Bearlodge Writers

Andi Hummel

Get To Know Andi

 

Quote

"Facts and truths don't have much to do with one another."  - William Faulkner

"There are no rules when it comes to chocolate!" - Andi

Andi Hummel Bio

Born "long ago and far away," Andi Hummel found her way to Wyoming, Wyoming Writers, and Bearlodge Writers after her husband, Ben, retired. Together they decided they needed "something new, something less harried and oppressive to the soul than the traffic jams and taxes of Pennsylvania." Now, home is the quiet northeastern corner of Wyoming, between Hulett and the Montana border where deer and turkeys and an occasional mountain lion might visit, part of an ancient inland sea—perhaps a return to the oceans of her northwestern Florida/Gulf Coast childhood?

Andi writes fiction, nonfiction, and poetry (most often as A. M. Hummel but there is a pen name); has a background in public relations (at a major medical center where she learned some helpful and still useful editing skills); published for more than thirty years in newspapers and magazines (everything from HIGHLIGHTS for Children to Nation's Business, regionals such as Susquehanna Life Magazine, and a myriad of newspapers in Pennsylvania, Florida, Wyoming, etc.); hit a few anthologies along the way; and "helped" with a couple of regional history books.

History and fantasy—the long ago and far away of her soul—still hold her attention and she's presently at work on a novel, Mollie (historical fiction, of course!), the story of a young woman who met her downfall in 1890s Deadwood, SD.

Publication Credits

Books credits:
Danville: A Bicentennial History,Co-Author, Haddon Craftsmen, Inc, 1991
Historic Danville, A Coloring Book for Danville’s Bicentennial 1792-1992, Co-Author Klein Artworks, 1992
In the Shadow of the Bear Lodge, Many Kites Press, 2006
Magazines credits: HIGHLIGHTS for Children; Good Apple Press (Ladybugs, Lollipops and Lucky Stars); Nation's Business; Northeast Pennsylvania Business Journal; Pennsylvania Magazine; Valley Magazine; Susquehanna Life Magazine; Pennsylvania Illustrated; Panarama Magazine; Farm Wife News; Cats Magazine; I Love Cats; Bittersweet; Goldmine; National Doll World; MACWORLD--The Macintosh Magazine; WREN (Wyoming Rural Electric News); others.
Newspaper credits: The GRIT; The Harrisburg Patriot and the Sunday Patriot-News; The Danville News; The Milton Standard; The Lewisburg Daily Journal; The Philadelphia Inquirer; The Bloomsburg Press-Enterprise; The Sunbury Daily Item; The Shamokin News Item; Jednota; The Reading Eagle; The Panama City News-Herald; Harper's Weekly Gazette; The Wyoming Pioneer; The Sundance Times

Andi is also published in several collections and anthologies, including In the Shadow of the Bear Lodge, Many Kites Press, 2006, and has produced several brochures for historic spots in Pennsylvania.

She is listed in Elizabeth Lyon's National Directory of Editors and Writers and does some freelance editing when not working on her own projects.

Her historical (fiction) short story, Mollie, was awarded second place in the Historical Deadwood Writing Contest for 2003 and was published on that organization's web site. This story is being expanded into a novel.

Andi, who wants to remind beginning authors that work for a newsletter is also considered "published work," has had numerous pieces published in the newsletters of various organizations in which she has held memberships through the years, and she has also has several pieces published online.

In 2005, she was awarded Wyoming Writers, Inc.'s prestigious Emmie Mygatt Award, given for outstanding service. Most proud of this accomplishment, Andi says, "I'm only glad that some of what I've learned through the years has been of benefit to this most worthwhile organization. I certainly enjoy working with the people who make Wyoming Writers what it is."

Excerpt of Writing

Sunbury's Squeeze-In—Hot Dogs Served Here!

Got the hungries for a hot dog? A really good grilled dog on a steamed bun? Dressed with mustard, ketchup, relish, and onions? Or sauerkraut . . . or cheese . . . or chili with enough bite to bite back? Head for Sunbury's landmark Squeeze-In, 448-A Market Street.

If there's a stool vacant, there are only five, squeeze in and place your order. If this little eatery is full, have owner Sam Sterling—or his son, Sean, or their friend and waitress, Mary Ridge, who's been helping out for seventeen years—hand your dream 'dog out the window. Take it with you. Don't be shy . . . people have been nibbling Squeeze-In hot dogs on the sidewalks of Sunbury for some sixty-one years, and hot dogs from Pop Snyder's, when the place was called that, for at least fifteen more. Before that? Well, Sterling says the building housed a coffee shop roughly a century ago, where people hustling to and from work could stop for a fresh-brewed cup of joe, or buy their fresh-ground coffee by the pound, and get . . . you guessed it . . . a hot dog or two, to help assuage the hungries!

Hummmmm? More than one hundred years of hot dogs . . . imagine the number served since these little red tubes of meat, one of America's favorite comfort foods, first captured taste buds back around 1895. Didn't take the news, or the hot dogs, long to reach a busy hub like Sunbury. They were already popular when Sterling's mother, then Thelma Rook, bought the tiny eatery from Esther and Lewis Cellitti in 1945 and began selling hot dogs at "maybe a dime each." She appropriately named her little place the "Squeeze-In" (it's about seven by twenty-five feet) and Pop Snyder's moved to the other end of town, just across from Cameron Park.

Harry Sterling, Thelma's second husband and Sam's father, helped her grill those famous dogs until she died in the mid-1960s, and then kept the business going, with Sam's help, until 1978. Sam, who's been grilling and custom-dressing hot dogs for customers since he was thirteen, has kept The Squeeze-In operating since his father's passing, says he's never had another job, and while he's never kept count of how many hot dogs he's served, he goes through some 270 pounds or so of Kunzler's grill franks (made in Lancaster, PA) in a week.

Customer favorites? "Well, the chili dogs go pretty good," Sterling says, "and so do the ones with sauerkraut." But the regulars, with mustard, ketchup, relish, and onions—or some variation of the same—are favorites, too. From $1.50 (that includes tax) to $2.22 (the chili topping is the most expensive), Sterling's hot dogs draw customers from all over the region, many making special trips to Sunbury just for a Squeeze-In hot dog. Die-hard hot dog lovers who've grown up in the area and left to make their homes elsewhere wouldn't think of leaving without eating at Sam Sterling's Squeeze-In before they head back to wherever it is they live now . . . wishing they had a Squeeze-In . . . and maybe taking back a Squeeze-In T-shirt, or postcard, or hat when they're available.

While hot dogs are the main draw here, Sterling does serve a burger, a Squeezeburger, and has an assortment of drinks and chips and such to enhance the customer's snack or meal. He tried serving breakfast for a while, but decided it wasn't practical . . . the Squeeze-In and hot dogs are synonymous. The eatery is open seven days a week, 9 a.m.-11 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 5 p.m.-11 p.m. on Sundays. Whoever's on duty at the grill—Sterling, Sean, or Mary Ridge—does a brisk business through the lunch and dinner hours, whatever the season. Off hours are busy, too, but there's always time to chat with customers, and it doesn't matter who bellies up to the counter to order a dog, the Squeeze-In is a meeting place, an institution, a landmark . . . it's where people come to discuss what's going on in Sunbury, in the central Susquehanna Valley, in the world.

Sterling doesn't do a lot of advertising. He doesn't need to. Word of mouth brings new customers; old customers just keep squeezing back in. Once in a while some hot dog-loving kid (whatever his age!) bets a friend he can eat more Squeeze-In 'dogs than anyone else has ever eaten—according to Sterling the record is a dozen, and he admits doesn't know if he's served anyone famous or not, but it's possible. The Squeeze-In has a lot of fans out there . . . that happens when you make the best hot dog around, grilled and served on a steamed bun.

                    ~Excerpt from:

Fall 2006 issue of Susquehanna Life