Hoagies revisited (aka Wedge)

[Page Stephens]

Those of us who grew up in the hinterlands of southern Illinois never heard
of a hoagie,  or at least I didn't when we were growing up in the '40s and
'50s of the last century. For that matter we never heard of a pizza either
except on radio or tv until about 1951.

This in spite of the fact that Centralia, Illinois had a large number of
people of Italian descent living among us including some who owned
restaurants where they served spaghetti, Italian beef sandwiches, offered
you bloody beer--beer with a dose of tomato juice in it--, etc.

By around 1956 or so someone or other opened The Hoagie Hut which except for
the fact that its basic fare was hoagies was a typical drive up--not drive
in or by restaurant. By that point in time we also had a couple of pizza
places in town and for all I know The Hoagie Hut also served pizza.

I am emphasizing the Italian aspect of the two forms of food because we
always associated them as particularly Italian just as we associated Blacks
with barbecue, Germans with home made country sausage, Italians with Italian
sausage, etc.

Page Stephens