Wienermobile rolls in for frank-tastic day in Starkville
A line of people stretching from Cadence Bank all the way to First Presbyterian Church next door was the sight in Downtown Starkville when the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile rolled into town on Tuesday afternoon.
Residents of Starkville flocked to take pictures with the 27-foot-long hot dog on wheels, eat hot dogs and receive their very own Wiener Whistle.
MSU student Abbie Kate Hancock said that when she first found out that the Wienermobile would be making a pitstop in Starkville, she started reminiscing her childhood.
“I was really excited,” said Hancock. “It really brought me back to my childhood and watching the Oscar Mayer Super Bowl commercials. I always thought those were the best so I kind of felt like a kid again.”
Oscar Mayer Hotdogger Maggie Thomas was the one who guided the hot dog limousine into town on Tuesday, and it was a really special day for her.
Why is that? It is because Thomas is a 2019 MSU graduate who got to return to Starkville for the first time in a long time.
“It means so much to me;
the turnout that we had was just truly bun-derful,” said Thomas. “Getting to see so many people I love and care about getting to see the Wienermobile was truly a special experience.”
For Hancock, seeing that an MSU graduate gets to drive the Wienermobile is truly awesome for the community and the university.
“I think that Mississippi State has a lot of good connections, especially with their alumni,” said Hancock. “I think that it’s really that someone was able to come back and bring a piece of her work to the Starkville community. This event has really brought everyone together and it is a great thing that they’re doing.”
Molly Swindall is a Georgia native who is also Thomas’ copilot, and she talked about her first experience in Starkville on Tuesday.
“I’ve been to Mississippi a couple of times but it’s really excited to really experience it and interact with everyone here,” said Swindall. “We had a lot of frank-fanatics come out which was really special. We had this one woman who was waving for us when we went for a ride, so we came back, and she was asking us all of these questions. It’s really special to see things like that.”
Harley Middleton is the director of Skate Odyssey’s after school program, and she decided to bring her kids out to see the Wienermobile.
Aside from just seeing the Wienermobile in person, Middleton said that taking her kids out to see it could expose them to a possible job opportunity for when they grow up, as it did for Thomas.
“Most of [the children] don’t even know what they want to be when they grow up, so this was a really cool opportunity to provide them with something different besides just being an athlete or a doctor or a teacher. This is another job opportunity that they might could do,” said Middleton. “Also, it’s just something really cool. They’ve never seen it before and some of them had never even heard of the Wienermobile before, so they were just super excited to come. The fact that they just let all 65 of our kids come was just awesome, so we love that.”
Thomas said that coming back to her second home in Starkville was very special for her and she is thankful for the community turnout on Tuesday.
“We’re just really grateful for Starkville’s support and we truly relished our time here,” Thomas said.
The ‘relish’ pun was intended.