A half eaten sandwich of Richard Nixon has changed this man's life

Steve Jenne's half eaten sandwich turns 60!

An Illinois man celebrated an unusual milestone Tuesday — 60 years holding onto an old sandwich that former President Richard Nixon once chowed down on. Steve Jenne, from the small town of Sullivan, was a 14-year-old Boy Scout when the then-vice president made a campaign stop to Jenne’s hometown on Sept. 22, 1960. Ahead of a speech at Wyman Park, Nixon was served a barbecue buffalo sandwich on a paper plate during a cookout and when he was finished, Jenne snatched up the leftovers.“He took a couple of bites and commented on how tasty, how good it was, ” Jenne, whose Boy Scout troop was asked to serve as an honor guard for Nixon during the cookout, told the Herald & Review.“Once he left, I just looked down at the picnic table and everybody else was gone and that half-eaten sandwich was still on the paper plate, ” Jenne recalled.“I looked around and thought, ‘If no one else was going to take it, I am going to take it, ’” he told the news outlet. With Nixon’s half-eaten sandwich in tow, Jenne hopped on his bicycle and sped home to show his mom his unique souvenir.“I ran in the door and I said, ‘Mom, I got the sandwich that Nixon took a couple bites out of, ’ and she was surprised and said, ‘So, what do you want me to do with it? ’ So I said, ‘Freeze it, ’” Jenne explained. Jenne’s mother, “in her infinite wisdom, ” then wrapped up the sandwich in a plastic bag, put it inside a Musselman’s apple sauce jar and “stuck it in the freezer, ” he said.“And that’s the way it still is today, ” said Jenne, who now lives in Springfield. Ever since, Jenne has kept the Nixon-eaten sandwich frozen — and it once earned him a guest appearance on an episode of the “Tonight Show” with television legend Johnny Carson in 1988. Jenne even published a book this year called “The Sandwich That Changed My Life! ” about the wacky story.“As long as I am living, that sandwich will be stored in my freezer in a container that is labeled, ‘Save, don’t throw away, ’ ” Jenne said.


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