Hot Lunches

I know we drank milk at lunch. I remember scrambled hamburger and elbow macaroni, and really loving that lunch. We sat at a really long table, picnic style, and the kids would pass down their unwanted food items, relay style, to someone at the other end who wanted it, and then pass the empty plate back. The scrambled hamburger and potatoes and peas, layered atop one another, was a favorite of mine. I mixed all three together to create a mangled pile of brown specks in mounds of white potatoes, dotted with green peas. I collected piles of potatoes, until my pile covered the dish and gushed over the sides, all the more fun to lick around the rim.  I remember that a lunch ticket could be purchased for $1.25 for the week. That gave me five hot lunches on a punch card.

I loved the hot lunches.

 I don't really remember pizza at all. 

 I do remember macaroni and cheese and that it was really good and cheesy. Nobody passed any macaroni and cheese down the relay line.  I do remember eating at a reasonable time, until I became a senior, and then my stomach growled most of the day. That’s when I remember

wishing lunch were alphabetical instead of by grade. The pathway to the cafeteria was through a dark and dimly lit tunnel, connecting the school with the cafeteria, in case of rain, I guess.  I remember when the tunnel to food was closed down permanently, and then having to walk through weather both snow and rain, now, the only way to the cafeteria.   I remember that I no longer cursed the tunnel.  Too late!   I guess some of my memories of school have faded, but I do remember loving my hot lunches!

I think that is where I actually learned to inhale lunch, and food in general—for the rest of my life!  That darn lunch ticket. Heaven forbid I couldn’t find it or that I lost it!  It would be the Spanish Inquisition if a student didn’t have it. I always did!  …and not by chance.  I loved the Hot Lunches!!