Feature article
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Skeeter’s: A lesson in history and hot dogs
By Fred Sauceman
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Skeeter’s in downtown Wytheville, Virginia, is a blue-collar, cheap-eats hot dog stand, but its lineage is old Virginia aristocracy.
On the way to order red hot dogs, diners pass a state historical marker on the sidewalk, outlining the life of Edith Bolling Wilson. Some call her the first female President of the United States.
Edith was born upstairs in the building that now houses the hot dog joint, on Oct. 15, 1872, to Judge William H. and Sallie White Bolling. Skeeter’s manager Rick Patton says Judge Bolling stopped court between 9 and 10 in the morning in honor of his daughter’s birth.
Edith first married Norman Galt in 1896. He died 12 years later, and she took over the operation of his jewelry store in Washington, D.C. She married Woodrow Wilson in 1915. Four years later, he had a stroke. Wytheville residents still refer to Edith as the “Secret President,” since she assumed many routine duties and details of government for her partially paralyzed husband.
According to the Main Street marker, she “managed his affairs during his convalescence and promoted Wilson’s legacy after his death in 1924.”
Edith lived on to ride in President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural parade in 1961 and died on December 28 of that year, on President Wilson’s birthday.
One can only guess at how she would feel about having her patrician reputation tied to the plebeian hot dog.
Over the years, Skeeter’s has sold some eight million hot dogs, red and grilled. The brick building is often referred to as E.N. Unberger’s Store, the original name of the business, dating to 1920. Skeeter was the Unbergers’ son.
There exists a red hot dog corridor in Virginia, from Floyd in the Blue Ridge, down to Wytheville and Marion, and to the state line in Bristol, testament to the dominance of the Valleydale company and to inroads of Jesse Jones hot dogs from Raleigh, North Carolina.
Valleydale has undergone several corporate changes over the years, but the company still promotes its products through red-clad, marching pigs playing trombone, drum and cymbals, and singing “Hooray for Valleydale.”
Wytheville native Elizabeth Crigger, who has served up a goodly number of those eight million dogs over two decades behind the counter at Skeeter’s, plays no secretive games about the brand of hot dog she sells, proudly pointing to the inflated Valleydale wiener hanging from the ceiling. And the chili, she says, is Valleydale, too.
“It comes in a stick or roll, and we put it in a chili pot, heat it, and thin it down with water,” Elizabeth tells me. “Now some don’t like the red hot dogs, but we’ve always had the red, so most people don’t question it. I like them. Some say they’re the best hot dogs they’ve ever eaten.”
Wytheville footballer Will Smith claims to have consumed 15 in one day and says he lifted 500 pounds afterward.
Two rows of hot dogs are covered with a rectangular metal pan beside the grill, waiting to be wrapped in steamed Merita buns. A signature Skeeter’s condiment is mild cheese sauce.
“We serve hot dogs four different ways,” says Elizabeth. “Mustard, onion, and chili, that’s our regular; slaw, mustard, onion, and chili; cheese, mustard, onion, and chili; and the works, with mustard, onion, chili, cheese, and slaw.”
About 200 hot dogs a day cross the original, stool-lined wooden counter.
“This is like family,” Elizabeth says. “We come in and know what to do and start working.”
Skeeter’s
LOCATION: 165 East Main Street, Wytheville, Virginia
CONTACT: 276-228-2611
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Food writer Fred Sauceman, author of the book “The Place Setting: Timeless Tastes of the Mountain South — from Bright Hope to Frog Level,” is senior writer and executive assistant to the president for public affairs at East Tennessee State University. E-mail him at sauceman@etsu.edu.
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