What casual joys we have lost in this wobble into the unknown of avoiding human contact as a result of the worldwide coronavirus outbreak. From 40 years ago — to a week ago — you could get together and build a six-foot submarine sandwich and hold it for a picture with your only panic being the camera catching your good side.
Those were the salad days, to borrow from Shakespeare in these dramatic times.
In this photograph by Blade Photographer Jack Ackerman published July 29, 1979, members of a group called Parents Without Partners held a six-foot submarine sandwich of their own creation. From left, Jim Reid, Carol Bennett, Joe Wolf, Jean Ice, Maryann Edwards, and Brenda Berryman each decided to split the sandwich for others attending a party for new members.
Founded in 1957 and headquartered in Cleveland, PWP is, according to their own material, “the largest international, nonprofit membership organization devoted to the welfare and interests of single parents and their children.”
That this charming photo’s subplot highlights a group whose aim is to reduce the isolation of the single was merely coincidence of the highest irony.
We loved the sense of joy and community in the image, and its whole absence from the fear of touch.
Remember when you would go to a party with new people and touch food; not in George Costanza’s double-dipping kind of way, but to simply make a small plate and walk around other people and those small plates and make that small talk? It seems like a big deal now.
The iconic author John Steinbeck wrote in his 1960 memoir of traveling America, Travels with Charley, about his revulsion at the increasingly processed formality of preparing and serving food, lamenting the shrink-wrapped “convenience” meals for their lack of human touch. If absence makes the heart grow fonder, may we all cherish the time when we can return to holding six-foot submarine sandwiches together.
Go to thebladevault.com/memories to purchase more historical photos taken by our award-winning staff of photographers, past and present, or to purchase combinations of stories and photos.
First Published March 23, 2020, 10:00 a.m.
