“Shorty” is Dedicatee of this Issue of Paper

On Friday, December 4, 1942, the staff of the Old Gold and Black devoted an entire edition to Shorty Joyner. This wasn’t the first time the Wake Forest College newspaper had praised the famous hot dogs and hamburgers, but now the story was a little bit different.

This particular article was written as a tribute to Shorty, and as a send-off to the many young men who were leaving town and college to defend a nation at war.

Some of those men never came back.

It’s exciting to help the Joyner family celebrate the centennial of Shorty’s Famous Hot Dogs this month, and even more so when you pause to consider that what they’ve really given across all those many years is a taste of friendship, security, happiness, and home.

Here’s the original article. It was written by Edwin G. Wilson, now Provost Emeritus at Wake Forest University, shortly before his own departure to serve as a U.S. Navy Officer in the South Pacific.

“SHORTY” IS DEDICATEE OF THIS ISSUE OF PAPER

Outgoing Men Will Miss His Hamburgers

By Ed Wilson, Old Gold and Black Staff Writer

HAMBURGER: It isn’t often that an issue of a newspaper is dedicated. In fact, there is seldom any occasion for such a tribute. But before OLD GOLD AND BLACK editor Bob Gallimore left for Fort Bragg to join his forces with those of the United States Army, he requested that this issue be dedicated to a man who, in his own words, “makes the best hamburgers I’ve ever eaten”– in short, to “Shorty.”

For years, at least for as long as we of the OLD GOLD AND BLACK can remember, the staff has been adjourning about 1 a.m. after putting out an issue of the paper and going downtown in Barrie Davis’s car for a late snack at “Shorty’s.”

Hamburgers, Pepsi-Colas, milk, an occasional hotdog and sometimes cake have been the order of the night, and always smiling, ever cheerful “Shorty” has filled the demand even though the hour has been past his already-delayed bedtime. He has even had to undergo the waiting which we have now and then imposed on him by playing game after game of French pool.

We’ve been bothering “Shorty” for years now, and so Gallimore figured it was time he was getting some of the recognition he’s been deserving so long. There’s really not much you can say about “Shorty”; every man on the campus knows him well. Few of them are aware that his last name is Joyner or that he is both a husband and a father, but his ability at dispensing eats rapidly and his never failing good disposition have made him a part of a Wake Forest man’s education just as much as freshman English and a 20-7 victory over Duke.

He is a real friend of the student body, and more especially, we feel, of the publications realm.

When Gallimore makes his final departure from Wake Forest Monday, he will probably have eaten his last hamburger from “Shorty’s” for the duration. And, believe us, that’s a treat he’ll hate to have to miss.

(Photos are from the WFCBS Collection. Copyright may apply.)