This version of the Oscar Mayer Bologna song became famous before I was born. No matter. It was one of those jingles that embedded itself deep in our culture's collective ear. By the time I was old enough to fully appreciate the flavor of the spongy, pink "meat product," I knew how to spell B-O-L-O-G-N-A.
It's amazing what marketing can do.
This version came out later in my childhood, and I remember it clearly.
Really, the power of a good jingle astonishes me. Not only did this company teach two generations of kids to spell correctly a total phonetic anomaly, but it made us all admit out loud that we wished we were Oscar Mayer Wieners---so that everyone would be in love with us!!!!!
It was a more innocent time in our country's history, and the wing-nuts had not yet learned that they could garner a lot of attention for protesting the promotion of open love affairs between children and processed foods. This is why Waffle Guy and I have an open relationship: he is totally supportive of my propensity for an occasional late-night rendezvous with a bag of kettle chips. But I digress.
It's been a long time since I've considered the powerful influence of the company that produced the original "Meats of Good Taste" in my life, but Oscar Mayer has reappeared in my life.
My Eldest Waffler's school participated yesterday morning in a sandwich-making service project extravaganza yesterday for a touching Minneapolis-based charitable project called "363." Founded by a retired Minneapolis school teacher named Allan Law, the organization is a formal recognition of the fact that we're great at feeding the homeless and hungry among us on Thanksgiving and Christmas. They're there to take care of the other 363 days of each year.
Mr. Law talked to the students a day in his life. He personally picks up sandwiches from the storage facility where they're safely stored, and spends his nights making the rounds. He focuses on hungry kids first, and then visits "safe-bay"sleeping shelters where the lucky among the homeless can sleep on a mat on a floor in a warm room. Mr. Law discussed how those in need appreciate his gift--none among the hungry turn away the sandwiches because they're not in the mood for a sandwich.
And then, for 20 wonderful minutes, the kids turned into a fantastically animated assembly line, carefully placing American cheese and slices of Oscar Mayer Turkey Bologna on enriched white bread, bagging them up, and sending them on their way.
Last year, Mr. Law distributed half a million sandwiches to the hungry and homeless in Minneapolis. In a city so clean, pretty and affluent, it can be hard to imagine that there is need so great. There is.
The 363 Web site estimates that it takes 6 people half an hour to assemble 150 sandwiches. There's a link to order supplies directly from Coborn's Delivers on 363's page.
After talking to my Wafflers, we've decided that we'll take one day per month, and make sandwiches. On that night, we'll have bologna and cheese, to help us remember how lucky we are to have the choices that we have.
I no longer wish I was a wiener, Oscar Mayer or otherwise. Still, despite all my food snobbery, I'm starting to see bologna in a whole new light.
