Hot Dog Night

The Gentle Giant went fishing today. He caught 2 fish and cut his hand on another one. He is stubborn, and just cleaned the cut and went on with his day.  I know of many instances where a puncture injury from a fish fin has caused a real problem, but he won't listen. We will see.
Today is a special day in the lives of the See family.  It is .89 hot dog day at the James Coney Island hot dog restaurant, and James Coney Island has the best hot dogs in the world, (in my opinion).  Every year, the restaurant discounts their  hot dogs in celebration of how long they have been around. They do this once a month for three months, and our whole family has it marked on the calendar. With everyone in the family there, we practically take up the whole place, and it is noisy and fun.  I can't eat hot dogs, but I always have the cheese fries with a mound of onions.  James Coney Island is  known for it's fabulous onions, they are treated to be very mild, sweet and crunchy.  When I got my cheese fries, I asked for onions, but they put an insultingly small amount on them.  I asked for some more onions, and they gave me a small (1/4 cup) container.  I piled them on. It was soooo good, and I really enjoyed my dinner, but all too soon, they were gone.  Everyone else was still eating hotdogs, and there I sat, with an empty plate of what was a plate of heaven.
Sissy showed up late, and when she walked in, I got an idea.  I sent one of the kids over to tell her that I wanted some cheese fries and onions, and she nodded with a knowing look on her face. I knew not to tell her that I had already had some, she would have refused to get me some more, so, "don't ask, don't tell".
When she ordered the fries, she said to put a bunch of onions on them.  The server asked her if she was with our group and she said yes, and then the server asked her who the onions were for. Sissy told her they were for me and told her how much I loved the onions. The next thing she knew, the server got a big scoop and covered the fries, top to bottom, with onions. Sissy looked a bit confused, but I knew. They didn't want me coming back asking for more onions. 
When I was pregnant with  Aaron, (33 years ago) we lived near a James Coney Island.  I craved those onions so badly, they were all I could think of.  Martin was so sweet, he would stop and get me a bowl of onions and put a small amount of chili on top. It was heaven.
When we were dating, James Coney Island charged .25 for a hot dog, (they are 1.50 today) or 5 for a dollar.  That was something we could afford, and we ate there when we could. We have such sweet memories of sharing hot dogs, (mine with onions) and we love to tell the children about how cheap it was.
James Coney Island's first restaurant was downtown in Houston. It was started in the '30s, (I think) and the atmosphere never changed.  We had to take a bus to get there, but it was all part of our special hot dog date.  There are many locations now, but the downtown location was always so special to us.  The last time we ate there was the day they sentenced the  man that killed Otto. The family was together that day, and we just wanted to get some joy after such a horrendous experience, so we left the court house and walked to James Coney Island. It was very cold that day, but we didn't mind, we knew the walk would be worth it.  Soon after that day, they closed that location. It was sad for us when they did, we would have continued to go. Whenever we go to any James Coney Island, the kids ask us to tell them about the "old days" when we went downtown.  We did that tonight.  Another special blessing, the gift of memory. I went home with a happy heart, not so much from the onions, (they will be with me all night if I don't get an alka-seltzer) but the warm feeling of happy memories and the chance to share them.