By Georgia Osten
Means back to planning and preparing lunches. Ah, I remember it well. A far back memory is my school mates teasing me about my chip-eating technique, grabbing a chip out of the bag and taking a bite out of a chip instead of putting the whole thing in my mouth. Still eat chips the same way. Breakfast was cereal, Mom would always let the parakeet out of its cage and the dang bird would inevitably land in my bowl of fruit loops for a little milk bath.
Making lunch for the kids was a treat, I really miss those days. First day, the school lunch always contained a note, usually with the sandwich – “Happy First Day of School, Love, Mom” on a yellow sticky cut into a heart shape. The sandwich, usually PB&J, a light coating of peanut butter on each side, jam in the middle, cut diagonally twice (4 pieces). The apple would be peeled and cut into wedges, wrapped in a baggy, then wrapped in foil. A bag of chips, some carrots or celery in a baggy, then in foil. Always a coke, wrapped in foil. They received plenty of harassment about all the foil, but the foil treatment continued throughout the year until last day – “Happy Last Day of School, Love, Mom” on a yellow sticky cut into a heart shape.
I asked my husband recently to tell me the story again about his Mom preparing their lunches – seven kids!! Mama would go shopping once a week, Mrs. Baird’s day-old bread was a bargain. Sandwiches prepared on Sundays, meat, some cheese (no mustard or mayo), bagged in a waxed-paper baggie and thrown into the freezer. The paper bags were set out each morning, each kid would grab a paper bag that already had the dime in it for their milk, grab a sandwich out of the freezer, grab some chips, and grab a dessert if it was the beginning of the week. The Twinkies, dingdongs or snowballs wouldn’t usually last the week, they somehow disappeared before Thursday…Those were the days.
Bon Appétit ya’ll!
[8-21-2017]
GO’s Sand Bucket is only one beach bum’s journal of life at the beach, probably something each of you can relate to. Please feel free to email me with your thoughts, visions and/or feelings of just exactly what the beach means to you. Email: [email protected]
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