Sign holder takes winter weather one slice at a time

Ryan Bradgon on Tuesday afternoon making sure folks know where to get their Little Caesar's. (Harrison Thorp photo)

ROCHESTER - With a foot of snow on the way and wind chills well below zero, you might not see Ryan Bragdon out in front of the Globe Plaza today.

But you never know.

Bragdon stands in a snow bank at the front of the plaza every day and holds a sign advertising the plaza’s Little Caesar’s pizza shop.

Every few seconds he flips the sign so passing motorists get the full message. It’s a great job, Bragdon says, but you have to dress properly.

“It’s all about the layers,” he said on New Year’s Eve as he held the sign aloft. “I’ve got sweatpants, pants shirt, undershirt, jacket, scarf.”

Bragdon’s got a beard, too, which he said also helps him brave the elements.

Bragdon said he’d been a sign holder for about three years, working pretty much full time in the summer, but fewer hours in the winter.

He said the earlier nightfall keeps his hours down, but they’ll be back up come spring.

Bragdon, who grew up in Gonic and went to Spaulding High School, said he worked at the Little Caesar’s in the Shaw’s Plaza in Dover before moving to the Rochester store last year.

He lives in Somersworth now, he said.

He said when he first started holding the sign in Rochester earlier this year, a lot of people honked and waved, but they don’t do it as much anymore.

Bragdon said he likes working at Little Caesar’s and that their pizza is the best.

“I eat it every day,” he added.

His favorite? Pepperoni, with the deep dish crust, “because it’s crispy.”