When I was growing up, my mother was pretty damn broke and we ate a lot of baloney sandwiches. I was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio in an all African American, poor neighborhood. My sister and I were what they called back in the day “high-Yellow”.
During the summer, the local swimming pool served as “free” summer camp for my sister and I. We took swimming lessons, joined the swim team and spent our entire day at Maryland pool from 7am until sunset. Maryland Pool was huge with 3 sections. One section had shallow water for small children and people who didn’t know how to swim. Then came the middle section, which included the 50 meter “lap swim” section and finally the deep end which had 2 low dives and one high dive. On really hot days, the pool would become so crowded that they had to stop letting people in. Racist individuals referred to Maryland Pool as “The Ink Well” because there were so many African American children in the water at one time that you could barely see the water in the pool – I never knew what they meant when they used the term “Ink Well” until I became an adult.
Since my sister and I spent the entire day swimming we became very hungry.
The recreation center affiliated with Maryland Pool provided all the kids with free lunch. Most of the time, “free lunch” consisted of a banana, fruit punch (in a small, cardboard, triangular container), a piece of cake, and the main staple a “baloney sandwich”.
The pool manager and all the lifeguards would blow their whistles and scream for everybody to get out of the pool to take a break and eat lunch. Everybody rushed to get in line for free lunch. We must have eaten baloney sandwiches at least 3 days a week at the pool, and often went home to eat more baloney sandwiches – the only difference was that we were able to fry our baloney at home and put it on Wonder Bread with Miracle Whip – sometimes I ate mine with a slice of American yellow cheese melted on top. I was always fascinated by the bubble that formed, because of its circular shape when frying the baloney.
A few years ago, I was falsely arrested for stealing a vehicle and had to spend two days in the county jail (you can read more about under my post “Background Check”. It was funny because they served us baloney sandwiches the entire time. I was the only person who didn’t complain about it – I actually looked forward to mines. I like them when they have been sitting around for a while at room temperature, so they were perfect in jail. You would think I would get sick of baloney sandwiches, but I actually became addicted to them and still eat them today. The difference is, I don’t use Wonder Bread anymore, and for some reason, I now prefer Kraft mayonnaise rather than Miracle Whip. And, I only eat “beef” bologna.
How do you like your baloney sandwiches?