For centuries philosophers have argued what it means to be alive. Is it just having a conscious or is there something more than merely being aware of one’s surroundings? If it means self-awareness and the ability to gain knowledge, then we could consider Artificial Intelligence to be “alive”. But there is another test that must be met before A.I. can ever have a legitimate claim to being more than the sum of its parts.
I maintain that until one discovers the joy and beautiful simplicity of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, one is not truly in this world. Eating a PB&J does more than nourish the body. It soothes the soul. No matter how bad a day can be…how wrong a situation can go at school or work…a PB&J is like a comforting hug. The stickiness keeps the psyche together while the sweetness makes seeing the good so much easier.
I suppose this is easier to see looking when looking in the rearview mirror from this point on my stretch of life’s highway. But even before I became old enough to taste the nostalgia, a good peanut butter and jelly still had this affect. The first bite of the first PB&J let me know just how loved I was. You certainly wouldn’t give such an incredible food to someone you didn’t think was special.
I was a lunchbox luger all through school. Many a day my oasis from a blown spelling test or a day in math where things just weren’t adding up was the trusty PB&J my mom packed. The gooey white bread, the nutty peanut butter, and the sweet, sweet jelly (usually grape) worked to center me. It forced me to slow down and just chew.
You can’t eat a peanut butter and jelly quickly. Otherwise that gooey goodness lodges in your throat ending your ability to swallow or breath. That’s why you keep a cold glass of milk handy. Eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich forces you to slow down…to enjoy…to savor the flavor of being alive.
I read somewhere that the average American will eat about two thousand PB&Js by the time they finish high school. I’m not sure how they arrived at this number. It seems about right to me, maybe a bit low if anything, but probably close.
We ate a lot of peanut butter and jelly sammies when I was trying to grow up. (I finally did grow up, but the jury is out on maturity.) We ate four different types of meat in the Maine household. There was beef, pork, poultry, and peanut butter. Back then it was always white bread and Welch’s grape. I especially liked the souvenir jars that could be used as glasses when the jelly was gone. They had cartoon characters like Scooby-Doo and the Archies. The peanut butter was usually smooth, but occasionally mom would surprise us with chunky.
These days I like to shake things up a bit when I have a PB&J. I prefer whole grain bread, especially the kind with all the nuts and grains. It gives it a bit more texture and holds up better when spreading the peanut butter. Although I can go either way on the peanut butter, I prefer the chunky, again for the texture. (I like it for peanut butter cookies too, but that’s a different story for another day.) I’m also more open minded about my jelly. Grape is good, but I enjoy the zing that raspberry brings to the table. Sometimes I’ll use pepper jelly. I like a sandwich that bites back.
One of the ultimate convenience items ever developed was something called “Goober’s”. Smucker’s introduced in the late sixties. That’s the jar that has both peanut butter and jelly. It’s easy to spot because it looks like a peanut butter and jelly zebra. It’s possibly one of the greatest innovations in the evolution of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
April 2nd is designated as National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day in the U.S.A. I have been unable to discover who claimed it as such. It was likely a peanut growers’ or grocers’ lobby. It doesn’t matter to me. In fact, I think Congress should make it an official observance. I’m not saying we should lower the flags to half-staff, but a parade might be nice.
I think card companies would embrace it. I think cards with such sentiments as “You are the peanut butter and jelly that holds my bread together” is a lovely thing to put in a greeting card. Or how about “Just like a PB&J, I couldn’t live without you”? Perhaps “have a nice day” would be replaced by “have a PB&J day”. How can you not smile when someone wishes something like that?
Julia Davis Chandler should be its patron saint. Although likely not the first person to come up with this culinary breakthrough, she is credited as being the first person to publish the recipe for the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, which she did in 1901.
--Recipe?! Yeah, I know the name of the sandwich IS the recipe. But cut our ancestors some slack. Peanut butter was relatively new and not quite as wide spread as today. You often had to make your own. In fact, my father-in-law remembers growing peanuts during the 40’s and 50’s here in North Georgia and his mother making peanut butter.–
As mentioned earlier, my PB&J these days is also flavored with nostalgia. The first bite takes me back to the days of canvas Keds, putting cards in your bike spokes, and when all you needed to be a super hero was a beach towel for a cape. The second bite takes me to my teens. I’m just back from the lake and starving. Another bite and I’m in college trying to get through the weekend without starving or going broke.
The next bite is the sweetest of all. It’s the one that turns me into a father sharing the manna that is peanut butter and jelly with his young children. Jelly stains cheeks and fingers get sticky. It’s a moment of carb-fueled euphoria. The passing of the torch from one generation to the next.
Some traditions must never die.
