When Dorothy Spratlin \u201919 was younger, she met a woman during a family Christmas party who was dressed up as a hot dog. It made a big impression on her, but little did she know that she, too, would become an official Hotdogger when she got older.<\/p>\n
Spratlin, a Vinings, Georgia, native, was selected to be an Oscar Mayer Hotdogger for the next year, which means she will be driving the Wienermobile around specific areas of the country. She joins an elite group \u2014 only 12 were selected for the job from more than 7,000 applicants. She reported to Oscar Mayer world headquarters in Chicago this month for training to prepare her for her assignment to the Southeast and return to Greenville, South Carolina, in July.<\/p>\n
Her job duties? In addition to driving the Wienermobile, she’ll be serving as an ambassador for Oscar Mayer at state fairs, birthday parties, community parades, Walmart parking lots and just about anywhere. The Wienermobile, which has been around since 1936, is so popular that Oscar Mayer can\u2019t fulfill all of the requests it receives.<\/p>\n
As she prepared to begin her adventure, Spratlin explained what the experience been like and what lies ahead:<\/p>\n
What do most people say when you tell them what you’re doing?<\/strong><\/p>\n People make a lot of hot dog jokes. Like, \u201crelish this opportunity.\u201d Or \u201cget excited to meat a bunch of people.\u201d But when I interviewed with Oscar Mayer, they were big on hot dog jokes, too.<\/p>\n What\u2019s your favorite hot dog joke? What was your parents\u2019 initial reaction? What\u2019s the Wienermobile like? And what\u2019s your job? What are you supposed to pack? What kind of advice have your friends given you? What are you going to do after your Hotdogger career? How do you like your hot dogs? Has it hit you yet how cool this is? <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When Dorothy Spratlin \u201919 was younger, she met a woman during a family Christmas party who was dressed up as a hot dog. It made a big impression on her, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":8260,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,60,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-department-page","category-alumni-profiles","category-biology"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/strong>Frankly, having to pick just one is the wurst. Really puts me in a pickle. Most of my hot dog buns are real wieners, but I’ll mustard up the courage to choose just one. When I’m on the road, I’ll have to ketchup on some better buns but for now, here it is … have fun relishing it. \u201cDid you see the movie about the hot dog?\u201d \u201cIt was an Oscar wiener.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>When I told them I was going to apply, they were like, \u201cUm, you\u2019ve been talking about this for years. Don\u2019t you know how competitive it is? You\u2019re not going to get it.\u201d But I said I was going to apply anyway. When I got it, I called my mom in tears and she was like, \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong?\u201d I said, \u201cI got it! I got it!\u201d And she started crying.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>It\u2019s a lot bigger than a normal car. It\u2019s more like a truck. It has a lot of different ways to speed up and slow down. We do not sell hot dogs, but we do pass out wiener whistles!<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>A lot less than you think you\u2019re going to need. I have a duffle bag of uniform clothes. Beyond that, I\u2019ll bring outfits I can go sightseeing in, since I\u2019ll be exploring new places. They also said to bring some relaxation clothes because you\u2019re going to need to lock yourself in your hotel room and veg out for a few hours after working.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Soak in your time with your friends and family now, because there\u2019s a lot of loneliness on the job. And make a list of everyone you know in the cities you will visit, so they can come see you. It really gives you comfort to see somebody you know.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>I\u2019m a biology major and I applied this past year to veterinary school. But I will be reapplying throughout the summer to start in a year. I\u2019m hoping to go to vet school at the University of Georgia.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>I like them with ketchup, mayonnaise, cheese, and sometimes onions \u2026 kinda weird.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Yes! There are fewer people who have driven the Wienermobile than have ever flown into space!<\/p>\n