Pineapple Sandwiches Part 2

If you ever wonder who’s reading your blog posts, blog about pineapple sandwiches. My last post sparked a minor Facebook frenzy…mostly commented on by people who have tasted these Anderson Pineapple Sandwiches and know I’m right.

But the cool thing is, it turns out that my conversation with my mom not only spawned a blog post, followed by more conversations with her, my daughter  and my sister about these sandwiches, but I also had other members of my family talking about them. Yep, pineapple sandwiches were the hot topic leading up to this year’s Anderson Christmas Party.

My cousin Teri, God bless her, took it upon herself to tackle this top secret recipe so we didn’t have to go without. She called Marcia, the Official Pineapple Sandwich Maker, and got the exact recipe. Y’all….we had not one but TWO trays of pineapple sandwiches!! 

LOOK!!!

They were good, too.  I had to laugh at Dennis, because I watched him snag one before anybody started fixing plates. Apparently Teri wouldn’t let him near them before the party. And he thought no one was looking. Pssht!! ;) 

Would you believe I actually got TWO???

And there were LEFTOVERS!!!!  Rhonda and Christopher polished off the last two right before we walked out the door at the end of the night.

Let me tell you why this is strange. As my cousin Amy and I sat there noshing on our first one, we happily reminisced about how everybody was only allowed to get one, because Uncle Archie only brought one tray of them. They are literally the only food I remember that was on every Anderson table, from the picnic tables at Anderson’s Pond to Nanny’s dining room table at Christmas. And y’all, we know how to put out a spread. But these…if you weren’t at the head of the line, you probably wouldn’t get one. People were watching to see how many you took, too, and would call you out in a minute if you took more than one. That’s what my mama said, anyway. 

Seriously, I almost feel a little silly causing such a furor over a small pile of circular bread, mayonnaise and pineapple with a cherry on top.

But it’s really much more than a sandwich. These stories…this is what those pineapple sandwiches are really about. There were more than 50* folks milling around Leslie’s house tonight (and that wasn’t even close to all of us), and 95 percent of them share my memories of these things. People read my silly ramblings and talked about them before we even got to Leslie’s. We talked about them as we ate them. We remembered. We laughed. It was awesome!

I told you Uncle Archie started bringing them in the first place. Well, neither Uncle Archie nor his wife, Aunt Elizabeth, is with us anymore. Neither is my Grandaddy nor my Nanny.

See, five brothers and their wives started this family. Uncle Archie was my Grandaddy’s brother. Of the five brothers, one is still with us. Of the five wives, we still have three. But as long as someone is willing to make them, we still have the pineapple sandwiches. And when we eat them and tell the stories, we remember Uncle Archie. And Nanny and Grandaddy. And Uncle John. And Uncle Richard. There all there, even though we may not say their names. Because just like the sandwiches leave us wanting more, so do the stories of gatherings past. But the difference is, we will never run out of stories and we share them freely!

*I suck at estimation. There could have been 50 people there. There could have been 90. There could have been 20. It was a lot. That is all I know. Carry on.

P.S. Leslie was telling me that it felt strange to her be having this party at her house. She felt like we should be at Nanny’s.  I can’t remember if I’ve blogged about our Christmases at Nanny’s. If I haven’t, I promise I will. I relish the opportunity to relive them.