One of My Earliest Memories on the Grill – We All Have Them, But They All Can’t Be This Ridiculous!

We all can remember when we started grilling and it is fun to think back to those days.  There is one memory that sticks out in my mind very vividly and I thought you might enjoy the story as it is pretty funny.  Feel free to comment below with your most vivid memories and experiences on the grill.

 I started grilling around the age of 13 on my homes classic 18” all black weber kettle.  At this time grilling was more of a chore than a hobby, so I wasn’t always thrilled when my parents told me to get the grill going.  My process of starting the grill involved cleaning the ash from the bottom with the dampers, building the charcoal pyramid (this part I liked), drenching the coals with way too much lighter fluid, and then throwing in the match (Yea! This part was fun too).  Then came the part that I disliked the most which was waiting for the coals to burn away the black and turn white hot so I could start grilling.  It always seemed to take forever and if the fire went out…fuhgeddaboudit! 

 I’m sure I was complaining about the fire taking forever to burn up the coals when my father said, “you know if you get some newspaper and flap it back and forth over the coals you can get those coals ready much quicker.”  I was all ears and quickly found some newspaper, folded it up and started flapping away.  For the first few seconds of flapping I got disturbed because the flame went out, but my father urged me on promising a surprising outcome.  I flapped away like a maniac, jumping up and down and flailing my arms as fast as I could.  All of a sudden it happened, I saw a strong flame within the charcoal stack!  I flapped more and the fire was getting stronger and stronger.  When I stopped, poof!  A bright orange superhot flame popped up and I was thrilled!!

 I thought this discovery was amazing and I was pretty thrilled to use this method for a while, but soon it seemed like way too much work.  This is when I made the best discovery of my early grilling career.  In my quest to find a better means of increasing the air flow to my fire I remembered something; something my mom held dear to her heart and used every morning when getting ready.  Her blow-dryer!  Out came the extension cord and my mom’s blow dryer.  I was going to blast these coals into geothermal magma fire.  I setup the grill, dropped in the match, and then cranked on the blow-dryer.  Now keep in mind, I didn’t grill in my backyard.  I grilled in my front driveway within a cul de sac.  So you can imagine what the neighbors were thinking when they saw a young kid wearing a snorkeling mask, wielding a red blow dryer and one hell of a fire.  Oh yea, I brought in a snorkeling mask because the smoke was killing my eyes.

 It’s a great memory and I’m sure you all have some similar funny or extraordinary experience on the grill.  I’d love to hear your comments below!

Happy and Healthy Grilling!
Tom Sedita Jr
President of Primal Grilling, Inc