lunchroom memories

With school starting again and cooler weather sneaking in, my memories turn to food (no, my mind is NEVER off food)......lunch room food. School cafeterias were not common initially in school, we brought our brown sacks or metal lunch boxes with the milk out of a thermos--still makes me shudder. Later a cafeteria was added. What a treat....or was it? What are your fondest or worst memories of lunch room food?

My greatest disappointment was the hamburger. Plumped with oatmeal filler, it hardly tasted like meat. Perhaps it's the same reason today I don't do the soyburgers......bad memories. The bun was something from another planet; a cross between a pancake and a bun. The second dissapointment was pizza. It was barely edible to me, but for others it was a divine treat.

Favorite: salmon croquets (we never had salmon at home.

Fav dessert: cherry cobbler...tho the number of cherries actually found was quite low.

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In grade school we went home for lunch. We had an hour--took about 15 minutes to walk home. We ate sandwiches every day, along with some sort of fruit (to this day I HATE canned pears) and maybe a cookie. Took a few minutes to watch Bozo, then the 15 minute walk back to school.

While I remember grade school clearly, I don't remember high school as much. There was a cafeteria in the high school but I never ate there. Junior and senior years I drove so maybe we went to McDonald's. I do remember eating peanut butter cups and chips for lunch!

SALMON WHAT?? I don't know any kid who looked forward to salmon as school.

However, everyone did get excited on cafeteria pizza and macaroni and cheese day. We'd have a table of at least 8 or 9 and I was that annoying person who always wanted to know if someone was going to finish their food. I ate like a cow ............some in this house would say I still do. :oops:

went to a private school and there was no lunch program..had to bring it from home...eat in the class rooms....

i just remember the bad smell of every kind of lunch..especially in the winter with the windows closed....ick

I went to a private school for the first 10 yrs of my education. Grade 1-8 Iwas Elementary School and there was no cafateria. I lived close to school so had to walk home each day for lunch. We did however bring our breakfast to school because we went to church every morning. My Mom would pack a scrambled egg sandwich and I would buy a pint of Wilson's Chocolate Milk and have that for breakfst at school.. I loved Wilson's milk. lol

For the first two years of high school, I went to a private school and they didn't have a cafeteria, so we ate in the gym. There where only two snack machines in the hallway, and you could buy chips in the office. I would buy a pint of chocolate milk and a bag of chips...yes so healthy.

My last two years I finished at a public school (our private schools was closed) which did have a cafateria, but no food was served. The school districts where having budget crunches so had closed the food service and stopped the buses. So we had a few vending machines to pick from and I'm sure I had cholate milk and potato chips.

After I graduated from High School I worked downtown at Blue Cross/Blue Shield...now THEY had a great cafeteria.

Jr. High we had a hot lunch and cold lunch line......most went thru the cold lunch line because we felt the hot lunch was too much like elementary school. I remember a lot of PB sandwhiches. By highschool I wouldn't even go into cafeteria, I'd pack and apple and let it be lunch. No wait, sometimes I go buy milk.

Had to laugh about the canned pear comment.......every so often Mom would put me on a diet.....I'd come home for lunch to some awful drink, cottage cheese and Tilly Lewis canned pears...no sugar. Just thinking about Tilly Lewis products I get faint.

As for the salmon......mom hated tuna, so never in the house. She couldn't figure out the canned salmon.....bones vs. meat......so the only fish we got was when friends would give us trout.

Fun post.

I remember elementary school vividly. Country kid, so ate in the cafeteria. Sometimes I "packed" and sometimes I "bought". Milk was a nickel and I always had a little change purse that I kept my "milk money" in. Sometimes Mom would forget to replenish my purse, or send a check for the week, and I would have to charge. I thought that was fun. The teacher would collect our money each morning, and I couldn't wait to yell "charge" if I was caught short. Each Friday was a fish sandwich, peas and parsley buttered potatoes. Everyone looked forward to the potatoes.

Don't remember Junior high too much, but High school was always ala carte -- going through the line for a burger, sloppy joes or fries. My all time favorite school meal was the Johnny Marzetti with garlic bread.

Darcy wrote:

Same here. And SO true about the smell. Yuck Tuna sandwich next to Bologna, next to Lunchables, next to XYZ, blech!

Junior high and high school we had a lunch room, but I didn't eat much back then, so it was usually either a bagel or some carrots and lowfat ranch (with the requisite Diet Coke). On a rare treat to myself day, like if I had a race later, I'd get a pigeon patty (chicken sandwich)...

I guess our private school (middle school) served lunch, but it was always really good korean food. I loved it, which was obvious from the weight I gained

Joahaeyo wrote:

I guess our private school (middle school) served lunch, but it was always really good korean food. I loved it, which was obvious from the weight I gained

you actually had specialty food???? wow...

in highschool we sat in the hallway, on the floor, by our lockers...the only food available was buccemi's pizza...one slice for .50...and only on fridays..and during lent it was cheese only...

but we did have a candy store...open during lunch and break...i lived on jolly ranchers, coke and snickers bars....

Well, we were IN Korea, so does that still make it a specialty?

The public school I attended after that, in Korea, served only American, but I believe only freshmen were allowed to use it b/c it was too crowded. Otherwise, they encouraged you to go off campus for fast food. So for me, it was a popeye's kid's meal or pizza every day. Oh, if we could turn back time. I can't believe my eating habits. :oops:

We had choices of hot or cold (brought from home) lunch.

I always had hot, as my mom felt that the hot lunches were a better deal. Her comment -"I can't pack a lunch for that price".

My sisters and I were all adventurous eaters (sounds better than "will eat anything"... :roll:

) and we loved most school lunches. We felt sorry for the kids who ate PBJ's day..... after day......after day.....Our school district was large (my graduating class was 600). But we went to one of 2 rural little elementary schools in our district. There was one classroom per grade. The school was about 5 miles from my home and a short bus ride from our farm. It was in the middle of crop fields, with a huge mowed area and playground.
The lunchroom had the lunch tables that folded out from the wall - really cool! Like giant picnic tables that stowed like murphy beds.

The rest of the time the space was the gym, also had the stage for school programs. And, everyone stayed at school for lunch - we were in the country!
I had a friend who's family moved here from germany who's mom packed cold everyday, and she ate her whole lunch "dry", then drank her whole carton of milk at the end. I was always so amazed....LOL

JR High was a huge adjustment - in 7th grade we were bussed into town. All the district went to 1 of 2 junior high schools, so from 20 kids per grade, we jumped up to 300/grade.
Still the same lunches, as the district all had the same food plan. All I remember was a bit of 7th grade trauma - because of schedules, I was the ONLY one from my elementary class in my lunch (there were 3 lunch settings). But I made friends!
Still had the choice of hot or cold lunch. No food places near, as the school was in a residential neighborhood. Only the kids in walking distance were allowed home to lunch. My favorite meal in JR high was the turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy meal. I used to eat all my friends' canned jelled cranberries - and I still love them!

High school in 10th grade. I was bussed so I didn't leave. The school wasn't near resturants or stores, so only kids who had cars left for lunch. All my close friends stayed at school. I am also cheap. Why would I spend my money on junk food and not eat the lunch my parents paid for???? Also, I was part of the smart/jock/band crowd....not too wild.

LOL
Lunch was a real social time at our school. You planned classes so you had the same lunch as your friends...well, within reason!

now there are electronic lunch machines the kids type in their acct numbers. We had a lunch lady who checked a chart if we had hot, or cold and got milk with it. We had "lunch count" every morning and the 1st hour teacher counted how many hot lunches. I don't think we did for HS - I can't remember!

I do remember our school having lots of spaghetti, burgers, sloppy joes, pizza and turkey tetrazzini. Chicken/turkey in a cloud was a favorite - chopped meat in a gravy over mashed potatoes. Fish sandwiches on Fridays to cater to the catholics. :lol:

Occasionally there was chocolate milk - a huge treat!

got sheep wrote:

Occasionally there was chocolate milk - a huge treat!

WOW! We could have almost went to the same school!!! Your post took me back to good ole Thornville Elementary

I must be the oldest of all of you! Older than dirt....as my grandson might say!
1st grade was 6 grades in 4 room

! We had to either go home for lunch or bring a sack lunch along with the "milk in the thermos". I remember my mom putting ice cubes in it at home to chill it down, emptying it out & then adding the milk so it'd be cool at lunchtime.
2nd grade we had a new school building with a cafeteria. Still mostly packed from home & milk was 1 cent for white & 2 cents for chocolate! See, I told you I was OLD! Some days we bought a hot lunch, depended on the menu. But I do remember it was a token for 30 cents for 1 meal or you could buy a ticket for the week (5 meals) for $1.50. Can you imagine eating luch all week long now for $1.50????

.
Junior High & High School the lunches were a bit more & you could still bring a sack lunch. But High School was when the vending machines were first introduced into our schools. All that was available was apples for 10 cents! We weren't allowed to leave the building for lunch & there were no fast food restraurants yet either. My senior year Burger Chef came to town. Hamburger, Fries & Milkshake for 45 cents! Jeez! That was a long time ago! :lol:

Vending machines?? Not at our schools. I thought lunch was 25 cents..a week was 1.25. Jr. high it was up to 35 cents.......horrors. A la carte was at a back table......PB sandwiches, apple and milk.........which came to 55 cents.....more than the hot lunch! But we felt so sophisticated.

Yes, prechilling the thermos, but by the end of the school year it still stunk no matter how well you cleaned it when you got home. Thermos came with the lunchbox, brown bags were too thin to hold the thermos. I don't remember who was on my lunchboxes.....some were plain, others had favorite characters. Cold days you might get tomato soup in your thermos.

Yep, penny milk, didn't we all get chocolate?? Summer camp we had choice of four......white milk, brown (chocolate) milk, orangeade or lemonade.

ahhh, lunch boxes!!

I did occasionally have a cold lunch. Had a lunch box, but never got one with a thermos. Milk was cheap at school.......

My favorite one was the Flying Nun!!! I saved my banana stickers and slowly covered the whole surface. Egads, it must have been a washing nightmare....

I remember a plaid one....boring.......but also a Howdy Doody.......and Hopalong??? or was it Roy Rodgers?? One year I had a pink thing.......hated it, pink was not me. Thank heavens for lunch rooms and no more social stygmy from lunch boxes.

Lunch boxes. Aw-- what fun.

Code:

stygmy

stigmas for small people

I had the most awesome My Little Ponies lunchbox. It was mostly purple, with the ponies on the center of the box...and of course the matching thermos.

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