Tater Tots

Tater Tots. Everyone loves them. They have a pretty unique history. You can read the inside story from Nephi, one of the owners at Ore Ida, The company that now owns the brand wanted to get the direct story before everyone was gone.

But this is a little different story on them. My parents were close friends with Mattie and Goldie Grigg, the other owner and brother to Nephi. In fact my mom was related to them by marriage at one time. Quite a few of my extended family worked for them over the years. Every time I see the Ore/Ida brand it brings back a lot of memories fishing with Mattie, she loved to fish. We could fish right in her yard as the river went thru their property in Idaho.

These guys were very smart and ahead of their time, but they really didn’t act that way. This is a story my Mother told me about one of their adventures.

When they were selling the company it was decided that the transaction would take place in Mexico City with a large gala. I’m not sure why it was decided to go all the way down there to hand over a check but that’s probably another story. The first date was cancelled because Goldie would not go. He had a very strange feeling about something that he could not shake so he and Nephi cancelled the trip. Well he was right, the day after they had a massive earth quake there and pretty much destroyed the hotel they were to be in. But another date was set and all went this time.

The gala was going as planned and there were lots of city folks there. I guess Goldie got wind that most everyone thought they were just a couple of hillbillies from Idaho and probably didn’t really fit in with everyone attending. Goldie had a mean sense of humor. Apparently the cocktail hour was winding down and everyone was headed to the banquet table. So Nephi and Goldie take their seats and they waited for a small crowd to gather. So Goldie says to his brother, say, what do you suppose these little bowls with water in them are for? Nephi gave him a very strange look because he knew they were finger bowls but he could tell something was up so he said to Goldie loud enough for everyone close to hear, gee I’m not sure what those are for. They kind of looked them over and gave several wrong answers to themselves, and then Goldie says, well of course, they are for washing the silverware before you eat. So he and his brother started to wash the silverware with their napkins and the finger bowl water. Everyone just stared in disbelief at what the two Idaho spud farmers were doing until the brothers couldn’t hold back their laughter any longer and apparently everyone had a very good laugh over their little show. Everything must have gone well because they got their check and lived happily ever after.

Mattie and Goldie had a place in Mexico and would go down quite often and they would stop by our place on the way down and visit and my parents would sometimes go with them. There are some stories there we will visit in another blog.

Enjoy the history from Nephi on how Tater Tots were invented, pretty interesting how some things come about.

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