A Quarter-Pound of Nostalgia

What you're looking at is a quarter of a pound of nostalgia. Every now-and-again, I get the hankering for some type of food that reminds me of my childhood. This week, I decided I would get some good German bologna and American cheese for our lunches. Oh, and by American cheese, I mean the stuff from the deli counter rather than the individually wrapped rubbery stuff. The rubbery stuff is really only good for grilled cheese and burgers. Anyway, something about that combination of bologna and cheese just reminds me of being a kid.

When I got to the grocery store this morning, I used their touch-screen ordering kiosk to place my lunchmeat order so that I could shop around while they prepped my order. In their system, bologna is grouped with other miscellaneous meats - things like liverwurst and loaf meats. When I saw that "loaf meats" were an option, my nostalgia kicked it up a notch. I selected that option and was pleasantly surpised to see that I could get Pickle and Pepper Loaf, as wel as Olive Loaf. So, I ordered myself some P&P loaf.

And you're probably wondering how lunchmeat could possibly ever be considered nostalgic?

As a kid, we called this combination of meat, peppers and mystery ingredients simply "pickle loaf". I didn't eat it all that often, but my mom would buy a pound of it just about every week for my dad's lunch. When I was younger, I can distinctly remember him taking four (4!!) meat sandwiches in his lunchbox, along with one peanut butter sandwich (no jelly) and some kind of goody or dessert, like leftover cake. I can remember Mom making the sandwiches assembly-line style at the kitchen table while I ate my breakfast. It all fit perfectly lined up in his lunchbox.

As I grew older, his lunches got smaller, but Mom would still buy him pickle loaf fairly frequently. If the store was out of pickle loaf, olive loaf would do, but it wasn't the preferred choice. For a treat, Mom would occaissionally get something called "macaroni and cheese loaf" for just the two of us. Yep, it's just what the name suggests - a bologna-type of loaf meat that has pieces of cooked macaroni and chunks of cheese in it. Dad didn't like cheese, so that one was just for me and Mom.

Now, as an adult, every once in a great while, I get this hankering for some pickle loaf or mac-n-cheese loaf. It isn't always easy to get, so when I saw it today, I jumped on the chance to grab some. Just a little bit, enough for a couple of sandwiches - enough to satisfy my hankering for something nostalgic.