Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 171

THE COVER THE LAST WORD photo by ROBERT MARKLEWITZ Tiger Stadium's top hot dogger does it alitor fun and some timely cash. Fire hydrants may seems a prosaic subject for a cover, but we think they merit attention. They're both an unappreciated burst of color on the urban landscape, and a rare man-made thing of durability pretty much untouched by planned obsolescence. The colors have a reason to distinguish between mains with volumes of more or less than a thousand gallons a minute. The durability is the result of 850 pounds of solid and simple cast iron, steel and bronze construction, five-and-a-half feet of It anchored below ground.

Some of Detroit's 30,400 hydrants are more than 70 years-old, and the mains that serve them are even older. But there have been attempts to jazz up the old fire hydrant. The Detroit Fire Department briefly considered repainting them in the spirit of the bicentennial. And the manufacturer has developed a sleek, four-sided model designed to brealeat ground level when hit by a car or truck. That, believe it or not, is progress.

seller, but hot dogs are the best year-round item," Pageau says. Pageau says all the food at the ballpark, including the hot dogs, has gone up 300 percent since 1947. Hot dogs used to be 20 cents, now they're 60, but "they're still Hygrade's," he says. "Tipping is less, though. When hot dogs were 25 and 30 cents, they'd buy three and tell you to keep the change.

They don't do that now that prices are higher. But the take-home is better. Our commission is 20 percent, so I make 12 cents on every dog instead of five." Pageau made his biggest sale 10 years ago one kid's day at the park. "A guy came up and said he needed 220 hot dogs. I can only carry 100 in the box, but I completed the sale.

He was with a baseball little league. Other times, though, I've only made $8 or $9 a game." For a vendor, everything depends on the weather and who the Tigers are playing, says Pageau. "A good vendor can smell a good crowd. If the weather's bad or we're playing a weak team, I won't go down," says Pageau. "If we're playing Oakland, though, I'll show." Unlike the vendors who sell programs and souvenirs, the food-men don't have to work if they don't want to.

"Vending is my ace in the hole. I can take the wife and my three boys out to dinner and spend -the $50 I made on Saturday," says Pageau, who makes that much during a long game. "If Lolich pitches a fast game, I can't make it, though. You can only work so fast." PATRICIA CHARGOT INSIDE WAITING FOR REV. GILL For members of a small Flint church, resurrection is not a one-time thing.

15 25 more could a kid want? I was seeing the ball gameand making money, too." Today you have to be 18 to -work at Tiger Stadium. The-only time boys younger than that were hired was in 1947 when ten 14-year-olds were hired for an experimental program. Pageau was one of them. He's the only one of the ten still working at the ballpark. "Times have changed," recalled Pageau in his office on the loading dock at Frigid Foods, where he has worked full-time for 18 years.

"I think we're getting a whole new generation at the stadium. They wear funny clothes, but they still cheer just like they did 25 years ago. I don't care if you're young or old, when someone hits a home run, everyone stands up and cheers." Pageau works at the ballpark about 35 days a year, normally selling hot dogs in the lower deck on the third base side. "If it's real warm, ice cream's a good Nelson Pageau's favorite sport is hot-dogging. The object of the game is to hawk 150 hot dogs in one hour while running up and down stairs yelling "A loaf of bread and a pound of meat and all the mustard you can eat." Pageau hustles hot dogs better than any of the other vendors at Tiger Stadium, where he averages between 400-500 a game.

"Some people bowl, some golf, I vend for my exercise and kicks," he says. "I get as much satisfaction out of selling a hot dog as another person gets out of shooting a hole-in-one." Now 43, Pageau started vending at Tiger Stadium when he was 14. He worked his way through high-school selling "bug juice" (orange drink) for two cents commission on a dime cup. still remember making $7 my first day. I thought I was rich.

I had a paper route and only made $2 a week. What THE PAIN OF ARTHRITIS It hits Detroiters of all ages, and like the cold, continues to defy a cure. THE WFL ON THE BRINK Alan Miller, attorney for the troubled league's players, discusses its future. 4 ARCADE: Cranbrook Festival 6 DOERS: John Guinn 35 HUNGRY EYE: Charley's Raw Bar 36 WAYSAMEANS: Survival food 39 PEOPLE TALK: Spitz's acting Sunday editor DAVID DOLSON editor of detroit ROGERS WORTHINGTON graphics editor ROGER FIDLER Staff writer PATRICIA CHARGOT advertising manager AL STEWART WRIGHT 1 -J LX Detroit Free PressMay 4, 1975.