Author: G.M. Nicholas

2026 Marca Relli

When I was a kid growing up in the 1960s food was not the center of my universe – activity was. In fact I didn’t know any kid who would rather eat than play. Lazy summer days up fishing at the lakes – even in the rain. Touch football games out in the street. Playing Mumbly Peg in the front yard (you won’t know what that is so Google it). Snowball fights and sledding in the winter. I could go on but you get the idea.

When we got called in for supper we would groan. We would eat fast then back out the door ready to shoot hoops on a makeshift backboard under a street lamp or maybe a round of flashlight tag. Later, when we got older, we’d hang out, smoke cigarettes and tell dirty jokes. Our parents never really knew where we were or what we were up to. But this was way before they started putting the faces of missing children on the backs of milk cartons. That changed everything. The end of innocence. After that it was organized “play dates,” ballet lessons, soccer moms, Baby-On-Board stickers on the back windows of mini vans and peanut allergies.

During school days I had a lunch box. A metal lunch box. I think it had Batman on it. It was square with hinges and contained a small squat thermos with a red lid for hot beverages or, more often than not, Campbells tomato soup. A sandwich on white (Wonder) bread in a small plastic baggie and sometimes a Twinkie would be in there also. The sandwich was most often peanut butter and jelly, sometimes cream cheese and jelly, and on more rare occasions, tuna salad. But every once in a while it was Deviled Ham – Cha Ching!

Underwood Deviled Ham was the only game in town when it came to deviled ham back in the day. It comes in a little can and a cute little red devil with a pointy tail holding a trident and sporting a big smile on the label. It has a pate consistency that could easily be misidentified today as a can of Fancy Feast cat food.

2026 Marca Relli