More pickles than you can shake a hamburger bun at.
Faced with an inordinate supply of pickles, all sizes and shapes and all cooling in the same kitchen refrigerator, friends of the Vets Club foraged for ideas on how to resolve the sour predicament.
“We’re in a pickle all right,” admitted Barb Nelson, VFW Auxiliary member.
“We’ve got big pickles, little pickles, sliced pickles, whole pickles, sweet and sour pickles. You name ‘em, we’ve got ‘em.”
Not relishing the idea of disposing of the many pickled jars, Betty Riemer suggested they could compliment a hamburger basket.
“The more the merrier.”
Hamburger baskets or pickles? Barb Nelson inquired.
Say again, Betty intoned.
“Are you saying you want more pickles in the hamburger baskets or more hamburger baskets for all the pickles?”
Does it matter? asked Betty.
Not really, Barb confessed.
That settled, finally, the two women, with counsel from Joan Svaleson, resolved the not-necessarily-delicate situation of simply too many pickles by agreeing to serve hamburger baskets Friday night at the Vets Club in Hillsboro.
It gets better, according to the three auxiliary members.
With help from friends, mostly auxiliary members, the hamburger baskets will be served every Friday night in May.
Hamburger nights
patterned after
successful fish fries
Proceeds from the five Friday nights of hamburger baskets will go toward the Vets Club building maintenance fund.
“The club needs a little financial boost, we’ve got far too many pickles, and we just think it’ll be fun,” Barb, Betty and Joan explained.
More fun than anything, the three friends conceded.
They’re hoping the hamburger baskets will be a hit, much like the successful fish fries that are served every year by the men of the Vets Club.
During Lent, post members, with help from friends of the Vets Club, serve a crowd of more than 100 each Friday night of the fish fries.
The hugely successful fish fries have become a traditional night out for many Hillsboro community families.
“We hope we can build on the success established by the fish fries,” Barb Nelson offered.
“What we like about the fish fries, and what we hope people like about our hamburger nights really isn’t that involved or complicated. We’ll have fun preparing and serving the meal and families and friends will have fun visiting and laughing together,” the common denominator being the tradition-rich Vets Club hamburgers, she added.
Oh, but it’s more than hamburgers, visiting and laughing, insist Betty Riemer and Joan Svaleson.
Kids can have root beer floats and a different dessert will be served each Friday night.
More fun than you can shake a straw at . . .
The potato salad was made yesterday and the hamburgers will be shaped into 1/3 lb. patties this afternoon. Most of the homemade desserts are being donated. Tonight’s treat: chocolate sundaes. Serving starts at 5:30 p.m. at the Vets Club, downtown Hillsboro.
The long-standing Hillsboro bar, currently managed and operated by post members, is enjoying a good run, according to Vets Club officers. The club recently completed its second quarter of business, since directors took over management of the business last September.
“We’re doing as well as we can expect, in a town that has five bars downtown,” said Neil Nelson, secretary-treasurer of the board of directors.
“We didn’t take over management of the bar to put another bar out of business. We’re not trying to take business from the other establishments, we’re simply a small neighborhood bar that we feel has a place in this community.”
The men volunteering to work the hours needed to keep the club open are doing so because they believe the club is worth the investment, according to Jim Beach, president of the board of directors.
“The Legion and VFW posts long ago made an investment in this community when they opened the Vets Club,” Nelson said.
“We haven’t forgotten that investment or the men and women who made it possible and who made it work.”
The Vets Club has another fund-raising project in the works; $10 tickets will soon go on sale on a 2008 Schwinn Sport 50 Scooter that will be given away Friday, July 25. There are enough TVs and shotguns raffled off, the club is sure. “With gas heading toward $4, a $10 ticket on a motorized scooter that gets up to 117 miles to a gallon of gas is a good investment,” said Vern Wegge, board vice president.
The club is not having a street dance this summer, but it is planning activities for the night of the July 25 drawing.
Street dances simply aren’t drawing the crowds that they did 20, 30, 40 years ago, the Vets Club directors reason.
The club lost money on the street dance last year, which forced directors to rethink their long-standing tradition of summer street dances.
“It’s a crap shoot, at best,” said Nelson.
Everything was in place last year for the street dance, but the crowd never materialized, Jim Beach tells.
That was yesterday, chimed in Barb Nelson, Betty Riemer and Joan Svaleson.
Crowds are going to materialize for the hamburger feeds, they’re convinced.
Just you watch and see, they’re saying.
And enjoy.
“Hamburger, please. Hold the pickles, thank you.”
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