Do You Use Mayo? 

Some comments over at bebere reminded me of a mildly funny exchange at a family reunionish gathering earlier in the summer with a bunch of cousins, aunts and uncles. The question came up as to whether people used Mayonnaise, or Miracle Whip which is actually salad dressing.

My immediate family has always used Miracle Whip... but we always referred to it as mayo. Not only do we use it in our tuna, chicken, and egg salad, we use it on our sandwiches. As people started talking about it, some of the men in the group, my uncle in particular, mentioned how they used real mayonnaise and liked it better, much to the amusement of their wives. This of course, led to rather funny exchange between my aunt and uncle:

Aunt: "No we don't. We use Miracle Whip".
Uncle: "But you call it mayo."
Aunt: "So? We use margarine too, but we call it butter."

As people in the family started talking about it, we soon all realized that everyone there used Miracle Whip, but called in mayo... some without even realizing there was a difference. Time for Hellman's to step up their advertising. The fact that my aunt and uncle use margarine has always seemed strange to me, because my uncle is very Wisconsin. He wears his Packer Green and Gold, his Badger Red and White, and hates Illinois with a vengeance. Margarine just seems so un-Wisconsin.