Virgil Ronk. One of
my friends from childhood. We lived in Highland, New
York on North
Road. One day he came over to my house and he was
eating a sandwich. I asked what kind of
sandwich he had. He said that it was a
ketchup sandwich. I said that I had
never heard of such a thing as a ketchup sandwich. He said to me to try a bite and offered me
his sandwich. I took a bite and I was
amazed at how good it tasted and told him so.
He offered me half of his sandwich and I gladly accepted. That day I became a big fan of ketchup. Now I drown french fries, hamburgers, meat
loaf and a host of other foods in it. I
have had a saying for many years: "With
enough ketchup I can make anything taste good." I don't like fish and my wife makes me fish
sticks on Fridays. But I put ketchup on
the fish sticks to make them taste good.
Any thing I don't like the taste of, out comes the ketchup bottle. I mean, why eat something with a taste that
I don't like when with some ketchup I will like it. I don't know if Virgil ever remembers
offering me half of his ketchup sandwich but it made a big impact on my life. And ketchup sandwiches? It is a favorite snack of mine. When I want something quick to eat, I just
have a ketchup sandwich. At age 79, I
still eat them. Even recently. All I can say is "Thank You
Virgil". I have told this story of
Virgil and the ketchup sandwich many times to many people and always include
his full name, Virgil Ronk. I hoped
that somehow my appreciation of him would get back to him. Last week I did an internet search just to
see how he was doing. I found out that
he had died August 17, 2021. And he was
buried on my birthday of August 25. I
can't get to thank him but I will continue to remember him over the years and
his ketchup sandwich. Lewis Dallas