Ostomy Memories of Hamburgers

I SUPPOSE I’VE GRILLED a million burgers. Fast food joints all over sell hamburgers by the billions. There must be a zillion of these places. Zillions, billions, millions…math is not my strong suit but I know that’s a lot.
Yet the history of the invention of the hamburger is murky at best. Six different 19th Century food purveyors are variously considered to be the innovator of this now common meal, and whatever the truth is has faded into ground beef history.
LOUIS LASSEN, who had a lunch wagon in New Haven, Conn. in 1900, is one contender for the honor of having invented the now omnipresent burger. CHARLIE NAGREEN, aka “Hamburger Charlie,” sold meatballs between two slices of bread at the Seymour (Wisc.) Co. Fair in 1885, and so he makes the cut. OTTO KUASE, who created a beef patty in 1891 (acc’ding to White Castle), is a contender. OSCAR WEBER BILBY, said to have served the first known hamburger on a bun in Tulsa, OK in 1891, is on the list. FRANK & CHARLES MENCHES, after running out of pork sausage in 1885, substituted a ground beef sandwich at the Erie Co. Fair in –ready?—Hamburg, N.Y. Finally, FLETCHER DAVIS, at a lunch counter he ran in 1880s Athens, Texas, sold ground beef patties with mustard and Bermuda onion between two slices of bread with pickle on the side. My personal favorite is the Menches brothers, since their story is the only one that actually explains the name, and they are most often tapped by burger historians as the inventors of the hamburger. Since it doesn’t include ham, and since the Menches brothers accomplished their feat in the city of Hamburg, logic would nominate them as the gastronomic heroes. Notice there’s no one named McDonald on this list. They didn’t start slinging burgers until 1948.

Henry ...My personal favorite is the Peppa Burger , ground 80/20 chuck intertwined with green,yellow,red,orange tiny pieced grilled peppers , 1 inch thick juicy goodness ,grilled then baked to a medium oneness served atop a toasted English muffin with ketchup and sweet relish . Mmmmm, yummy ! Created by yours truly in the year 1969. 
Ritz !

Wow...1969.  Just for the hell of it, I looked at a list of notable events of that year and it is beyond striking.  Among other things:  we put Neil Armstrong on the surface of the moon; Ted Kennedy got away with DUI Manslaughter; Woodstock.  Coincidentally, I too put ketchup and sweet relish on my burgers.  But your take on it sounds delish.

Hi Henry i love sitting on the deck with a cold beer and burgers on the grill and a baseball game on the radio especially after the grass is freshly cut.

I can see that you're a man who knows how to combine his pleasures... LOL

Henry , I was 9 at the time and it came about after I replaced my dads burgers that were grilling at a picnic with our neighbors...  with mud burgers with jelly beans in them . I was forced by my 2 brothers and the neighborhood boys ( I had no girl neighbors) . I got in so much trouble 👿...so much ! My dad took me by my long hair ( at my knees length) into the kitchen and told me ....here's meat , here's veggies ...fix this . So crying for an hour or so , I chopped up peppers , squished them together and he cooked them . To everyone's surprise, they were good ! Thus , the peppa burger was born . Unfortunately, the real punishment came the next day when my mom took me to a beauty parlor and for the very first time she took scissors and told the hairdresser what happened yesterday while holding my hair and made one cut and said She wants it this short , wanna play with the boys ..,fine and to my ears it went . I vomited and cried for days , locked my room , barricades in front of the door and then a fire truck came to my third floor house in a lift and broke the window to get me out . I still eat the peppa  burgers but have not been to a salon since and live now in a ranch style home ! 
Although, I try to forge ahead with life ,some of my life experiences are hilarious yet true . 
Ritz

PS .... the boys got the belt for provoking me and had to pay for the window and clean the firehouse floor with toothbrushes ! My hair grew ...ha ha ha