A dispatch from field correspondent Joe Bilby:
Went up to Newark to make up for missing the last hot-dog (sausage) off by staging another. It was an eclectic group, composite Seton Hall ROTC/Jersey Rifle and Pistol Club (the old laundry truck) alumni. Included were two SRL grammar school alumni in addition to myself, Ron Dolan (1957) and Ed Nelson (1958) plus two Vailsburgers, Gene Arico and Tom Kelley, and two auslanders from Roselle and Union, Ed Nartowitz and Bob Kelemen.
We hit Dickie Dee's first, then, on a tip, found a hole in the wall with original recipe Ting a Ling lemon ice -- served by old Louie's son, young Louie, who is pretty old himself. We had a good time with Louie -- talking about the old neighborhood. Louie said "my father brought hot dogs to lower Bloomfield Avenue," appearing to consider Dee a latecomer. After cleansing the palate at Louie's we moved on to Buff's for another round.
The sampling was marred in a scientific sense, however, by the fact that both hot dogs and sausages were consumed. I had sausage in both places. My verdict was Dee's for the sausage, but the overall winner was Buff's, by 5 to 2. Tom Kelly said it was close, perhaps like a 9.1 over a 9.0 in the Olympics, and Gene Arico appeared to favor Buff's because that was the first dog of its type he had eaten a half century ago. (Gee, has it been that long?)
Joe
At Dickie Dee's: Ron Dolan, Ed Nartowitz and Bob Keleman, Gene Arico, Ed Nelson and your correspondent.
