School lunch??

[Alpo]

Back in the good old days, when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth, at lunch you ate off of a plastic divided tray, using metal silverware, which included a knife.

 

I remember a few years back hearing about a young boy who got expelled from second or third grade because he had brought a plastic knife from home to cut his orange at break.

 

If you can't have a plastic knife, I'm going to go out on a limb here and suspect that you can also not have a metal knife. Probably not even metal forks, because you can stab somebody with one.

 

So how do you eat lunch at school these days? Plastic disposable silverware? Paper plates?

[sassnetguy50]

All plastic this year.  The school couldn't risk a covid outbreak from reusable eating instruments.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Think about restaurants in airports, similar problem.

[Ozark Huckleberry]

Sporks, disposable plates, plastic trays. Everything is tossed except the trays

[Alpo]

Y'all may recall a few days ago I made a comment about advertising that, while not specifically saying something is acceptable, it greatly implies it by use of a picture.

 

 

See the little boy. Doesn't it look like he's going to school? Got his backpack, Mama's got him by the hand taking him over. See that little checkered thing in the pocket of his backpack. Doesn't that picture seem to imply that it's acceptable to take that little checkered thing to school?

 

 

 

 

 

 I'm sure that the school would not have any trouble with him bringing that steel table knife, and that nice pointy steel fork, and that steak knife to school.

 

Anyway, that's what got me wondering what they eat with at school these days.

[Subdeacon Joe]

1 hour ago, Alpo said:

Y'all may recall a few days ago I made a comment about advertising that, while not specifically saying something is acceptable, it greatly implies it by use of a picture.

 

 

See the little boy. Doesn't it look like he's going to school? Got his backpack, Mama's got him by the hand taking him over. See that little checkered thing in the pocket of his backpack. Doesn't that picture seem to imply that it's acceptable to take that little checkered thing to school?

 

 

 

 

 

 I'm sure that the school would not have any trouble with him bringing that steel table knife, and that nice pointy steel fork, and that steak knife to school.

 

Anyway, that's what got me wondering what they eat with at school these days.

 

You are making the assumption that all that stuff is in the case.  Maybe it's being used as a pencil case.  Or has napkins and chopsticks.   Or...or...or....

I had ammo cans that I  used for first aid kits, cleaning supplies, emergency rations, tool kits. 

[Alpo]

It's in an advertisement for that utensil kit. It's not an advertisement for the little pouch, which could be used to hold "pencils or napkins or chopsticks or or or". It's for the kit. They have a picture of it in a briefcase. A picture of it in a backpack at a picnic table at the beach. And a picture of it with that little boy going to school.

[Rye Miles #13621]

My mother packed my lunch, sandwich and a fruit and I bought a chocolate milk at the cafeteria. No need for utensils I had finger food!

[Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967]

When I was a kid, school lunches were actually pretty good.  Nothing like today!

 

I would occasionally join my son for lunch when he was in elementary school, and I was stunned to discover how inedible a "nutritious" meal could be.  The one example that sticks with me was "hamburger day."  It's pretty hard to screw up a 'burger, but these things were ghastly - a pre-cooked, partially warmed "meat" patty on a dry whole wheat bun.  Little packets of mustard and ketchup were available, but didn't help much. 

 

After my first experience the Kid got to take a lunch form home.  To this day, the "Kid" does not like hamburgers.

 

On another note, a personal school lunch experience from my own high school days:

 

High school, for me, was not a good experience.  It started out okay, but ended terribly.

 

I am a California native but was raised primarily in Texas - and back when I was a kid, Texas schools were NOTHING like California schools.  Anyway, in 1967 we moved back to California after I'd started my junior year at North Dallas High School - my sophomore year was at another school, but Ma had moved during the summer.  (Note - High School was grades 10 - 12; Junior High was grades 7 - 9.  None of this "Middle School" stuff back then)

 

After a brief stint at Hayward High, I transferred to Castlemont High in Oakland.  Demographic - approximately 2,100 students, about 97% African American, and a dangerous place.  The school often made national news for race riots; surprising, as the student body was pretty much ethnically homogenous.  It was undoubtedly one of the worst schools in the state, if not the nation.  Absolutely horrid.  But I digress!

 

Shortly after my arrival at Castlemont, posters began to appear around campus, followed by a list of "demands" from the student body, delivered to the administration.  One of the major "demands" was that the school cafeteria begin to offer something called Soul Food.  "Soul Food?"  What on Earth is "Soul Food?"

 

Well, the school administration acquiesced, and as of a certain date, "Soul Food" would be on the menu.  A couple of my classmates invited and encouraged me to come with them to sample this "Soul Food."  "It'll be great!  Yer gonna love it!  A whole new experience!"

 

So I went.

 

Lunch that day, as I recall, was fried chicken, red beans, greens, corn bread and maybe okra.  Yummy stuff!  

 

But when one of the other kids asked me what I thought of "Soul Food," I had to say "It's good, but I don't see what the big deal is - this is just what we'd get every day at school in Texas.  And at HOME!"  

 

Hey - White Folk gots Soul, too!  

 

 

 

 

 

[bgavin]

 You guys got a lunch???

I was so busy walking to school, knee deep in snow, up hill, both ways...

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

Grade school was parochial and didn’t have a cafeteria that served food. Sack lunch for me all through jr high & high school even though they served food. Too expensive for my family. There were no taxpayer subsidized school lunches back then. 
 

[watab kid]

i also had the sac lunches - then suddenly we were eating the 'hot' lunches served , also on plastic divided and with real utensils .......even during flu season 

[Sedalia Dave]

Our rural school district took 1/2 a county and two towns. K-6 in one town, 7-12 in the other. Don't remember much about K - 6th grade. 7 - 12 we had two cooks. One was my Grandma's neighbor. She could make anything taste good. The other cook lived in town and could ruin boiled water. It was easy to know which cook prepared which dishes. 

[Waxahachie Kid #17017 L]

We were po. Yes...I said "po". I would have said "poor", but we weren't even that high up...so we were "po". 

 

I was so po, I could not afford the 25 cents for lunch, so I brought a sack lunch to school. It contained six hickory nuts, and a hammer. I guess a hammer would not be allowed at school, nowadays. 

 

Lunch at school, was on metal, compartmental trays, metal forks, spoons, and a metal knife that was so dull you could not cut air with it. 

We had white milk, or chocolate milk, to drink, in little tiny plastic covered paper milk cartons. You tried to open them, and they always tore.  

The food, and the milk, were served warm...mostly...except the rolls. The rolls seemed as cold as a doctor's examination table. 

You buttered the roll (the butter was warm & slightly runny), and the roll was so cold, the butter froze up. I say butter...they used oleo...a butter substitute. 

Every Friday, they served fish, usually fish sticks....even though the Baptists in the town outnumbers the Catholics by a gillion to one. Go figure.

Later, in junior high, we crossed the street, and ate at the Dairy Queen. A hamburger, fries, and a huge soft drink, was 50 cents. Of course I could not afford that, so I ate outside on one of the picnic tables. I did not want to get hickory nut shells all over the floor of the Dairy Queen.   

 

Meanwhile....another bird-dog flew over.

 

 

 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

I went to eight schools. I only remember one with a cafeteria.

[Rye Miles #13621]

In high school I'd buy my lunch but we were allowed to leave the grounds for lunch so we went to a diner across the street or a pizza place about 2 blocks away. I  bought my lunch in the cafeteria once or twice and it wasn't very good. They did have steel forks and spoons and knives though.

[Subdeacon Joe]

Went to catholic school through 9th grade, no cafeteria, so sack lunch all the way.  About 6th grade we did have a "hot lunch day" on Thursdays.  Burger, apple, milk, and doughnut that some of the ladies cooked in the parish hall.  I think it was a buck.

High school did have a sort of cafeteria.  Windows and lunch lines under an awning, no indoor seating.  Got the stuff on paper plates.  

[Waxahachie Kid #17017 L]

A close friend of mine attended a Catholic school, in the elementary grade levels. The classes were taught by Nuns, they called "Sisters".

 

He once asked me what the difference was between a Sister, and a terrorist?

I said I did not know.

He said..."you can reason with a terrorist".   

 

He said they used a ruler to whack you across the knuckles, if you misbehaved. 

In the secular public schools, our punishment was a wooden board across the backside...and like as not, another round when we got home. 

 

But, we survived. 

 

In today's politically correct climate, people would go to jail for doing that. Considering what we are going through, right now, perhaps it would have been better had some people been exposed to the ruler, and/or the wooden board, at an early age. Just sayin'.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[LawMan Mark, SASS #57095L]

Childhood was rough on us.  Dad announced one morning we would have greens in our lunch bag.  

 

It wasn't until lunch time I found out he had packed crayons.

 

Seriously, every piece of bread we at at school was hand made in their kitchen, except a hoagie roll for sub sandwiches.  There was always two selections of main course to choose from.  And usually a selection of desserts to pick from as well.  The only thing I remember not liking was the chili.  It was way too bland for me.  

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

9 hours ago, Waxahachie Kid #17017 L said:

A close friend of mine attended a Catholic school, in the elementary grade levels. The classes were taught by Nuns, they called "Sisters".

 

He said they used a ruler to whack you across the knuckles, if you misbehaved. 

 

In today's politically correct climate, people would go to jail for doing that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think the Sisters still get a pass.

[sassnetguy50]

13 hours ago, Waxahachie Kid #17017 L said:

A close friend of mine attended a Catholic school, in the elementary grade levels. The classes were taught by Nuns, they called "Sisters".

 

He once asked me what the difference was between a Sister, and a terrorist?

I said I did not know.

He said..."you can reason with a terrorist".   

 

He said they used a ruler to whack you across the knuckles, if you misbehaved. 

In the secular public schools, our punishment was a wooden board across the backside...and like as not, another round when we got home. 

 

But, we survived. 

 

In today's politically correct climate, people would go to jail for doing that. Considering what we are going through, right now, perhaps it would have been better had some people been exposed to the ruler, and/or the wooden board, at an early age. Just sayin'.

Wooded knuckles turned out to be training, made for tough fists in later fights.  That metal thimble behind the ear throughout class was pure pain.

 

Interesting read:

https://www.pbs.org/food/the-history-kitchen/history-school-lunch/

[Noz]

!/2 a block toward the rail road tracks from the High School in Aurora, Mo was a garage that had been  made into a restaurant. For 25¢ you got a small ice cream cone filled with chili.  As I recall the chili was terrible but it was cheap and close.  If you didn't eat fast the grease would begin to set up in orange colored sheets.

[J-BAR #18287]

I enjoyed cafeteria lunches in junior high and high school.  Mom was not a good cook.

 

[Bart Slade]

On 7/21/2021 at 10:48 AM, Waxahachie Kid #17017 L said:

 

He said they used a ruler to whack you across the knuckles, if you misbehaved. 

In the secular public schools, our punishment was a wooden board across the backside...and like as not, another round when we got home. 

 

But, we survived. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I gotta wonder on this - back in the late 70's when I earned a paddlin' at school, I was delighted to discover that the big wide paddle they used had about the same effect as getting whipped with a wet noodle.   So at that point corporal punishment at school must have been on its way out.   I wonder when it was every fearsome?

 

Of course, the follow up at home was not a delight.   

[Waxahachie Kid #17017 L]

The boards on the backside happened in the mid to late 50's, and the early 60's...for me, that is. 

Sometimes the paddles/boards were pretty ornate. Some had holes drilled into them, as I recall.

Some were varnished, and painted, and had designs on them. 

One teacher kept his paddle in a sort of violin case. He named his paddle: "John Brown". He would usually give one warning, and that was: "Do you want me to get John Brown out of hiding?". 

Sometimes the coaches would remove their tennis shoes, and use them, when out on the playing field, at p.e., or recess. Not as bad as a wooden paddle, but not good either.

A lot of that came to an end, when a few kids developed green, and yellow, and black, bruises, on their booties. The teachers had gotten a little too carried away with the number of swats, and how hard they hit.  

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

How did we go from the topic of school lunches to child abuse? 

[Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062]

 ..... well, it's all Board of Edjuukashun .....   

[Alpo]

15 minutes ago, Abilene Slim SASS 81783 said:

How did we go from the topic of school lunches to child abuse? 

When did a spanking become child abuse?

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

9 minutes ago, Alpo said:

When did a spanking become child abuse?

When they used a paddle with holes drilled in it. When it leaves bruises and welts. A spanking is with your hand. Anything that requires a tool is a flogging. I know the difference from personal experience.