Bologna Sandwiches

Growing up, my mother always made lunches for me to "enjoy" at school.  My mother was from the Midwest, and apparently that didn't inspire much by way of being a children's lunchtime gourmet.  Most of my lunches consisted of a poorly-insulated thermos filled with cold Spaghetti-Os, a bag filled with potato chips or Cheetos, a fruit roll-up, and a bologna sandwich.  I hated bologna sandwiches...especially the bologna sandwich part.

My bologna sandwiches were special.  First off, they had bologna, which was already working against them.  Next, they were being spooned by a slice of cheese.  Not delicious cheese, but processed American cheese.  All this was sandwiched between two slices of the best bread money can buy: Wonder Bread.

The final abhorrence, however, was always to be found in the butter.  Why was there butter on this sandwich?  Answer: My mother liked to put butter on everything that involved bread.  Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches?  There was definitely butter on those.  For some reason, I hated butter as a child...but that didn't stop my mom from slathering it all over my sandwich.

I remember this one kid in my first grade class that had some weird obsession with cheese and milk, but was never allowed to have them due to some sort of allergy.  My sandwiches possessed cheese, which made them very valuable to him.  Oftentimes I could trade my sandwich for his more appealing (and butterless) peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  I would watch him as he voraciously devoured my cheesy bologna delight, and then have to spend the rest of the afternoon in the nurse's office.

Yep.