(1/5) “I was a bull-headed, prideful young man that didn't want to listen to his mom and got into a whole bunch of trouble. I went into the Marine Corps to escape having to tell her that I wasn't going to graduate with my class because I didn't have enough credits.
I turned 17 on April 30 and on July 23, 1980, I was standing on the yellow footprints or the Marine recruit receiving barracks. Class of 81. Then the funny thing was, I came home to watch everyone graduate, looking sharp in my dress blues. Half of the class I didn't think would graduate, because much like me, they were sloughing off a lot of the time. They told me they called everyone in and had this huge meeting, and some people had to stay at school until 10 o'clock at night their senior year to get the required time and credits to graduate, so I could have graduated if I had stayed.
But I had already chosen to go the military route. This was back in the day when the judge would give you an option. Do you want to come before me or would you like to sign up for the United States military? But, it changed my life and I don't have any regrets.
I got into a lot of trouble in the Marine Corps, too. I didn't really want to make trouble. I just seemed to always have my own set of rules that were a little off from the rules that were supposed to be followed.
During that time, I spent a year in California at Camp Pendleton, a year in Okinawa, where I had the opportunity to travel and spend some time in Korea. Then, I went to the Philippines and then finished up my tour in North Carolina.
It was very interesting over there; very humbling. It makes an impression on you that will never change. When people say we have it good here, you don't even know until you go and see it, feel it, taste it and experience what it’s like somewhere else. Third world countries have some wicked, wicked things that they have to deal with. The thing is, they take them in stride.
I learned a lot from the Asian culture. They were such a force to be reckoned with. No matter what country you were in, too. I was in the Philippines, Korea, and Okinawa, which is in Japan, but the Okinawans didn’t like to be referred to as Japanese. It was life changing.
After three years, I received my honorable discharge, which was truly a blessing. When I came back, I looked to find gainful employment. I was blessed to get a job at a local company called Turner Bear. It was a door company and they were thriving at the time. I started making doors, but that quickly turned around. I started out there at $6.95 an hour, which was good money at the time. Six months after I started, I was laid off.
I searched this town over and found a job at Genesee Packaging right down the block on Water Street and took a job for $3.35 an hour. I worked there for two years until I got up to $4.17 an hour. Then in 1986, I started working at Thompson Boats. I work there starting at $4.50 an hour. I ended up getting fired, because I was in rehabilitation and not at work, which that's a whole another sermon.
A bit later, I got rehired at Thompson, and worked there for a while before I went to Paul Bunyan Meat. I worked there until they were getting ready to close, then I went to Maschmeyer Concrete in Detroit and worked there for $8 an hour, or $10 an hour if I was doing maintenance on the concrete trucks. I worked there for about a year and then I came back to Saginaw for a job at Fabiano Brothers. They were the first place that had a retirement plan. At the time, I’m thinking, 30 years here and I'm just going to be on Easy Street. That was until they ran a background check on me. So, after six weeks, they said, “We’re sorry.”
That's when I got the building down there at 502 where the hotdog stand is. I opened up an exotic pet shop in the upstairs, and my brother was doing live bait in the downstairs.
After a while, my brother bailed so I started doing both. I was in and out of business for a while until I started working at the soup kitchen. I did that for seven years and then worked construction for a year, installed satellite dishes for a year and had a lunch truck called All That and a Bag of Chips, where I sourced food from Subway, Coney Island, Huron Fish and El Farolito. I had about 25 accounts and I loved it because there were so many options. It was like a rolling party store with some really cool food on board.
All that gets us to September 22, five and a half years ago. That's when I started the hot dogs.
[natural transition]
(2/5) “I feel like if you give people what they want, and you do it the best that you can, you will do well.
In fact, the health department in Midland, Mr. Wolf said to me, “You use a high-end product.”
I thought he was cracking a joke. I’m thinking, like hot dogs?
He said, “No, Koegel hot dogs. Not everybody does that.” I use Hamilton Bakery buns, not just a cold bun out of a bag and throw a dog in it. You have to put it in the toaster oven or throw it on the grill and throw a little butter love on there.
The Mom and Pop places need the support, especially right now. I don't think a lot of people realize that every time you go to the dollar store, instead of going to the local hardware store; or every time you go to a fast food joint, instead of going to Fralia’s or Huron Fish Company, it hurts local businesses. The way I heard it was 60% of the money that you spend in a Mom and Pop place stays local and only 20% stays local if you spend at a chain.
But I think the community is learning. Not just our community, but all over the world. We need to support our fellow man. Right now, we see a lot of businesses popping up all over, like real creative ones.
I'm excited about Saginaw. There are remarks made about our town, oftentimes. I just come back with, look, Anytown, USA has things going wrong. But how about we talk about the things that are going right?
There’s a lot of stuff happening around his town. We got the great Saginaw River. I think people take that for granted. That has been an extremely important part of our community for so many years. This is world class fishing.
I'm not a scholar, but when I learn about something, I try to keep track of what I'm learning about. I learned about the river because it's so important to share the information with the people that come to fish the river.
The people that come to fish the river, I could show you my caller ID from the bait shop. The area codes are Flint, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Ohio, Indiana and more. The fisherman like to hear from someone that's up close and personal with the river.
What I've done was encourage fishermen to weigh their fish. Back then, you had to do that in order to document it and get a patch from the DNR. Then the DNR would send out information every year. Then you count how many Master Angler fish were caught in the State of Michigan. Master Angler fish means that it was a big one. Then what I did was just added everything up.
In Saginaw, if you include the Tittabawassee, Shiawassee and the Saginaw River, we were catching more Master Angler walleye, which was 11 pounds or heavier back then, now it's measured in inches. We had more Master Angler walleye caught and those three bodies of water, then all the other bodies of water in the State of Michigan, combined.
The Shiver on the River was run right out of this building. It was the biggest fishing contest in the State of Michigan. We had over 3,000 entries and it went on for like 28 years. The reason why is because of the world-class fishing.
The river is one of our greatest resources. Plus, you can take a kid down there and get them hooked on something healthy. You'll always catch something in the Saginaw River. There’s so much that can be done with it. You can get children off the couch and get the controller out of their hand and put a fishing pole in it. We used to fill Ojibway Island up with the free fishing day and kids contest.
We reinvented that contest and had the fourth annual this past winter. It was a huge success. We had huge sponsors between Michigan Brand, Saginaw County Parks and Recreation and Lipstick Lures. We gave out over $7,000 in money and prizes.
We call it the Great Saginaw River Shiver and I think it's just going to get better. The beauty is, if there isn’t ice, we can fish out of the boats. However, either way, you're shivering on that river. There’s going to be walleye and you're going to suffer one way or another. We just pray for safe ice and we encourage people not to take their life in their hands over fishing. They're going to be out there fishing, whether we have a contest or not. I just feel like we need to encourage safety, as well as utilize the great resource that we have right before us.”
----
(3/5) “It's the best thing, getting to do this. Besides working at the soup kitchen, this is the best thing that I've been able to do because of the human interaction I get to have.
It's not just selling hotdogs, it's an experience. I get to pray with people. I get to give hot dogs away to people that are hungry. Being out in the street, you're up close and personal. I know who's struggling and who's not, oftentimes by their smile or the lack of one on their face.
Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday I get to offer to people if they are really hungry, they can go over to the soup kitchen and get vegetables, fruit, bread and protein. They'll usually send you with a to-go bag too. Then if that doesn't top you off, come on over here and we will finish the job.
The pandemic was a challenge for us, like most businesses. I already had a little one up on everybody, because the hot dog stand has always been working outdoors. Just in case people don't know that, we're outside all year long. What it did do was remind me how important it is to be safe. In the food business, you have to be safe no matter what. I used to have self-serve condiments. We had to change all that. I didn't used to have Plexiglas between me and the customer. That was a challenge, because that was a lot of money to put up.
But Hallelujah, I bought polycarbonate, which was a suggestion from Tom at the neon shop. Thankfully I did, because the 70 mile-an-hour winds that we had blew all my equipment over. Everything got blown out in the middle of Gratiot. Some of my stuff was just hanging by zip ties and so it all broke loose. It got ran over by cars, but even when that happened, none of it broke.
We did our best to try and keep it safe for everyone and now people are really coming back and I'm excited.
During the pandemic, I just put it out there that if anybody was hungry, they could come to the hotdog stand and get a meal. Some people did and there were a lot of people that I had never seen before. I feel like when people hear about a free meal and they come and scoop it up, maybe they needed it or maybe they're taking it to someone. I don't know, it's not for me to decide, I just put myself out there.
I'm excited that I can help. I always tell people, “Hot dogs don't come one to a pack.”
The need is apparent and I feel like if you just offer people some love, it helps.
One time, a lady I know from years ago, was in town from Alabama. There was a guy sleeping on the bench by my building. I saw him moving, so I walked over to check if he was ok and I asked him if he was hungry because I know I am when I wake up.
He said sure, so then I gave him a hot dog and a bottle of water. After a bit, I looked over and saw him dumping some on the sidewalk. I wondered why would someone waste water like that, but then I saw it was because he feet were burned from the pavement. The lady gave him her sandals and they happened to fit him perfectly.
That's the love that we're supposed to share with each other, you know? Everybody's got something extra that they don't need. It can be small. Even if one person sees you pick up some litter when you're walking to a store. Every little bit helps and we can get good things started if we just take that first step.”
[What do you love about Saginaw and the business community here]
(4/5) “When we had the bait shop, we had a sign and door that said, ‘Some of the best people in the world pass through these doors.’ When I would train up my kids up, I would tell them when people come through the door, they're all green. And they would look at me funny and I told them, ‘They are the people that will put food on your table, a roof over your head, and clothes on your back. So, treat them that way.’
I also told them that everybody's opinion is worth something, whether they're right or wrong. You don't have to believe everything people say. You don't have to emulate them or listen to them.
That’s one of the things I love about Saginaw. When there is crazy stuff going on in the world and within our society, Saginaw stays true to itself. Everybody, of every color, hangs out with everybody of every color. I love that and I treat all my customers like I like to be treated.
I also told my kids, we all bleed red and that means we're all related. If you run across somebody that bleeds a different color, that's the kind of people you need to watch out for. Otherwise, we are all from the same place. You’ve got to treat people the way you want to be treated.
I learned so much from this town. A lot of it was because of the trouble I got into here. But I've been forgiven and I’ve made up every debt to society that I was supposed to. Now, I kind of feel like I have celebrity status in Saginaw because I'm a hot dog guy, which is comical.
I was a bull-headed, prideful young man that didn't want to listen to his mom and got into a whole bunch of trouble. I went into the Marine Corps to escape having to tell her that I wasn't going to graduate with my class because I didn't have enough credits. Then, once I got out of the Marine Corps, I thought I knew everything so I just continued to get in trouble and once you do that, you're not really marketable in the job market. So, you have to come up with creative ideas to provide for your family.”
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(5/5) “As far as getting into trouble years ago, I think you can either keep banging your head against the wall and count how many lumps you have, becoming a victim of your own stupidness, or you can learn from it and share what you know with others.
I made some huge mistakes. When I was in California, on the day I got promoted to Lance Corporal, which is an E-3, me and some other Marines were taking a guy to the airport. He was flying back home for 30 days leave and then going to Okinawa. I’m driving on a six-lane highway at 17, and I had only had my license for a very short time. I was weaving in and out of traffic and the next thing you know, there's a car behind me flicking their brights on and off.
I couldn't lose the guy, whether I slowed down or sped up. So, I pulled over and jumped out of the car to see what his problem was and it turns out he was a lieutenant in the sheriff's department. He called the California Highway Patrol and they came and took me to jail, but they couldn't put me in jail because I was only 17.
I sat in the back of a cop car for about an hour and a half in the parking lot of the police station. I slipped my cuffs off in front of me and lit up a cigarette, the only one I had left in the pack. The cops that were going in on duty saw me and told the lieutenant. He was not happy about that and they came out and took me out of the car and gagged me by wrapping tape around my head.
The military police came and got me. I was excited about the Marines getting there because I thought they might treat me better, but not so much. They had me down on my knees and let me fall on my face. Then the MP dropped his knee in the middle of my spine, which was excruciating. He took my arms and it felt like he was trying to touch back my head with my hands. I felt myself ready to pass out and he told me not to fight him.
I clearly wasn't fighting him, but my shoulders felt like they were getting ready to dislocate.
That was so he could switch cuffs and take theirs off, and put his on. On the way back to the base, they stopped and parked at one of my favorite sandwich shops and sat there for another hour or so.
I was on display all taped up. I'm just going to say that being five foot six and a hundred and fifty pounds and having that happen to me… I had little man syndrome and I had a chip on my shoulder. I was an angry individual.
When I got out of the Marine Corps, I was arrested more than 20 times. Mostly misdemeanors but some felonies for having drugs on me, having a weapon on me when I had a blackjack. I didn't even know it was against the law to carry one on. I just thought it was cool. Then I found out the hard way that it was against the law.
I just kept getting in trouble and just kept getting in trouble. It was just wearing me down. Drugs and alcohol were basically fueling most of my stupidness, along with a bad attitude and so on. That's how I ended up in rehab. I was in Battle Creek for 30 days. I went to rehab in Bay City at the Samaritan, too.
Fast forward to today, and when people get out of jail in Saginaw County, some of them find their way to the hotdog stand. Oftentimes, they just see me as a guy outdoors and they just need to use a phone. I get to offer them a prayer, food, clothing. Sometimes it'll be a ride to where they need to go.
One time, a guy who was 19 years old, was telling me that he was a Marine. He had already been discharged. I'm like, how'd you get out by 19?
This guy got shot in the eye when he was home on leave by his stepbrother with a BB gun and it took his eyesight. He had just been arrested for a fishing ticket. He had gotten a ticket for fishing without a license. He paid for it, but somebody didn't hit enter in the computer. So, because of that, he got picked up way up in timbukthree, brought here, and had to sit in the Saginaw County jail.
So, he gets out and he's telling me the story. I told him, “Hey, man, hop in the van, I have to go down to Hamilton Bakery.”
We hopped in, and he was mad about sitting in jail for a ticket he had already paid, not to mention some of the other things that happened in his life.
I said, “Listen, don't become an angry man over something that happened and is done now. Did you sit in jail for the wrong reason? Absolutely. Nobody can change that. But if you walk around with a chip on your shoulder, it won’t be good.” Then I told him about a guy that got gagged and bound one time and then got arrested more than 20 times, with six felonies and isn't proud of that fact.
I don't make anything up to make it sound better. It actually feels like tearing the scab off an old wound. But if it helps one person, by the grace of God. If you cry out and don't go in the wrong direction, then I’ve helped. Everybody gets down on their luck, and you have the ultimate opportunity to do things the wrong way. Or you can do things the right way.
If you cry out, it can change your life. If someone hears your testimony and they can see there is a way out for them too. There is hope.
I’m thankful and grateful every day. I'm thankful to be here. I just know that we all need love and some people need it more than others. Some people you have to love from a distance. I just feel like if we can share love with each other, it will break down barriers.
BLURB dump
I was a DJ for nearly 20 years. I was in almost every nightclub around Saginaw and the region starting in the early 90s. I worked for Searching for a Star for about seven years and then went on to start my own DJ company called Party Favors.
My biggest event was for probably at least 10,000 people up in Frankfort for the fireworks. I did a lot of wedding receptions, graduations, that kind of stuff. The nightclub scene was just weekday stuff that kept me busy. I typically had about three to four shows a week. Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. Stuff like that.
I think what makes a good DJ is keeping in mind that the people that you're working around are either going to enjoy that you're there, or suffer through it. It’s also good to tip your waitress, tip your bartender, buy some food, be kind to your neighbors and drive safe. Grab the number to the taxi cab. Back then it wasn’t Uber everything.
--
I was a bull-headed, prideful young man that didn't want to listen to his mom and got into a whole bunch of trouble. I went into the Marine Corps to escape having to tell her that I wasn't going to graduate with my class because I didn't have enough credits. Then, once I got out of the Marine Corps, I thought I knew everything so I just continued to get in trouble and once you do that, you're not really marketable in the job market. So, you have to come up with creative ideas to provide for your family.
Half the stuff that I’ve done was because people said I couldn't do it. When I joined the Marine Corps, I was 119 pounds. I saw my buddy had already made it through boot camp and I thought if he can do it, I know I can. I was scared to death and I thought you had to be like six-foot-tall and 250 pounds to be a marine.
I think we are triggered by other people. Years ago, they would invite me to bring exotic pets to the karaoke shows. One time, I was watching them, and thinking, “I bet I could do that.” A guy there told me that I should just stick to the exotic pet business and said, “You're not DJ material.”
That was all it took for me to start a DJ business and I ran it for 20 years. It's a huge responsibility, especially when you do wedding receptions. That’s a moment in time that people want things to go just a certain way. So, I took it extremely seriously.
--
Marketing is everything because it's about connecting the dots. You get food and it's not like you can park it on a shelf until someone decides to buy it.
You've got to get it and get it gone, while it's good. That’s the best way to do it because then you are giving everybody the freshest food. Then, it’s figuring out how much do you buy? Who's going to be ready to get it when you pull up?
Timing is everything. I've learned that about the food business. I've also learned that just because you see people doing it and it looks like they're really doing good. It's looks easy peasy. You better think about it before you get into it, because there's so much involved with licensing, handling food and doing it properly.
---
(1/7) “I was a bull-headed, prideful young man that didn't want to listen to his mom and got into a whole bunch of trouble. I went into the Marine Corps to escape having to tell her that I wasn't going to graduate with my class because I didn't have enough credits.
I turned 17 on April 30 and on July 23, 1980, I was standing on the yellow footprints or the Marine recruit receiving barracks. Class of 81. Then the funny thing was, I came home to watch everyone graduate, looking sharp in my dress blues. Half of the class I didn't think would graduate, because much like me, they were sloughing off a lot of the time. They told me they called everyone in and had this huge meeting, and some people had to stay at school until 10 o'clock at night their senior year to get the required time and credits to graduate, so I could have graduated if I had stayed.
But I had already chosen to go the military route. This was back in the day when the judge would give you an option. Do you want to come before me or would you like to sign up for the United States military? But, it changed my life and I don't have any regrets.
I got into a lot of trouble in the Marine Corps, too. I didn't really want to make trouble. I just seemed to always have my own set of rules that were a little off from the rules that were supposed to be followed.
During that time, I spent a year in California at Camp Pendleton, a year in Okinawa, where I had the opportunity to travel and spend some time in Korea. Then, I went to the Philippines and then finished up my tour in North Carolina.
It was very interesting over there; very humbling. It makes an impression on you that will never change. When people say we have it good here, you don't even know until you go and see it, feel it, taste it and experience what it’s like somewhere else. Third world countries have some wicked, wicked things that they have to deal with. The thing is, they take them in stride.
After three years, I received my honorable discharge, which was truly a blessing. When I came back, I looked to find gainful employment. I was blessed to get a job at a local company called Turner Bear. It was a door company and they were thriving at the time. I started making doors, but that quickly turned around. I started out there at $6.95 an hour, which was good money at the time. Six months after I started, I was laid off.
I searched this town over and found a job at Genesee Packaging right down the block on Water Street and took a job for $3.35 an hour. I worked there for two years until I got up to $4.17 an hour. Then in 1986, I started working at Thompson Boats. I work there starting at $4.50 an hour. I ended up getting fired, because I was in rehabilitation and not at work, which that's a whole another sermon.
A bit later, I got rehired at Thompson, and worked there for a while before I went to Paul Bunyan Meat. I worked there until they were getting ready to close, then I went to Maschmeyer Concrete in Detroit and worked there for $8 an hour, or $10 an hour if I was doing maintenance on the concrete trucks. I worked there for about a year and then I came back to Saginaw for a job at Fabiano Brothers. They were the first place that had a retirement plan. At the time, I’m thinking, 30 years here and I'm just going to be on Easy Street. That was until they ran a background check on me. So, after six weeks, they said, “We’re sorry.”
That's when I got the building down there at 502 where the hotdog stand is. I opened up an exotic pet shop in the upstairs, and my brother was doing live bait in the downstairs.
After a while, my brother bailed so I started doing both. I was in and out of business for a while until I started working at the soup kitchen. I did that for seven years and then worked construction for a year, installed satellite dishes for a year and had a lunch truck called All That and a Bag of Chips, where I sourced food from Subway, Coney Island, Huron Fish and El Farolito. I had about 25 accounts and I loved it because there were so many options. It was like a rolling party store with some really cool food on board.
All that gets us to September 22, five and a half years ago. That's when I started the hot dogs.
[natural transition]
(2/5) “I feel like if you give people what they want, and you do it the best that you can, you will do well.
In fact, the health department in Midland, Mr. Wolf said to me, “You use a high-end product.”
I thought he was cracking a joke. I’m thinking, like hot dogs?
He said, “No, Koegel hot dogs. Not everybody does that.” I use Hamilton Bakery buns, not just a cold bun out of a bag and throw a dog in it. You have to put it in the toaster oven or throw it on the grill and throw a little butter love on there.
The Mom and Pop places need the support, especially right now. I don't think a lot of people realize that every time you go to the dollar store, instead of going to the local hardware store; or every time you go to a fast food joint, instead of going to Fralia’s or Huron Fish Company, it hurts local businesses. The way I heard it was 60% of the money that you spend in a Mom and Pop place stays local and only 20% stays local if you spend at a chain.
But I think the community is learning. Not just our community, but all over the world. We need to support our fellow man. Right now, we see a lot of businesses popping up all over, like real creative ones.
I'm excited about Saginaw. There are remarks made about our town, oftentimes. I just come back with, look, Anytown, USA has things going wrong. But how about we talk about the things that are going right?
There’s a lot of stuff happening around his town. We got the great Saginaw River. I think people take that for granted. That has been an extremely important part of our community for so many years. This is world class fishing.
I'm not a scholar, but when I learn about something, I try to keep track of what I'm learning about. I learned about the river because it's so important to share the information with the people that come to fish the river.
The people that come to fish the river, I could show you my caller ID from the bait shop. The area codes are Flint, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Ohio, Indiana and more. The fisherman like to hear from someone that's up close and personal with the river.
What I've done was encourage fishermen to weigh their fish. Back then, you had to do that in order to document it and get a patch from the DNR. Then the DNR would send out information every year. Then you count how many Master Angler fish were caught in the State of Michigan. Master Angler fish means that it was a big one. Then what I did was just added everything up.
In Saginaw, if you include the Tittabawassee, Shiawassee and the Saginaw River, we were catching more Master Angler walleye, which was 11 pounds or heavier back then, now it's measured in inches. We had more Master Angler walleye caught and those three bodies of water, then all the other bodies of water in the State of Michigan, combined.
The Shiver on the River was run right out of this building. It was the biggest fishing contest in the State of Michigan. We had over 3,000 entries and it went on for like 28 years. The reason why is because of the world-class fishing.
The river is one of our greatest resources. Plus, you can take a kid down there and get them hooked on something healthy. You'll always catch something in the Saginaw River. There’s so much that can be done with it. You can get children off the couch and get the controller out of their hand and put a fishing pole in it. We used to fill Ojibway Island up with the free fishing day and kids contest.
We reinvented that contest and had the fourth annual this past winter. It was a huge success. We had huge sponsors between Michigan Brand, Saginaw County Parks and Recreation and Lipstick Lures. We gave out over $7,000 in money and prizes.
We call it the Great Saginaw River Shiver and I think it's just going to get better. The beauty is, if there isn’t ice, we can fish out of the boats. However, either way, you're shivering on that river. There’s going to be walleye and you're going to suffer one way or another. We just pray for safe ice and we encourage people not to take their life in their hands over fishing. They're going to be out there fishing, whether we have a contest or not. I just feel like we need to encourage safety, as well as utilize the great resource that we have right before us.”
----
(3/5) “It's the best thing, getting to do this. Besides working at the soup kitchen, this is the best thing that I've been able to do because of the human interaction I get to have.
It's not just selling hotdogs, it's an experience. I get to pray with people. I get to give hot dogs away to people that are hungry. Being out in the street, you're up close and personal. I know who's struggling and who's not, oftentimes by their smile or the lack of one on their face.
Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday I get to offer to people if they are really hungry, they can go over to the soup kitchen and get vegetables, fruit, bread and protein. They'll usually send you with a to-go bag too. Then if that doesn't top you off, come on over here and we will finish the job.
The pandemic was a challenge for us, like most businesses. I already had a little one up on everybody, because the hot dog stand has always been working outdoors. Just in case people don't know that, we're outside all year long. What it did do was remind me how important it is to be safe. In the food business, you have to be safe no matter what. I used to have self-serve condiments. We had to change all that. I didn't used to have Plexiglas between me and the customer. That was a challenge, because that was a lot of money to put up.
But Hallelujah, I bought polycarbonate, which was a suggestion from Tom at the neon shop. Thankfully I did, because the 70 mile-an-hour winds that we had blew all my equipment over. Everything got blown out in the middle of Gratiot. Some of my stuff was just hanging by zip ties and so it all broke loose. It got ran over by cars, but even when that happened, none of it broke.
We did our best to try and keep it safe for everyone and now people are really coming back and I'm excited.
During the pandemic, I just put it out there that if anybody was hungry, they could come to the hotdog stand and get a meal. Some people did and there were a lot of people that I had never seen before. I feel like when people hear about a free meal and they come and scoop it up, maybe they needed it or maybe they're taking it to someone. I don't know, it's not for me to decide, I just put myself out there.
I'm excited that I can help. I always tell people, “Hot dogs don't come one to a pack.”
The need is apparent and I feel like if you just offer people some love, it helps.
One time, a lady I know from years ago, was in town from Alabama. There was a guy sleeping on the bench by my building. I saw him moving, so I walked over to check if he was ok and I asked him if he was hungry because I know I am when I wake up.
He said sure, so then I gave him a hot dog and a bottle of water. After a bit, I looked over and saw him dumping some on the sidewalk. I wondered why would someone waste water like that, but then I saw it was because he feet were burned from the pavement. The lady gave him her sandals and they happened to fit him perfectly.
That's the love that we're supposed to share with each other, you know? Everybody's got something extra that they don't need. It can be small. Even if one person sees you pick up some litter when you're walking to a store. Every little bit helps and we can get good things started if we just take that first step.”
[What do you love about Saginaw and the business community here]
(4/5) “When we had the bait shop, we had a sign and door that said, ‘Some of the best people in the world pass through these doors.’ When I would train up my kids up, I would tell them when people come through the door, they're all green. And they would look at me funny and I told them, ‘They are the people that will put food on your table, a roof over your head, and clothes on your back. So, treat them that way.’
I also told them that everybody's opinion is worth something, whether they're right or wrong. You don't have to believe everything people say. You don't have to emulate them or listen to them.
That’s one of the things I love about Saginaw. When there is crazy stuff going on in the world and within our society, Saginaw stays true to itself. Everybody, of every color, hangs out with everybody of every color. I love that and I treat all my customers like I like to be treated.
I also told my kids, we all bleed red and that means we're all related. If you run across somebody that bleeds a different color, that's the kind of people you need to watch out for. Otherwise, we are all from the same place. You’ve got to treat people the way you want to be treated.
I learned so much from this town. A lot of it was because of the trouble I got into here. But I've been forgiven and I’ve made up every debt to society that I was supposed to. Now, I kind of feel like I have celebrity status in Saginaw because I'm a hot dog guy, which is comical.
I was a bull-headed, prideful young man that didn't want to listen to his mom and got into a whole bunch of trouble. I went into the Marine Corps to escape having to tell her that I wasn't going to graduate with my class because I didn't have enough credits. Then, once I got out of the Marine Corps, I thought I knew everything so I just continued to get in trouble and once you do that, you're not really marketable in the job market. So, you have to come up with creative ideas to provide for your family.”
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(5/5) “As far as getting into trouble years ago, I think you can either keep banging your head against the wall and count how many lumps you have, becoming a victim of your own stupidness, or you can learn from it and share what you know with others.
I made some huge mistakes. When I was in California, on the day I got promoted to Lance Corporal, which is an E-3, me and some other Marines were taking a guy to the airport. He was flying back home for 30 days leave and then going to Okinawa. I’m driving on a six-lane highway at 17, and I had only had my license for a very short time. I was weaving in and out of traffic and the next thing you know, there's a car behind me flicking their brights on and off.
I couldn't lose the guy, whether I slowed down or sped up. So, I pulled over and jumped out of the car to see what his problem was and it turns out he was a lieutenant in the sheriff's department. He called the California Highway Patrol and they came and took me to jail, but they couldn't put me in jail because I was only 17.
I sat in the back of a cop car for about an hour and a half in the parking lot of the police station. I slipped my cuffs off in front of me and lit up a cigarette, the only one I had left in the pack. The cops that were going in on duty saw me and told the lieutenant. He was not happy about that and they came out and took me out of the car and gagged me by wrapping tape around my head.
The military police came and got me. I was excited about the Marines getting there because I thought they might treat me better, but not so much. They had me down on my knees and let me fall on my face. Then the MP dropped his knee in the middle of my spine, which was excruciating. He took my arms and it felt like he was trying to touch back my head with my hands. I felt myself ready to pass out and he told me not to fight him.
I clearly wasn't fighting him, but my shoulders felt like they were getting ready to dislocate.
That was so he could switch cuffs and take theirs off, and put his on. On the way back to the base, they stopped and parked at one of my favorite sandwich shops and sat there for another hour or so.
I was on display all taped up. I'm just going to say that being five foot six and a hundred and fifty pounds and having that happen to me… I had little man syndrome and I had a chip on my shoulder. I was an angry individual.
When I got out of the Marine Corps, I was arrested more than 20 times. Mostly misdemeanors but some felonies for having drugs on me, having a weapon on me when I had a blackjack. I didn't even know it was against the law to carry one on. I just thought it was cool. Then I found out the hard way that it was against the law.
I just kept getting in trouble and just kept getting in trouble. It was just wearing me down. Drugs and alcohol were basically fueling most of my stupidness, along with a bad attitude and so on. That's how I ended up in rehab. I was in Battle Creek for 30 days. I went to rehab in Bay City at the Samaritan, too.
Fast forward to today, and when people get out of jail in Saginaw County, some of them find their way to the hotdog stand. Oftentimes, they just see me as a guy outdoors and they just need to use a phone. I get to offer them a prayer, food, clothing. Sometimes it'll be a ride to where they need to go.
One time, a guy who was 19 years old, was telling me that he was a Marine. He had already been discharged. I'm like, how'd you get out by 19?
This guy got shot in the eye when he was home on leave by his stepbrother with a BB gun and it took his eyesight. He had just been arrested for a fishing ticket. He had gotten a ticket for fishing without a license. He paid for it, but somebody didn't hit enter in the computer. So, because of that, he got picked up way up in timbukthree, brought here, and had to sit in the Saginaw County jail.
So, he gets out and he's telling me the story. I told him, “Hey, man, hop in the van, I have to go down to Hamilton Bakery.”
We hopped in, and he was mad about sitting in jail for a ticket he had already paid, not to mention some of the other things that happened in his life.
I said, “Listen, don't become an angry man over something that happened and is done now. Did you sit in jail for the wrong reason? Absolutely. Nobody can change that. But if you walk around with a chip on your shoulder, it won’t be good.” Then I told him about a guy that got gagged and bound one time and then got arrested more than 20 times, with six felonies and isn't proud of that fact.
I don't make anything up to make it sound better. It actually feels like tearing the scab off an old wound. But if it helps one person, by the grace of God. If you cry out and don't go in the wrong direction, then I’ve helped. Everybody gets down on their luck, and you have the ultimate opportunity to do things the wrong way. Or you can do things the right way.
If you cry out, it can change your life. If someone hears your testimony and they can see there is a way out for them too. There is hope.
I’m thankful and grateful every day. I'm thankful to be here. I just know that we all need love and some people need it more than others. Some people you have to love from a distance. I just feel like if we can share love with each other, it will break down barriers."
- Woody Wilson, Woody's Hot Dogs 
