TMZ flickers on mute as her five dogs howl. Sitting crisscross on her couch, she unzips a duffel bag stuffed with year-old stripper thongs. By the time she gets to the bottom of the bag, her couch is covered in ancient bedazzled panties. There are plenty of relics from her nights as a dancer, but nothing from her stint as a hot dog girl. In the early s, roads in St. Petersburg, Pinellas Park and Largo were peppered with hot dog carts staffed by women in T-backs β thong bikinis. Valerie, who left dancing to peddle Italian sausages and sodas, claims she was the first.
Once upon a time, the hot dog girls ruled the streets. Baking in the hot Florida sun, they made bank selling sausages on the side of busy industrial roads. The controversial phenomenon lasted just a few years in Tampa Bay, but it was packed with action. Some say the T-backs were so distracting that they triggered car crashes across Pinellas.
Turf wars erupted. Police arrested girls for throwing fists and spraying mace. Later, Valerie would watch as a local radio station hosted a mud wrestling battle over a contested piece of territory. Back then, Valerie was a single mom raising three small children.
She was proud to have figured out how to use her strong physique, carved from years as a third-degree black belt, to support her family. Want more of our free, weekly newsletters in your inbox? The clubs were fun, but she wanted to be her own boss and have her own space.
She got a license and boiled her dogs right in the cart, underneath a Sabrett-branded yellow and blue umbrella. Her friends from the clubs soon followed. They set up on roads with good traffic. Hungry drivers on their lunch break and curious passersby stopped to see what she was doing. Cars slowed to honk.
