So, I was driving through downtown State College the other day and saw something strange: a group of college-aged people dressed up as hot dogs. The costumes included a bun and yellow mustard squirts on a hot dog that made its way all the way up with a hood over the head. It was about 1:30 p.m., and I thought to myself, “What the heck (Heck was not the real word I used)?”
Then, a block later, I saw a few more hot-dog-clad folks walking the street, and the sight stuck with me. Why were these people dressed up as hot dogs on a Saturday afternoon? Was it National Hot Dog Day? Was the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile in town? Was it all some random coincidence that these people wore the same strange outfit on a random Saturday (not likely)?
So, I got home and did a little research.
The answer was so obvious for a college town that I should have known what was going on. What I saw was the Hot Dog Hop, a bar crawl sponsored by Fireball Whisky (oh dear), Pabst Blue Ribbon beer (classic), and LineLeap, an app that rakes in money by letting folks skip lines (Yes, the future is always finding new ways to take our money). Ah, yes, the good-old-fashioned college bar crawl, this time in hot dog form — and why not?
I guess the Hot Dog Hop has been taking place on campuses across the country, promising North America’s wildest bar crawl experience (I could make some jokes here, but this is a respectable publication. I’ll let my dear, smart, and witty readers make their own jokes in their heads).
For those unfamiliar with the term, bar crawls — also known as pub crawls or bar tours — are a simple tradition of drinking culture — albeit sometimes formal and sometimes informal — in which a group hops from one bar to another. The practice began in Victorian England, allowing folks to visit multiple pubs in a day, evening, or night. By the end of the night, patrons sometimes appear to crawl from one pub to the next.
The practice has grown over the years in the United States, especially in big cities and college towns — ahem, like our dear Happy Valley. Indeed, I first became aware of the practice when I moved here around 20 years ago and noticed the large crowds of college kids in matching shirts in bars during the gap week between finals and graduation.
That week is no longer a thing, but that has not stopped the new grads and all their friends in Happy Valley from continuing the practice every spring to celebrate the end of the school year. So, if you are new to the area, be prepared — senior bar tours are coming soon. Indeed, bar crawls only seem to have grown in strength.
Now, I don’t pretend to understand what would make a person feel the desire to dress up as a hot dog in order to go out and have a good time — I’ve never had any trouble drinking in my normal clothes, and it’s always fun — but God bless them if that is what they want to do. They sure made me smile.
From what I understand, the Hot Dog Hop is a spinoff of the much-beloved Banana Bar Crawl, so it seems that there are multiple phallic-shaped foods that college students are willing to dress up as and have a good time (Go figure, I wonder what will come next).
Beyond those, students also like to kick off the fall semester every year with a bar crawl, bookending the school year by wearing matching cheap T-shirts and visiting as many of our lovely downtown establishments as possible.
For years, the Santa Crawl used to take place every December, spreading holiday cheer from bar to bar while raising money for a scholarship fund. It seems to have been a casualty of the COVID-19 era, but now there is a national Santa-themed bar crawl going on.
In late June, the Mrs. Roper Romp Bar Crawl is scheduled to take place on June 27. You will find folks dressed up like Mrs. Roper (Three’s Company) coming and knocking on every bar door in town, while raising money for Out of the Cold, a nonprofit that cares for the unsheltered. Sounds like a good time to me!
Now, I have never participated in an official bar crawl, but I really don’t need a reason to go out from pub to pub. But as someone who is a big fan of drinking culture, I am all for anyone getting out and having a good time and supporting our local establishments.
So, who knows, maybe this June, you will see me at the Mrs. Roper Romp Bar Crawl. Now, I don’t know if I can pull off Mrs. Roper, but I think I could do a nice Mr. Roper — I just need to find my polyester leisure suit. Cheers! T&G
Vincent Corso enjoys drinking local and meeting new people at Central Pennsylvania’s many interesting establishments.
