I was well into my teens in the 1960s before I realized there were more varieties of cheese than Colby (but I knew Colby came in different ages) and that grated cardboard that came in a tin in the boxed Chef Boyardee pizza kit.

Colby came from the cheese factory in Colby, Wisconsin, a couple miles from my grandparents' dairy farm. All of the milk produced by my grandparents' herd of mostly Holsteins with a couple Guernseys and Jerseys was trucked a couple miles down the road to be made into Colby cheese.

It wasn't until the early '70s that my horizons expanded to Havarti, mozzarella, Gtost, and blue cheese (though mostly encountered in blue cheese dressing).

Oh, I take that first statement back. I also knew (and liked) Limburger from an early age because my dad liked it. (I was around three when I'd get up when my dad got off work as a welder-fitter on the second shift at Allis-Chalmers and split a beer with him.) I shared his taste for pickled pig's feet, too.