PBJ - The Sandwich of Choice

by David R. Darrow 7" x 5" (17.78cm x 12.7cm)
Oil on Panel SOLD Collection of Jolie Elman
Glendora, CA – USA

About This Painting

When I was in first grade at California Elementary School in Costa Mesa, CA, I began trading in commodities.

My trading partner: Ginny Lou.

Ginny get two sandwiches in her lunch box everyday: Meat and Cheese, and Peanut Butter and Jelly.

Both were prepared on Wonder Bread.

I rarely got PBJs in my lunch box. And when I did, they were on Orowheat Whole Grain Wheat bread.

Now, not being as concerned about my well-being and sense of variety as my mother was, I envied Ginny Lou's daily PBJs.

My mother, the loving lunch chef that sent me off to school everyday with a well-rounded lunch including a Thermos full of cold milk (which she colored with blue food coloring each April Fool's Day, or green on St. Patrick's Day — much to my delight for the reaction it got), grew up during the Great Depression, and as the baby of 7 children in a poor family, all of her sandwiches throughout elementary school consisted of Sandwich Spread (essentially Mayonnaise with pickle relish stirred in) on White Bread.

She loved me. And as a result, would not buy white bread.

Her son was not going to eat Depression Bread.

Enter Ginny Lou. Ginny Lou, as I discovered one day, had a taste for Tuna Sandwiches on Whole Wheat Bread. Since I got Tuna once a week (due to my gracious mother's insistence on variety for her children) I had something of value to trade for my Sandwich of Choice.

I am grateful for a hardworking father, and a caring mother. I knew always that I was loved deeply by both... but I have to make this toast: Here's to you, Ginny Lou.

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