It was only a few years back, in the middle of my morning radio show on 960-WELI, when I made a reference to “American bread” and my producer at the time — about 15 years younger than me — called me out on it. “Why do you call it that?” he asked. “Call what what?” was my response, as if we were performing some scripted Abbott & Costello routine.

“I’ve never heard anyone call white bread ‘American bread’ before,” he said earnestly. It was an interesting moment. I still can’t decide if it was Gen X/Millennial or Italian/Latino thing that caused the confusion. When I was growing up “Wonder Bread” was referred to as “American bread,” in large part due to the fact that there was always a loaf of Italian bread to be found in our house. We ate a lot more Italian bread than any other kind and even prepared our sandwiches with it, then stuffed them into our superhero lunchboxes.