08/11/2023
Just got the craziest call. I closed “Gorilla Pete’s” down over 10 years ago. It was a three-year labor of love that ended only because I just didn’t have the energy to fight City Hall anymore. And I was exhausted. So I placed an ad for the hotdog cart and a woman answered saying she wanted to buy it. I towed the shiny, stainless steel unit over to her house that day feeling like I was giving away my child. As she was handed me the money, her husband walked in and said, “What the hell did you buy?”. I slid out the back door laughing to myself only to be teary-eyed driving away. It’s a part of my life I’ll never forget and a time that I fell in madly love with San Francisco.
The call just now was from a young man asking me if my name was Pete and if I used to be a hotdog vendor in San Francisco. It turns out that this young dude had purchased my cart from the woman I sold it to years ago. He needed to get the registration fixed as my name was still on it. The call truly warmed my heart. The cart is still hanging on and it’s about to go back out on the street… This time outside of Fresno. The spirit lives on.
