Sam, The Hot Dog Man
Based on the Story of a Legend
by
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How much would I pay? How much would I pay if I could travel back in time, spending just one single day, one more twenty-four-hour period of time in Chicago's "Back of the Yards," neighborhood due west of the famous stockyards? How much would I pay to explore those streets and alleys of swirling paper-strewn tornadoes, wandering the cracked sidewalks and stained curbs yet again with my dear Mother, my brother Billy, and our Dad, Sam, "Sam, the Hot Dog Man?" How much would I pay in order to smell the stark aroma of those swimming scorched red hots and spicy tamales Sam habitually dressed and genuinely adored, selling them by the hundreds each and every night? How much would I pay to inhale the choking vehicle exhaust clogging our throats, ears attuned to the jagged rumble of city buses and wood-slatted cattle trucks, my forehead encompassed by the halo of Dad's ever-present, dimly-lit heady cigar? And how much would I pay to further understand any one of Sam's countless exasperating secrets?
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About the Book
“God, why did you give me the wrong father?”
That’s the question Lynn asks about the purveyor of the finest Chicago-style hot dogs that the city has ever known.
Routinely sheathed with absurdly darkened and unnaturally tough, sun-burnt skin from long hours spent outside, Sam is impossible to understand. While he’s sometimes charming, he drinks, argues, and can be downright mean.
Even so, as Lynn looks back at her childhood, she yearns to inhale the stark aroma of scorched red hots and spicy tamales her father habitually dressed and adored, selling them by the hundreds every night. And there’s nothing she wouldn’t pay to truly understand any one of her father’s exasperating secrets.
But money won’t help Lynn unravel the mysteries surrounding Sam—she can only do that by surrendering her painful relationship with her father to God. Through that simple act, she’s finally able to understand, love, and forgive her father.
Filled with gut-wrenching prose, glorious scents, and sounds and sights unique to Chicago, the story of Sam is the ultimate tale of faith, family, and forgiveness.
About the Author
Carol Duracka is also the author of Mingled Seeds, which focuses on her whimsical life in the working-class neighborhoods of Chicago, as well as inspirational poems, articles, and short stories. She enjoys Bible study and lives with her husband, Edwin, in Wilmington, Illinois. They have three grown children.