Greetings, from the Weber holy land!

[smokeyjoe86]

Hey everyone!

A "short" story for you all.

My name is Joe, and I hail from Illinois, originally Rolling Meadows, which for those not familiar with the area, is between Arlington Heights, and Palatine, home of the Weber grill! We also have Weber factories and facilities, and even a few restaurants, all over our part of the state, have a few friends that have worked at those factories at some point. I am glad to find this site. I ran across it doing some research before buying myself a new grill.

To me, Weber grills have always had a place in my life, my childhood, invoking strong feelings of Americana... growing up here, while there were other grill brands, almost everyone owned Weber grills. Every hardware store here would put them all on grand display in spring. The storms would often roll through, and as a toddler, I would wake up the next day, and the Weber would be blown off the patio and the front leg detached, I thought it was broken, no problem, my mom would go out and pick it up, pop the leg back in, good as new. Around and on every 4th of July, the town would be filled with that distinct smell of barbecue smoke, every 4th we would wheel our Weber grill down the street to my grandparents, next to my grandfathers Weber, and grill out, as everyone else in the neighborhood gravitated towards theirs. Days at the beach with the Smokey Joe, as a kid, my favorite grill, one because it was a mini version of the Weber kettle, and second, it had my name in it! It was also my first Weber I purchased in high school. Being in the deep north of Wisconsin at a cabin on vacation, and seeing they had a Weber, stamped Palatine, IL, and realizing it came all the way from where I did. In my pre-teens, memories of my mom taking me shopping to get my dad a new Weber and a few accessories for fathers day, and messing around with the old one as I learned how to grill myself, painting the kettle with rust-oleum, discovering the grill gets too hot for it and it burns off, flipping through the little cookbook they would give you with the new grill, wanting to try the things I found. My first job in High School was working at the local hardware store, and as such, early spring meant removing all the Christmas and winter stuff and hauling in bags of grass seed and fertilizer, outdoor stuff, and my favorite, the years new Webers. I would have to drag out a box, open it up, that new Weber smell, peel off the packing materials, and put them together. I would often be the one to assemble grills customers wanted pre-assembled or delivered. That year was the year the Q came out, and was our bragging right, as I guess not every store had it. We had ours right up in the front, and I always thought it looked neat, and so did a lot of the customers that walked in. But, the kettle still reigned supreme. I bought my first Weber, a Smokey Joe, that year. A few years later, my dad swore off the kettle and charcoal, and to my disappointment and despite my reasoning, the kettle hit the curb. What I didn't know, was so did my Smokey Joe. It was weather beaten, for sure, but still had a long life left. Gone too soon. He bought himself a shiny new Char-broil... it only lasted a few years, maybe 2, 3, the bars inside were shot, cooked unevenly, and it went straight to the curb. In its place, a brand new Weber kettle, and cover. It is still there today. A few years later, an anniversary gift from work, he chose a stainless steel gas Weber, and as well, almost a decade later, it is still out there, in all its glory, the cover ripped, but this grill outlasted it's cover unlike the Char-broil and has plenty of life still. A few years ago, a friend gave me an original Q and cart that was in rough shape, he told me the previous owners he got it from were using it to burn sticks in like a fire-pit, I cleaned it up good, cleaned the burner tubes, cleaned the spider webs out of the orifice, popped a tank in, fired up. I loved that grill! It fit perfectly on my little balcony, overlooking the river, cooking my steaks. Well, life changes, I had to move away, lost the grill. I was disappointed. I had a cheapo walmart special charcoal grill "not a Smokey Joe but for $10 less thinks it is" I got at end of season on clearance, and never took it out of the box.

Well, life changes again. My coworker and I were talking about grilling for lunch at work. I recalled my Weber Q, and how neat it was that you can fold it up and take it anywhere. So, I decided, I was getting my tax rebate, I was going to use my rebate and be sure to spend it all on American made stuff. My first purchase, A brand new, green, Weber Q 1200! As I write this, I wait for it to arrive on the brown truck in a few hours. It went from Palatine, or one of the other cities here it was made, it was sent aaaallll the way to Waco, TX, I ordered it, and the past few days, has traveled aaaaallll the way back here, and as of 3am, it was just scanned into UPS in... wait for it, Palatine! My Weber took quite a road trip and should come with stickers from all the different places in the US it has traveled    The first major grill purchase of my adulthood, a tradition. A Weber.

[Mr.CPHo]

Congrats and welcome.  Nice story to read with morning coffee. 

Hope you'll post pics of your first cook.

[DaveG74]

Welcome from just south of Chicago, great story!

[PotsieWeber]

NICE!  And welcome from the NW Chicago area, near O'hare. 

[bamakettles]

Nice story, thanks for sharing.  Welcome to the group!  I'm a nostalgic guy as well and this hobby surely scratches that itch.  I look forward to reading about your grill delivery and upcoming cooks!


Sent from my iPad using Weber Kettle Club

[jhagestad]

Welcome from Highland Park, Illinois! I grew up in the Homewood/Flossmoor area, and I have great memories of trips to the local Ace Hardware store and the smell of grass seed as you walked in the door. Ace was always leading the way with Weber sales - we bought all our kettles from there. Looking forward to more stories - new and old!

[JEBIV]

Welcome from Doraville,Ga cool story, happy to have you here

[Kain]

Cool story. Hi from NSW Australia


Sent from my iPhone using Weber Kettle Club