Ahhh … Baloney

Today is National Bologna Day.

I kind of like bologna – or baloney as we refer to it in my neck of the woods. I even have memories of baloney.

I took a baloney sandwich to school every day for many years. The sandwich only had mustard on it and was always wrapped in wax paper. By lunchtime, my baloney was warm and had extra flavor from the wax paper. Or maybe that was just an added odor. I didn’t care. I liked my baloney sandwiches.

Sundays were special in our house. My dad taught me to bake bread, and we would get up early to do our baking. Mom would then have the kitchen to make Sunday dinner – usually something like baked chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, and applesauce. There was always applesauce for my brother to put on top of his mashed potatoes.

But it was Sunday supper that made all five of us kids happy. We had baloney sandwiches, potato chips (a treat!), and ice cream for dessert. Back then, it was “ice milk.” Do you remember ice milk? Crikey, I feel old right now.

We would put two slices of baloney on a slice of bread, spread mustard on, then layer potato chips over all. The second slice of bread went on top and you pushed down hard to crush the chips. They were great crunchy sandwiches!

I’m sure there’s baloney in there.

I’ve made loads of grilled cheese sandwiches with baloney in them. Fried baloney sandwiches, too. My canned hot peppers are fabulous on baloney sandwiches of any kind.

For the past seven months, I’ve had a ball hanging out at our local pub. I’ve made loads of new friends, and some of them have provided great inspiration for my writing.

I recently helped a friend home who had a few too many. It was a debacle of epic proportions that included her dog running away. I called Rich and got him out of bed to come help me find the dog.

Chapter two of my next Two Sisters and a Journalist book has Pepper getting drunk at her monthly book club. Her sister Jo (main character) picks her up to give her a ride home. What happens next reads suspiciously like what happened to me and my friend in real life, but in the book, Pepper’s cat runs away.

I wrote the chapter on a Monday. Tuesday morning, I re-read it and laughed out loud through the whole thing. I sent the chapter off to a brutally honest friend and asked if they thought it was humorous or was I nuts. They wrote back, “Loved it!”

The same friend from the pub showed up two weeks later laughing/lamenting that a pot of chili fell over in the back seat of her car, resulting in a huge mess.

In an upcoming chapter of my new book, Jo’s husband is teaching her to cook. They start with something easy – chili. Jo will be taking a big pot of chili to family dinner on Sunday. But because it tips over in the back seat of her truck, her entire family and three guests will be eating …

… wait for it …

… baloney sandwiches and potato chips with ice cream for dessert. 😊

I love my new pub friends. I’m going to dedicate this book to them and thank them for all the great fodder they’re providing me.

What about you? Do you like baloney sandwiches? If you’re writing a book, write in some baloney!