By Jeb Bladine • President / Publisher • 

Whatchamacolumn: Long ago unveiling of downtown event

Only current online subscribers may access this article and/or our N-R e-editions.

One-day subscriptions available for just $3.

For all subscription offers, click here.

Already a subscriber, please

Comments

Don Dix

Jeb -- As well as our patience to price the pups, the Jaycees booth was in the middle of the busiest place on 3rd -- in front of the Blue Moon and across the street from Thrifty Drug and Rutherford's.

One other advantage was the Pronto Pups batter -- it was said the other booths used frozen corn dogs. Jaycees made their dogs on site, and used a batter mix that was developed in Rockaway using pancake batter as a base, which rendered a different and better taste than the typical corn dog (IMO). 150 - 250 lbs. of batter makes a ton of Pups (over 3000 some years). One year, I remember we bought all the remaining hot dogs in Mac after selling the 2500 original order before the weekend (not many groceries in town).

And if memory serves, Jeb might have been our best customer, but he should expound on that!

Jeb Bladine

Thanks for the add-on, Don. I wanted to include a bit more Pronto Pub history, but ran out of space! Now that you let the cat (Pup) out of the bag, it's OK to tell people that the Pronto Pub company is alive and well in Portland, found online at prontopup.net. And for the record, while I have maintained once or twice that I ate more Pronto Pups while working in and shopping at the Jaycee booth than most people have in a lifetime, I can't really confirm what might have happened on your or other Jaycee members' shifts!!

Don Dix

I think you challenged any Jaycee to eat more Pups than you -- not sure they even tried.

And the event began on Thursdays -- an extra day of celebration (and sales).

I especially enjoyed our ongoing prank war with Schroeder's gang from the Moon -- always messing with us or our booth, from which we never backed down. It couldn't have been any more fun!

  • Most viewed
  • Most commented
Web Design and Web Development by Buildable