My Life In Watercolor: Jerry's Hot Dogs

I've decided to document some of my life (good and bad) in watercolor.

I was lucky enough to have been born and raised in Elizabeth, NJ - just outside of NYC. There are places there that are institutions for anyone who is from Elizabeth. You might think it's weird to honor a hot dog stand but when you've been going there for many decades with every family member, with every boyfriend/friend/husband, and many time just going there by yourself when you needed to touch base with your roots or you just craved the best hot dog there is...well, you'd understand the reverence I, and countless others, have for this place.

Examples: my parents divorced when I was very young and my father moved to North Carolina but would come back for visits periodically. When I was old enough to drive, I'd pick him up from Newark airport (just a few miles from Elizabeth) and we'd head straight to Jerry's where we'd buy way too many chili dogs and then sit on the bench across the street and chow down and catch up, just the two of us.

Then there was the time we actually got my housebound (by choice) mother to leave her apartment to take the hour long drive to Jerry's from where we lived at the NJ shore. She couldn't resist the lure of eating Jerry's, which she'd been doing since she was much much younger. She was hesitant, to say the least, and afraid that her sensitive stomach couldn't handle the hot dogs but we got her to go anyway.
We drove her all around Elizabeth, past all of the places she'd lived, her schools, and other memorable places in her life. All of this culminating with sitting in the pickup truck chowing down on Jerry's. What a day that was! And her sensitive stomach, which would very often act up at the slightest thing, did just fine that day.

Memories of sharing Jerry's with my parents are priceless and are one of the many reasons Jerry's Hot Dogs is much more than just a hot dog stand to me...and those countless others who have similar stories to tell.