How do YOU make a PBJ sandwich?
It seems like such a simple thing, and yet I find that everyone has their own method for making a PBJ sandwich. But, what's more amazing, is how devoted everyone is to their particular method.
When I first got married, Dan taught me the "proper" way for making a PBJ sandwich. Whenever Dan decides on a specific method, pattern, or style for doing anything, he always has a very logical reason for it. As a matter of fact, many of my personal ways of doing normal, household things were thrown out the window the day I got married, because I couldn't convey a logical reason for my method, whereas Dan could for all his methods (folding fitted bedsheets being the one exception.) And so it was with making PBJ every morning for his lunch.
I had always grown up making PBJ in this order:
First, spread nice amount of jelly on the first slice of bread.
Second, spread nice amount of peanut butter on second slice.
Put slices together and eat.
I always did the jelly first, because if I did the peanut butter first, I would get peanut butter in the jelly jar. Apparently, Dan had a far superior method:
First, spread nice amount of peanut butter on the first slice of bread.
Next, clean off the knife on the second slice of bread, then spread nice amount of jelly on the second slice.
Put slices together and eat.
Dan's reasoning for this method is that the knife won't be covered with goopy peanut butter when it's time to wash the dishes. Of course, you also have to take into account the fact that Dan never had or used a dishwasher in his entire life until after we had been married for 2 years.
Another thing I forgot to mention about Dan's method is you have to use jam, not jelly, when making PBJ, for the obvious reason that jam spreads so much more evenly and isn't gloppy like jelly is. However, Dan isn't as firm about this little detail as he is about the method itself.
Now, before you start thinking "Man, what a weirdo!", ask yourself this question: Have you ever watched someone (outside your immediate family) make you a PBJ sandwich, and get squeamish watching them make it in a different way than how you would?? If you answer yes, you are not alone!
Since my first encounter with idiosyncratic PBJ -making methods, I have found other people who also have their own PBJ methods, and who are just as fanatically zealous about it. Sometimes these people give a reasonable explanation for why their method is the one and only true way to make PBJ, and sometimes they admit they have never thought about it before. Here are two more methods I have seen:

1. First, spread a large amount of peanut butter on the first slice of bread. Next, pull a HUGE glop of jelly out of the jelly jar, onto the second slice of bread. Spread it around just enough so the bread is fully covered, then quickly smack the heavy-laden slices together.

2. First, spread a nice amount of peanut butter on BOTH slices of bread. Next, on one of the slices, spread jelly on top of the peanut butter.

Whatever the reasoning behind the method, PBJ-making methods seem to be devout rituals that we all feel must be rigorously followed with precision.