JWOW

Wrapping Our Heads Around the Old Vs. New

By Miriam Hendeles

The sandwich generation is faced with pressures from two groups of loved ones: parents and children. Now, while sandwiches have always been a basic staple of childhood and life, and therefore worthy of being used as the prototype metaphor for conveying a message, there’s always the wrap. What’s up with the Wrap Generation?

Think tuna wraps, avocado wraps, vegetable wraps, and any-food-youwant-to-display wrap. Wraps are those thin, flaky, not-so-tasty beige, green or orange coverings that replace the regular white, whole wheat, pumpernickel, or rye bread slices for making a sandwich. You just wrap the flexible dough around the food, and voila! You have a pretty sandwich.

Never mind that it’s not as tasty as the good-old-fashioned sandwich with regular bread. Never mind that it’s over in a minute – after one or two bites. All that doesn’t matter – it’s a wrap, and get used to it, or wrap your head around it – because everyone and her cousin is putting platters of wraps on the table when entertaining. Wraps are here to stay.

I will admit – wraps look pretty and are actually easy to eat because, since the food is wrapped rather than “sandwiched,” the food stays neatly inside the covering and doesn’t leak out. There is no mess.

But that translates (in my mind) as no challenge and no fun.

Now, you may ask, why do I want challenges? And why do I consider them “fun”? Isn’t the easy, pretty, and convenient way better?

My answer to those questions (in case you’ve asked) is one word: Nostalgia.

Because, sometimes I really do enjoy feeling like being that kid who has a choice to eat a sandwich open-faced or closed-faced (that means with one bread or two breads for the un-initiated). Sometimes, I just don’t want to conform to the new ways of doing things with wraps, veggies, and all the modern

foodie ingredients and recipes. (Sourdough, anyone?)

Sometimes, I just want to hark back to my childhood and make for myself and my grandkids a typical sandwich with white bread or rye bread and slap some American cheese in between and bite down.

Not that I suggest abolishing wraps. Not that I even relish (pun intended) being that cheese, tuna, or peanut butter inside those two beloved slices of bread. No, that’s not it at all.

It’s just that I prefer viewing (and sometimes eating) sandwiches over wraps. There is something inside me that just cannot wrap my mind around the concept of eating a small, wimpy, or colorful (albeit perfect) wrap of food.

There is something inside me that groans at the new and pines for the old. And I guess that’s just part of being a grandmother from the sandwich – not the wrap – generation. We are all wrapped up (or sandwiched up) into our own way of doing things. It’s okay – as long as we don’t pressure others to do things our way.

Sandwich or wrap – it’s all very yummy and appealing – each in its own way.

I guess that’s just part of being a grandmother from the sandwich – not the wrap – generation.