‘I’m the only person with a gold pickle around his neck.’

Gary Sherlin is a third-generation pickle man. He got his start riding the pickle truck with his grandfather and his father. He lives in Reseda with his wife, son and daughter.

I grew up in Los Angeles around the Boyle Heights and Farmer’s Market area. My grandfather had his own pickle company. He made pickles in the garage. He’d dump the pickle cucumbers into wooden barrels and fill them up with salt water, throw in chopped fresh garlic, some chili peppers and kitchen spices. That’s all that’s in pickles. They used nets like fishing nets to put them in smaller containers. He had a little truck, and I rode with him when I was little. Back in the ‘40s, along Brooklyn Avenue, Fairfax and Western Avenue, the delicatessens were all open, and barrels were lined up in front with pickled herring, fish, pickles and sauerkraut. People would scoop up their own. He had a lot of customers around there.

We moved to the San Fernando Valley, and my father started his own business. He used to park his truck in front of the house. All my friends used to raid the pickle truck with me. The pickles were in wooden barrels on the truck. They’d come over, and we’d climb in the truck when my father was taking a nap in the house and eat pickles. We lived right across the street from Monlux Elementary School in North Hollywood and it was convenient for the kids to come across the street.

I used to bring pickles to school all the time. I was the only kid in school who had anything to do with the pickle business. My uncle’s pickle company used to make a dill pickle that was wrapped in green wax. I used to take handfuls of them to school. We would peel off the wax and eat pickles in school and stink up the classroom. I never got into trouble. There was never a pickle problem because the teachers liked them, too. Now my kids take pickles to their teachers.

I drove a pickle truck for 15 years and I’d come home smelling like pickles. I’d go to the shower real quick. When you pack them, the fresh garlic is so strong on your hands you really have to wash and wash and wash. Now I’m the sales manager in charge of two salesmen and 11 trucks. If I’m driving down the street, I’ll see a restaurant or delicatessen or any place that would use pickles. I’ll go in there and tell them where I’m from and get a few chuckles. It seems so strange to them to see someone from a pickle company, and I’m the only person with a gold pickle around his neck. It helps sell pickles sometimes. I’ve had this gold pickle for at least 10 years. It’s always been good for business. People know who I am. I felt strange wearing it at first, but now I never take it off.

I’ve made a lot of friends at delis. I’ll walk into a deli, show them my price list. If they want samples I’ll bring samples back, we’ll sit and talk about pickles and the deli business. It would take an hour or more in one place. I might eat a sandwich or bagel and cream cheese. I could eat two, three, four sandwiches during the day. I get full, but I’ve never gained weight. My father, when he was in the pickle business, weighed about 350 pounds. He ate a lot too, but it stuck with him.

A lot of people come here from New York, Chicago or Cleveland and tell me how great it was there. The delis are so good, the pickles are so good, the meat is so good. And I always ask these people, “If the delis are so good, why are you here?” They never have an answer for me. I’ve never been there before, but I want to go back East and see what it’s really like. What’s so great about the delicatessens there?

I’ve always liked pickles. I eat two or three pickles a day. When I go to someone’s house for dinner, I sometimes bring a jar of pickles with me. They like to taste them. With wine you have to have a certain wine with meat and a certain wine with fish or chicken. But pickles can go with meat and fish. It’s a matter of preference. You just take the pickles out and serve them.