HHHot Dogs and catch-up
By Dan Irwin
New Castle News
Nelson Pinney thought nothing of driving 80 miles Saturday to get a Coney Island hot dog.
Maybe that’s because on any other day, he’d have to travel more than 1,200.
Saturday (March 26) though, was the annual New Castle Day picnic in Nokomis, Fla. Each year, one of the highlights of the event is a menu featuring hot dogs with chili sauce from Coney Island.
The beachfront park where the picnic is held is only 80 miles from Pinney’s home in Coral Gable, so the 1962 Ne-Ca-Hi graduate jumped at the chance to get a taste of the town he left in 1971.
“This is my third or fourth time here,” Pinney said via cell phone from Saturday’s picnic. “It expands each year. I don’t really know many people here. In fact, it’s hard to believe, but the people I do know here were friends of my father, and he died several years ago at age 93.
“The big draw for me is the Coney Island hot dogs; that’s what brings me 80 miles up the road each year.”
The picnic has been drawing around 300 people each year, according to Barb Trumble, a 1948 New Castle High graduate who organizes the event with her husband, Jim. And even though this year’s picnic was inadvertently scheduled for Easter weekend — the pavilion has to be to reserved a year in advance, Trumble noted — it still drew 248 folks.
The picnic is held in a covered pavilion at a park that features a beach, a playground and a nearby fishing pier. Visiting, though, seems to be the day’s main activity.
“Most of them just come for the conversation and to catch up,” said Barb Trumble, who has lived in Englewood, Fla., for 35 years. “If somebody’s looking for someone — because we don’t always look the same as people remember us — we help find them. This year, we have a big bulletin board where people can write a request and put it up.”
Pat Bigley Boatman, a 1949 New Castle High grad, is one of those who attends annually to see people she hasn’t talked with since the previous year’s get-together. She spends the winter in Arcadia, Fla., about 50 miles away.
“There are a lot of people here I know, a lot of classmates,” she said Saturday. “We’ve been in Florida four months, and we’re getting ready to come back to New Castle next Sunday. But we always look forward to this. Barb and Jim have done a great job.”
The event started out in 1999 as a Florida reunion for members of the New Castle High School class of 1948. Trumble had helped to organize reunions held in New Castle, and classmates suggested to her that she ought to organize a class event in Florida as well.
“At first, that seemed like too much,” she said. “But finally I relented. The first year, we had about 48 show up. The next year, we had 90-something.
“We had a big sign on the pavilion that said ‘New Castle class of 1948.’ But what happened was other people began stopping by when they saw the sign and they’d say, ‘We’re not in the class, but we’d love to come to the picnic.’ That’s how it became New Castle Day.”
Originally, the Trumbles laid out the cash for the event, then asked for donations at the picnic to recoup their expenses. Now, the donations they get are enough that they don’t have to spend any of their own money to rent the pavilion and pick up the hot dogs, beans, chips, drinks — and of course, the Coney sauce.
“We always have somebody bring it down,” Trumble said. “Last year, the person who had been bringing it ended up not coming, so we had to have it shipped. That was expensive, but we were able to do it.
“This year, we have someone bringing it again. The Coney Island people freeze it for us, then it’s packed in coolers, and we get it Friday night. About 9 o’clock Saturday morning, we pop it in the pan and start getting it ready for the picnic.”
It just goes to show that even in warm, sunny Florida, New Castle-ites love to get a little chili.
Comments from News readers
Dave McCann (3/28/2005: Barb did a great job. Met a few old friends. I left New Castle in 1993 and it's allways nice to see people from NC. Can't wait till next year, maybe even more will be there
Dave Campbell (3/28/2005) Dan Irwin: Thanks for your interest in this event.You wouldn't believe the energy that exudes from this picnic pavilion! We appreciate the phone interview and story. New Castle is full of marvelous memories for many people and the success of this event is a tribute to the wonderful people from the place I'm so proud to call home! Thanks again for your support. Come next year, Dan! The Coney Island hot dogs are better here in March
Judith Reiser (3/28/2005) I hope to come for the picnic next year.We have good friends there and they always tell what a good time is had by all.
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