Jell-O Salad

​People get excited for Memorial Day weekend. In just a few days, the schools will be out for the summer, traditionally kickstarting the summer vacation, camping, and picnic seasons. I love a picnic. I remember picnics with my family when I was a small child.
Mom was a great cook who could make something out of nothing when there was "nothing to eat in this house." She also packed a delicious picnic. 
Sometimes, our picnics featured hotdogs and hamburgers on a park grill—an old-fashioned grill mounted on a steel post in the park. Dad would start the charcoal, and when it was ready, he placed the hotdogs on the grill and burned them. Dad would never take the blame for charring the dogs; one of the kids distracted him and caused the hotdogs to burn.
To avoid the grilling fiasco, Mom would usually pack sandwiches. Bologna salad sandwiches were always a hit, but I liked the liverwurst with Miracle Whip better. My favorite picnic entree was Mom's homemade fried chicken; at home or in the park, Mom's chicken was the best! No matter the main dish, every picnic included Tupperware. 
Sandwiches were stacked in oblong flat containers. Every picnic had a big yellow or green Tupperware bowl of Mom's homemade potato salad. Of course, all Tupperware containers were properly burped for freshness.
Tupperware pitchers were filled with lemonade, iced tea, or Kool-Aid. Ice for the drinks came from the bottom of the cooler, which was used to keep food items cold, especially sandwiches made with mayonnaise. Although Mom usually used Miracle Whip, she was a stickler for keeping anything with mayo (or similar products) cold. I never did get Mom's recipe for potato salad, but a few years ago, I got a recipe from Melissa's aunt Gail.
Aunt Gail makes a mean bowl of potato salad because she uses lots of boiled eggs and finely diced onions; Mom did, too. Gail shared her potato salad recipe with me, and I've made it several times since then. However, Melissa tells me, "There's just something a little different. It's not the same as Auntie Gail's." Hmm. Why? It's the same recipe.
One summer, my buddy Stu Stetter was visiting with a couple of friends. The four of us went on a men's camping and fishing trip to Ester and Devilfish Lakes on the Arrowhead Trail. I made a batch of Gail's potato salad for the outing. "Isn't this potato salad just the bomb," I asked Stuart.
Stu shrugged his shoulders. "It's okay."
"Okay? Just okay?" I was aghast. "Are you going to tell me that's not the best potato salad you've ever had?" 
"It's okay," Stu repeated. Then he chastised me, "It wasn't made with Hellmann's mayonnaise." Seriously? I'd known this guy for over thirty years and had no idea he was a Mayo snob!
When we got home, I called Gail to tell her that Stuart didn't love her potato salad. "He complained because it wasn't made with Hellmann's Mayonnaise," I reported.
Gail questioned, "Well if you didn't make it with Hellmann's, what did you use?" I told her I used Miracle Whip. "YOU USED MIRACLE WHIP IN MY POTATO SALAD?" She was aghast. "I certainly hope you didn't tell him that was MY recipe!" I've known Gail for twenty years and had no idea she was a Mayo snob, too. 
After being chastised a second time, I have since switched to Hellmann's—and only Hellmann's—mayonnaise in potato and other salads. However, I will admit I still prefer Miracle Whip on bologna, tuna fish, and peanut butter and pickle sandwiches.
A couple of weeks ago, I made a batch of potato salad and used the rest of my jar of Hellmann's. I immediately wrote Hellmann's on the grocery list. Heaven forbid I should start a batch of potato salad someday and discover I was out of Hellmann's. I just don't think I'm emotionally strong enough to handle a third chastisement for using Miracle Whip. On my next trip to the store, I bought a jar of Hellmann's. 
Unfortunately, I didn't notice the mayo was gray until I got home. I don't know if the jar had an air leak or what, but you can bet your last dollar I will return it for a good jar. The only thing that could get me chastised more severely than not using Hellmann's would be making potato salad with bad mayo and giving my wife a case of green gills. Maybe I'll try something other than potato salad for this year's picnic.
Years ago, I told people about a Jell-O salad I had in the 60s made with lime Jell-O and green olives. People didn't believe me; not even my siblings remembered it. People said, "You're sick!" and, "That's just gross!" But I swear to you, Mom made such a salad, and it was good!
Mom made the salad in a fancy mold with lime Jell-O as its base. It had mixed in chopped celery, onion, green olives, and chunks of cheddar cheese. But nobody believed me until one day, I found a Jell-O advertisement in a vintage magazine from the 1950s featuring this very salad. 
Mom made a variety of Jello-O salads. Another lime Jello-O salad had cottage cheese, pineapple, shredded cheddar cheese, and pecans. One of my favorites was orange Jell-O with shredded carrots and raisins. I can still taste them. They were delicious and pretty, too.
Speaking of pretty, how about a red Jell-O salad with bananas or strawberries. Jello-O with mandarin oranges is fantastic. Jello-O salad with fruit cocktail or peaches is good, too. And, you can never go wrong with any flavor Jell-O with miniature marshmallows stirred in. (Of course, today, people add whipped cream and call it fluff.)
I haven't replaced that bad jar of Hellmann's yet, and we might be having a picnic this Memorial Day weekend. It may be time to surprise my wife with a cool, refreshing Jello-O salad with green olives, diced onion and celery, and chunks of cheddar cheese. I wonder if it would be good with a few sardines added in? I could make it look like the fish were swimming inside.
I could even put a figurine of a barefoot little boy in coveralls fishing on top of the salad. I could have a fishing line with a hook and a worm running from his pole into the Jell-O dish.  
Happy Memorial Day, my friends. During your gatherings with family and friends, be sure to remember the purpose of this weekend: to celebrate, honor, and remember those who gave their lives in military service to this great country of ours.