Cold Cuts

Yesterday, when I was thinking about my attitudes about money, I was thinking that my parents would both routinely talk about the Depression (the one in the 1930s) particularly when it came to food. Both my parents were raised in blue collar homes. My paternal grandfather was a small farmer in Wisconsin, and my maternal grandfather worked in the stockyards in Chicago for Swift & Company.

So when there was a big steak or something, one of them would often say, "You wouldn't have seen this during the Depression." I remember another time the comment was about a big platter of deli meats, but in my mind I called it "cold cuts."

That's when I heard in my mind that screeching record player needle across the record and I stopped.

Cold cuts?

I was thinking you don't hear that term any more. I don't use it. So today I Tweeted, "Does anyone use the term cold cuts any more or it that hopelessly outdated?'

Seconds later, I got this email response from someone at a client who follows me on Twitter:

I have not heard that term used since my grade schools days, though I do refer to it as "lunch meat". Is that bad?

We used the expression "lunch meat" as well... I think the difference is that lunch meat was packaged -- like a package of sliced bologna. "Cold cuts" were freshly cut from a deli or butcher. Do people even eat "lunch meat" any more? I used to eat this stuff called "cervelat" or "Lebanon Bologna" -- and I don't think it's sold anymore. I think the "cold cut/lunch meat" section of the grocery store is all healthy stuff like thinly sliced chicken and reduced sodium ham.  No more Lebanon Bologna and Olive Loaf!

Funny, but I just googled "cervelat" to make sure I was spelling it right, and the second mention that came up was a butcher -- Schaller & Weber -- an old German establishment that's been here forever and is two blocks away. Maybe for Christmas... a nice cervelat sandwich!