Where’s Wilbur from Gigglebee’s?

Do you remember Gigglebees?  It used to sit at 14th & Minnesota here is Sioux Falls?  Do you remember that kinda freaky, kinda funny, rather fuzzy coyote that used to ride his tricycle up to your table and drop off your pizza? Wilbur! Whatever happened to him?

When my kids were young we used to take them into Gigglebees to celebrate their birthdays. I remember one time our whole family went into the amusement center for a celebratory gathering. My daughter was about 7 and my son would have been around 4.

After we ordered our pizza and drinks we found a not to recently cleaned table to park ourselves. (This was in a time when sanitation standards were apparently not a very big deal)  After a bit, here comes Wilbur peddling down the track with a pizza pie on his tray.

We saw him coming, our son did not. Soon Wilbur put on his breaks and screamed at the top of his coyote voice that indeed our pizza had arrived. My son was so shocked by the combination of the booming announcement and turning around to be greeted at eye level by a big muzzle of matted fur, that he instantly started screaming in fear.

The screaming turned into uncontrollable wailing. We had to get our pizza to go. It was years before my son ever went back there.

George Hahn who owns Wilbur said he'd be back (see video below), but so far nothing. There's even a facebook page called “We Miss Gigglebees“ with over 10,000 likes that wants to see Wilbur back on his trike. Love him or fear him we sure miss him. He was a Sioux Falls icon. Wouldn't you like to see Wilbur ride again!