Dallas native, is a graduate of the University of Texas in Austin where she majored in international relations and French.

The Wienermobile was on campus and recruiting, Kersh recalled, the day after a friend of hers and a fellow UT student, died.

“I actually was having a really tough day. I saw the Wienermobile and it helped me get through the day,” Kersh recalled.

“It’s silly. It’s happy. It’s funny. It makes people smile.”

And, no, Kersh said her folks aren’t concerned about her little employment deviation after college.

“They were really excited because they’re huge fans, too,” she said. “We certainly have a lot of marketing majors, but we have a neuroscience major who is a ‘hotdogger,’ so they pull from a lot of different backgrounds.

“I think the most important thing is do you like to talk to people? Do you like to make people smile? It’s about meeting people and being in the community, just making people happy and sharing the love of hotdogs.”

Zabat, who is from Bartlett, majored in journalism with a minor in African American studies at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He was used to seeing the Wienermobile around the capital.

Zabat said he signed up for a one-year stint through June. After the new year, Zabat and other hotdoggers get assigned new driving partners and new regions.

“Even though we have to do things a little differently because we’re wearing masks, we’re still trying to do as much as we can to bring a little joy to people’s day, whether it’s handing out wiener whistles, doing a little bit of trivia with them or doing a brief drive-by,” Zabat said.

Jenny Milliman, visiting from West Liberty, with her two-year-old son, Tucker, said her mom, Deb Merrick of Dawson, told her about the Wienermobile being in Rochester.

The visit, Jenny Milliman said, made Tucker excited and hungry.

“We’re going to go home and eat an Oscar Mayer hotdog,” Milliman said. “He likes them boiled, as many 2-year-olds do, and plain.”

“I think it’s pretty cool.,” said Kyleigh Miller, 13, of New Holland, visiting with her mom, Misty Canada. “I talked about (driving it) for a job.”

Jazmyn Jarrett, who works at the Rochester Public Library and helps manage the farmer’s market along with the Friends of the Rochester Public Library, a volunteer group, said the market will run through Sept. 27.

Contact Steven Spearie: 622-1788, sspearie@sj-r.com, twitter.com/stevenspearie.