American Pickers' Mike And Frank Shared An Impromptu Father's Day Dinner With Fans While On A Pick

Just ask anyone who likes to pick things: The secret to a good pick is to never stop picking. "Pick in the morning, pick in the evening, pick by the light of the moon," that's the picker's motto. Maybe. Maybe it's not. Maybe they picked a different one while no one was paying attention.

The point is, picking is a full-time job, especially if you're saddled with the success or failure of one of basic cable's most beloved reality series. Sometimes, you lose track of life's little details, like which days are holidays. Luckily, on the very rare occasion, your picking proclivities will win you a surrogate family that will help you make the best of it.

At least that's what happened to Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz, then-costars of the never-not-popular series "American Pickers," on a quiet evening a few years back. According to Wolfe, the duo lost track of the fact that it was Father's Day before being welcomed into an unexpected new family.

The story comes to us thanks to a nearly decade-old Technology Marketing Toolkit interview between Mike Wolfe and Robin Robins. There, Wolfe recounted a truly unbelievable series of events that demonstrated the way that basic cable notoriety will sometimes get you a decent meal.

"Wherever we are, Frank and I will just get in the van and we'll just do what you see us do on TV," Wolfe began. "There was one family I remember, last year, we were freestyling and, um, but we forgot it was Father's Day. We were just out knocking on doors, and we pull up in this driveway, and like 20 people come running out of this house, it's out in the middle of nowhere." The group's excitement, it turns out, was not inexplicable. "They were watching our show in their living room," Wolfe continued, "and their TV is, you know, up against the picture window. They're all on the couch, watching the show. They see the van pull into their driveway as they're watching the show. They're freaking out."

If having more than a dozen people over for an "American Pickers" watch party seems unusual to you, you're not alone — Wolfe clocked that as well. "I'm like 'do you guys always have this many people over to your house?'" he relayed. "And they're like 'no, it's Father's Day.' So I was like 'oh wow.' So we ended up having dinner with them and I ended up getting some stuff out of the barn and stuff."

In other words, the old chestnut is wrong: Sometimes, you really can pick your family.