I had planned to start off this post with pepperoni cheese, but that will have to wait a paragraph or two. I'm now fully convinced that the radios that have been in my cars have been haunted in some way. We knew the one in the Cavalier was. There was no doubt about that. It sensed when certain people were in the car and only played certain songs. Where is all this headed? Breakfast at Tiffany's. The song was a minor hit in 1995. Almost a decade ago. Now, two straight mornings I've heard it on two different Pittsburgh radio stations. Maybe I should just buy the DVD and get it over with.
Now, back to pepperoni cheese. If you don't know what pepperoni cheese is then shame on you for six weeks as Mike Lange would say. Anyway, every summer when I was kid I would stay at my grandmother's house for a week or so. Usually multiple times a summer. My grandmother had a pretty set routine. Up early, read the bible, read the paper, breakfast, clean, walk up the street to get the mail and groceries, watch the Price Is Right, make lunch, watch the CBS News, watch the Young and the Restless, clean, watch Guiding Light, clean, make dinner, watch church programs, go to bed. Pretty steady day in day out. Well, when we would walk up the street for mail and the groceries, the grocery store was a mom and pop operation. No Foodland, Shop N Save, or Giant Eagle. It was a little store where pretty much everyone in town had a tab. So, Grandma would usually shop one day at a time. When I was there, I would get to pick out some lunch food, usually lunch meat, cheese, maybe soup or something. The deli had pepperoni cheese (which is cheddar cheese with chunks of pepperoni in the cheese). So, I would usually get salami and pepperoni cheese. That was my staple at Grandma's house. And, looking back on it, I'm trying to figure out how I don't weigh 400 lbs now. Anyway, on and off, ever since I moved out on my own I've kind of scanned deli counters and cheese sections looking for pepperoni cheese. I've always come up empty. I just assumed that since it wasn't the healthiest of foods it went away. So, the fruitless search continued...until last night. Susie came over to exchange gifts and pick up the Vader mask for her nephew. And I hit the jackpot. A five pound block of pepperoni cheese. All for me! Merry Christmas! Of course, I cracked it open right there. One taste and I was nine years old on my grandma's sofa watching the Daddy and Patti show again. It's absolutely amazing how certain stimuli, a smell, a taste, can trigger such powerful memories. So, thank you Susie. Perhaps my heart didn't grow in size and a blanket clutching youngster didn't fully explain it to me, but my holidays did brighten and commercialism can't kill the pepperoni cheese.

Long Live The Pepperoni Cheese!

Oh yeah and Terri and Gage got really cool stuff too.