The next time you’re walking the State Fair of Texas midway with a Fletcher’s Corny Dog in hand, you’re carrying a tradition that started with a conversation. In 1938, brothers Neil Fletcher Sr. and Carl were working as performers when they came up with the idea of a hot dog dipped in cornbread batter and fried on a stick. They introduced it at the fair in 1942, and early fairgoers weren’t sure what to make of it. The brothers responded by cutting the corn dogs into bite-size pieces and giving out samples, and the rest is fair history.

Today Fletcher’s Original Corny Dogs sells about 550,000 corn dogs across seven locations during the fair’s 24-day run. Granddaughter Amber Fletcher, known as the Corny Dog Queen, helps carry the family business forward, and the operation starts preparing as early as February with contracts, menus and permits. The recipe has stayed familiar, but the flavors keep growing. This year Fletcher’s won a Big Tex Choice Award for a fudgy, gooey chocolate version of its famous corn dog.

For those of us around Waxahachie, the State Fair is an easy day trip and a yearly ritual worth the drive. Fletcher’s is one of those stops that connects grandparents, parents and kids in the same long line, all waiting for something that’s been fried the same way for more than eight decades. Have you tried the chocolate Corny Dog yet, and did it live up to the hype?