Those Ubiquitous Styrofoam Hot Dog Boxes

In days of old our beloved WVHD would usually come to us wrapped in wax paper, or inside a wax paper bag made especially for the purpose. The wax paper was impervious to water vapor and therefore the moisture condensed on the inside of the wrapper and soaked into the bun creating a nice gooey hot dog. The longer they stayed in the wrapper the gooier they got. When I was a kid we lived 15 minutes from Gold Dome hot dogs at the end of the Kanawha City Bridge. My mom would always get footlongs from the Gold Dome and then purposely take them home so they would be so gooey that she had to eat them with a fork.

Sometimes aluminum foil would be used, which was as impervious to moisture and had the added benefit of keeping more heat in. Dogs wrapped in foil were hot and gooey.

Sadly, these days it is very difficult to find a "to go" WVHD that isn't served in a styrofoam containers. The styrofoam probably keeps the temperature up better than paper or foil, but it completely eliminates gooeyness. From what I've found on internet sites, these things cost about 5 cents each. I can't imagine that wax paper would be any more expensive, so hot dog joint owners must think we like them better. I think we need to have a "just say no" type campaign to get the word to the decision makers. We need a catchy slogan. Feel free to make suggestions.