When I was a late adolescent, malls were big. Within the malls a new concept was being born: the food court. And it soon seemed as though, where there was a food court, there was a Hot Dog on a Stick franchise.
I like corn dogs; they were a staple at the snack bar at my favorite surfing beach. Even so, I don’t recall ever eating at Hot Dog on a Stick. I do remember, though, having a running joke where — upon spying an employee in the signature uniform — I would quip to my friends that “maybe, someday, I’ll have my own Hot Dog on a Stick girl.”
What made it funny, I think, is that they seemed to hire especially attractive young women to serve the dogs, but then they made them wear this atrocious uniform. They were 100% polyester with broad vertical stripes of yellow, blue, and white, blue polyester shorts, and striped polyester hats. Apart from showing some skin, there was nothing sexy about those uniforms.
The joke didn’t last long (it was never really that funny) but for the rest of my life, when I’d see someone in a Hot Dog on a Stick uniform I would chuckle a bit inside at my feigned lust and longing for the unattainable perfection that was the Hot Dog on a Stick girl. But was there a hint of seriousness in the jest?
HA and I had been together for some months when we found ourselves walking past a Hot Dog on a Stick franchise. The uniforms, as near as I could tell, hadn’t changed. I thought she would be amused if I told her about how I used to tell my friends that I wanted a HDoaS girl of my very own. That’s when I learned that, at age 16, she had donned the chic and seductive HDoaS polyester. And now she was my partner.
Dreams really do come true.
—2p
addendum 20250706@17:04
HA says that in her day, the shorts were much shorter, the tops were sleeveless, and the hats were smaller and brimless.