One time my mom accidentally packed a little bag of Tender Vittles (cat food) in my lunch instead of fruit snacks. Not good.

I always had jelly and cream cheese sandwiches, or balogne and cream cheese, and always on white bread. Kinda makes me sick thinking about it now.

Nothing better than PB&J on white bread except maybe the a burger on Wendys.

I was the child who was not allowed to eat white bread, sugar cereal, soda, juice from concentrate, or anything from a mix. To this day I crave Skippy on Wonder Bread.

At first glance I found the results of the Newsday survey kind of cute. Then it occurred to me that if you surveyed 200 adults, many of them would probably give the same answers (or other foods equally high in sugar).

On another note, U-nanimous' andecdote has inspired an idea: Kraft singles with jam might be terrible, but what about brie or camembert, with natural preserves, on rye? Possible yummy.

Yuck. White wonder bread, Kraft singles---there's a reason it's mostly kids persuaded into eating this stuff.

When I was in Germany 20 years ago, the people apologized for not having white bread (not the whole German people, just my host family.)

They said that white bread wasn't really bread---it was made from the remnants of wheat (that the real food of the bread had been taken out.) They asked me if rye bread and pumpernickel was O.K., and acted like we don't have pumpernickel in the U.S. ("What is this strange dark bread?"---I should have played along.)

Since 1982, I can basically count how many times I've made a sandwich using white bread.

They also were of a particular mind about foods of a certain orange color, like Doritos and Kraft singles. I forget what the deal was with that, but I guess it's similar to blue ketchup or something. It's food that is a little bit too far from its original form to be inviting.

Hee, cheese and jam. It's the processed, lunchtime version of a cheese and fruit course!

I'll never forget the time I took a bite out of my sandwich, expecting the usual pb&j, and tasted (wait for it) processed cheese and jam.

When I got home after school, I said to my mother, "I think you made a big mistake." She asked what was wrong. I said, "You put cheese in my jam sandwich. Replied my mother of French-Canadian descent: "Cheese and jam. It's a delicacy."

Kraft singles? A delicacy? Not even for a seven year old.

i was a huge fan of butter, sugar and cinnamon on toast as my after school snack. i was deprived in the brown bag lunch department. either my parents had no time or no imagination when it came to those. i used to be mortified by what they'd pack me. probably threw a few tantrums hoping for a plain old pb&j, cookie, apple, mini dorito bag lunch. not that i ever would have eaten the apple. i also think my mother never deigned to take the crusts off so i probably pissed her off yanking them off myself.

ants on a log!

the next new thing... white wheat bread

I had my crusts cut off. No question.

this thread will surely decend into a crust discussion

This is from the second newsday article:

"And if your kid complains? 'Just remember it's a work in progress,' he said. 'Sometimes they'll be in love with what they're eating, sometimes they'll just eat it.'"

And sometimes they'll throw it under moving cars.

As if we needed any more proof that kids are stupid...

Laughed out loud at that one callalillie

Hmm. I have a strong memory of my mother sending me, little geek that I was, with a "well rounded" brown bag: sandwich, banana, yogurt, some sort of vegetable, drink box and cookies. I used to put the sandwich and fruit in the middle of the street and watch cars run over them. Then I'd trade my homemad cookies for Doritos.

That sounds like a good amount. Oh, I know - I'm thinking about my coffee break in the afternoon. Remember, kids go home and snack after school.

That's a pretty stupid kid to be fooled by that bottom bread gambit.

That is a lot of food? Hardly. I would definitely be double bagging it.