First in Line
Every year, two men arrive nearly an hour early for the first Pronto Pup. Behind that friendly competition are months of planning, 96 volunteer positions and a tradition that brings familiar faces back to the same stand each September.
Every year, before the first Pronto Pup is handed across the counter at Dale Fall Fest, Dan Bertke and Virgil Frith are already waiting.
They arrive nearly an hour early, each hoping to be the person who receives the first Pronto Pup of the festival. Out of approximately 3,300 that will be served throughout the weekend, it is only one. To Dan and Virgil, however, being first has become part of the tradition.
It is a small ritual, but it reveals something larger about the Pronto Pup stand.
For many people, a Pronto Pup is more than something to eat while walking through Dale Town Park. It is part of returning to Fall Fest. Familiar faces gather around the window. Volunteers settle into a practiced rhythm behind the counter. Another festival begins much like the one before it.
A View From Inside the Stand
Lisa Rush first experienced that tradition from behind the counter when she was in seventh grade.
She was brought into the stand by Ridy Schaefer, Jeanne Daunhauer and the Litkenhaus girls. Her first shift gave her a different view of the festival than the one most visitors experienced.
“You got to see everyone from inside the stand and talk to them when they came to order,” Lisa remembered.
That connection with the people on the other side of the window stayed with her.
Lisa now serves as vice president of Dale Fall Fest and has chaired the Pronto Pup stand for the past five years. The seventh-grader who once came in to help is now responsible for preparing the stand, organizing its volunteers and carrying the tradition forward.
Her path reflects how many hometown traditions survive. Someone is invited to work a shift. They return the following year. Eventually, they become the person asking someone new to step behind the counter.
Up to Malee’s Standards
Before Lisa assumed responsibility for the stand, it was chaired by Malee Burress.
The preparation method has not changed significantly since Lisa’s earliest years there. Even now, one familiar measure guides the volunteers as they prepare each batch.
The pups must be up to Malee’s standards.
That standard represents more than the appearance of the finished Pronto Pup. It connects the current crew to the people who taught them how the stand should operate. The process is learned through repetition, passed between volunteers and protected by the people who remember how things have always been done.
Planning Starts in March
The public sees the Pronto Pup stand operating for three days in September. Lisa’s work begins months earlier.
Planning starts in March.
Volunteer schedules must be organized, supplies must be considered and preparations must be made long before Dale Town Park fills with rides, music and visitors. On festival days, preparation of the oil begins around 2 p.m., hours before many customers make their way to the window.
This year, the stand has 96 volunteer positions to fill.
Once service begins, those volunteers work together around hot equipment, prepare each order consistently, communicate across the stand and keep everything moving as customers gather outside.
By the end of the festival, the crew expects to serve approximately 3,300 Pronto Pups.
That total does not include six “failures” that still required proper disposal.
They were eaten.
Even in a stand built around consistency and Malee’s standards, apparently a few mistakes come with their own reward.
The Pronto Pup stand is one of three food operations run directly by Dale Fall Fest, alongside the Gus Burger stand and the festival’s grilled pork chop and fried chicken dinners. Like every part of Fall Fest, it returns each year because people are willing to plan, prepare and volunteer.
The Changing Shape of a Volunteer Crew
The process of preparing the Pronto Pups has remained largely unchanged. The way families live and work has not.
Years ago, many local families worked together on their farms. When they volunteered at Dale Fall Fest, the entire family often came along and worked together in the stand.
Today, family members are more likely to have separate careers, schedules and responsibilities. It has become less common for an entire family to arrive and volunteer as one group, although a handful of families continue doing it.
The community has found other ways to fill those roles.
Last year, a crew from the Dale Post Office volunteered together. Instead of a family arriving from the farm, coworkers stepped behind the counter as a team.
The shape of the volunteer crew may have changed, but the idea behind it has not. The stand continues because groups of people decide that giving their time together is worthwhile.
A family, a group of coworkers or one seventh-grader reporting for a first shift can all become part of the same tradition.
The People Who Keep It Going
When the final order is served Saturday night, the oil will cool, the window will close and the stand will be cleaned until another Dale Fall Fest approaches.
The number of Pronto Pups served can be counted. The hours spent planning can be measured. The names on 96 volunteer positions can be written onto a schedule.
The lasting value of those contributions is harder to measure.
It can be seen in Lisa’s journey from a seventh-grader watching the festival through the stand’s window to the person now responsible for keeping it operating. It can be found in Malee’s standards, which continue guiding the current crew. It can be seen in families who volunteered together years ago and coworkers who now arrive as a team.
The people behind the counter will continue changing. That is not the end of the tradition. It is how the tradition survives.
Someone works a first shift. Someone teaches them what to do. Someone eventually trusts them to take responsibility for what comes next.
Then another September arrives, the oil begins heating and the Pronto Pup stand comes to life again.
The people behind the counter will continue to change. That is not the end of the tradition. It is how the tradition survives.
Someone works a first shift. Someone teaches them what to do. Eventually, someone trusts them to take responsibility for what comes next.
Then another September arrives, the oil begins heating, and the Pronto Pup stand comes to life again. And more than likely, you’ll find Dan and Virgil nearby, anxiously awaiting that first Pronto Pup of the Fest.
