Pimento Cheese Sandwiches (09/14/2026)

This past week I was in Sioux City, Iowa, helping my mother to transition from assisted living to skilled care. It was a time filled with memories, some wonderful, some sad. As I was heading back home to Lake Mills, Wisconsin, on the road around lunch time, I remembered our family’s summer treks from Georgia to Iowa to visit family. We traveled in a station wagon with set rules about bathroom breaks, space etiquette in crowded seats, and lunch breaks. Lunch was the best!

Dad would drive until he found a roadside rest area or park. He would pull off the road. We kids burst out of the car for our stretch break. Mother lowered the tailgate, pulled out the picnic basket with a loaf of Sunbeam bread. She’d open the cooler with the Miracle Whip and Kraft Pimento Cheese Spread. And we’d each get one pimento cheese sandwich. We savored every bite because we knew the moment the last morsel was swallowed by the slowest eater, we were all going to be loaded back into the station wagon for another leg of the grueling journey.

To this day, if you want to make my day, bring me a pimento cheese sandwich on white bread. Two or three times a year, I will actually buy a jar of the spread and use it to make my lunch until it runs out. And every time I do, I savor every bite, recalling those times we dreaded then but that now seems so dear. Time does that. And to this day, if anyone says “pimento cheese” I am on the road in a crowded station wagon looking for a place to stop for the best sandwich.

Last evening, after making the long return drive home, I spent a lot of time on the porch reflecting on the experiences of the week, the memories stirred and the stirring memories, and I found myself thanking the LORD for the safe travel, time with family, family, lessons learned from being in a family, and yes, pimento cheese sandwiches. Gratitude is a key ingredient to joy. I have much to be grateful for and it does elevate my joy when I give thanks even if it is long after the event.

As we continue our journeys of faith, hope and love, let us take time to look back and look closely because so often it takes a while to see the blessing in moments. And let us give thanks to the LORD for what has been a blessing.

If you can’t find a reason to give thanks, consider buying a jar of pimento cheese spread and making a sandwich.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.