Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Flint Postcards: Koegel Meats



22 comments:

  1. There is a difference ... no, really, there is.

    Blindfold me.

    I'll show ya.

    A grilled Koegel's Vienna tastes like, I don't know, watching Big Bill Weber and Jimmy Doyle duel it out at the ballpark, like a Davison Sunday, like Houghton Lake in July.

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  2. After a short visit to Flint last week, we came home with a cooler full of various Koegel's meats. More often than not we also bring back a carton of Angelo's coney sauce. You can take the boy out'a Flint, but can't take Flint out'a the boy.

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  3. You can take the boy out'a Flint, but can't take Flint out'a the boy.

    Well, you can, but all you're left with is a pair of oily jeans, a ticket stub from the home and garden show at the IMA and the rusty porthole from a '59 Roadmaster.

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  4. The Koegel's truck crosses the bridge and brings a Flint memory of, Flushing Park, Richfield Park, Metamora and all points of picnics in between. The ground bologna sandwiches (without the fat),viennas w/coney buns have a way of taking you back to those places, even when experienced on the shores of Lake Superior's scenic beauty. Just close your eyes and take a bite-your there. The ballpark NO! Doyle and Bear Brandt, Webber only bring back the embarrassing moments for me.....unclebuck

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  5. I'll admit it, I took Koegel's for granted living in Michigan. Try getting a decent dog in the South or even freaking Ohio - no such luck.

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  6. You're trying to lure me to the North Country, unclebuck ... didja even foul one off against Jimmy Doyle?

    As you know, my father loved fastpitch softball and used to take my brother and I to Whaley and Burtson to watch. Amazing stuff. I think one of the guys on the Strohs/Thompson's Market team was from his office. I remember the Belmont Hotel team, too ... Benny McCombs? Was that the name of their pitcher? He was good, but not in the same class as the two gods. I still can't remember the sponsor for Weber's team, though.

    I had forgotten Bill Brandt ... went to school with his nephew Tim, whose dad worked at Consumers and knew and loved my grandfather. Reddy Kilowatts!

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  7. I played on teams with Bobby Pea and AJ Grandberry. Benny McCombs, I connect with the Golden Gloves. The pitcher from Buick besides Doyle's Wildcat team was a knuckleballer,not particularly fast,but very effective. On me anyway.I had a hard time with the junkers,but could hold my own with the fastballers. I can't remember his name right now, but it will come. Did I ever tell you Doug about....ah well, don't get me started. unclebuck

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  8. Nothing compares to a Koegel hotdog. NOTHING! Wish I could bring a cooler-full back overseas with me...

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  9. DOUG:That pitcher's name was Bill Forsberg? I believe. I think he worked with Gene at Buick's Hamilton Adm. building. Speaking of Hamilton, I played on a slow pitch team, an eon later with Willie H. Now there was a ball player!...unclebuck

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  10. I went a couple of years without having a coney. I was living in Flint, just after the new airport terminal was built. While driving down bristol road, (which had it's routing changed to accomidate the expansion), I read this HUGH banner sign on the side of the Koegel's building.

    They were advertising for a janitor that they needed. Having never considered that a place like that needed a janitor, I found the thought of it to be pretty disgusting. I was'nt able to erase the image that I'd worked up in my mind until I saw a special on WFUM where they toured the factory. It is SPOT-LESS in there. Keep enjoying those coney's folks. I can't eat the rat meat that they sell down here.

    By the way, when you get down to Fenton, you have a choice between Flint or Detroit coney's. Stick with Flint!

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  11. Pickled Bologna, Bratwurst, Pickle Loaf, and Whol-E-Smokes? Are you kidding me? I've never seen such a vomit worthy collection of meats. That includes the Salay's Headcheese that used to sit untouched for days past it's due date at the old Davison Rd. Kessel's.

    I'm as "Flint" as any other Expat... maybe even more so. Nevertheless, that photo is absolutely disgusting. Koegel's and their ilk- purveyors of sub-edible crap- can't disappear quick enough for this born and bred 40 drinkin' 'toid.

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  12. The little strings that hang from the ends of viennas and sausages...eww... those are the absolute wurst.

    That Koegel's centerfold is like the grossest car wreck. You just can't help but gawk at the carnage.

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  13. When I was dating my now husband, he visited my family in Flint. Afterward he told me, "I've never seen a family who eats so many bologna products."

    Sandwiches, boiled hotdogs, grilled hotdogs, fried hotdogs, fried bologna, ring bologna, ring bologna cut in half with Open Pit barbeque sauce grilled under the broiler -- and when times were really tight - a Chef Boyadree pizza with chopped up bologna as a stand in for pepperoni.

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  14. I was always a fan of the macaroni and cheese bologna when I was 4. Now, not so much...

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  15. For a number of years, I was one of the folks that actually does the work to make the summer Flint Art Fair happen. Al Koegel was (and probably still is) a supporter of the Art Fair...providing top-quality meat products at a discount (or maybe as a donation? I didn't handle food issues directly), but also providing a refrigerated truck for free for several days, and going out of his way personally to make it all happen on schedule and without glitches.

    Michigan has excellent processed-meat quality rules compared to a lot of other states...and Koegel's quality is top-notch compared to the Michigan competition.

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  16. hey, you don't like it, don't look. I don't give a rats ass about any other company's product, they cannot compare w/Koegels ever! 20 points to the Flintstoner who can name the singer in the '70's who did their commercials! any vegans, feel free to tune out...

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  17. Hey bustdup- You wanna know what you can do with that summer sausage?

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  18. A brawl is a brewin' over Koegel's! I love it. I step in on the political fights, but it's hard to contain people's emotions when it comes to delicious grillable meats.

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  19. Get out that black and white shirt Gordie. unclebuck

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  20. why don't you tell me wurst? wurst, as opposed to best? and doesn't wurst belong on the end of knock, and blood, and liver? vegans...right.

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  21. is that rusty porthole for the left or right side, Doug?

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  22. Been on the West Coast of FL for 14 years now and over the years there have been two places that handled viennas and pickled bologna from Koegels at a premium. They are gone now. So, when we return to Flint a couple times a year we load up on viennas, pickled bologna and a couple quarts of sauce from the Valley Coney Island. Also get some of the commercial sauce from the Hot Dog Stand in GB so we can relive our old A & W days for a few meals.

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Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.