Remember the Lunch Ladies....
Remember our cafeteria and the lunch ladies? Remember the number one popular lunch served?? People stood in line for seconds and they ran out all the time...it was homemade and sooooooooo good...Remember when we had to take turns at scrapping trays into that huge silver bowl??? Uck..what a job and a waste of food...remember the nuns walking around and pushing us to finish our food? I believe some of us hid less desirable food in our empty milk cartons...I know I did...don't tell on me now...:)
posted by Debbie Walton 1972 @ 10:45 PM
13 Comments:
When a Noll student, I led a brief boycott/protest regarding the high prices in the cafeteria. In particular, the milk cartons cost 15 cents and they were sold across the street in a little corner store for two for 5 cents (gee, how about THOSE prices back then???!!!) Needless to say, we were told that we couldn't leave the building during lunch.
Dr. Benchik's son and I were assigned the task of going to the 12 homerooms and taking "milk orders" and then calling Prairie View Dairy in next door East Chicago.
The milk truck showed up and Bill and I walked into the cafeteria where our near-500 senior classmates were prepared to conduct a peaceful show of solidarity.
UNTIL . . .
. . . the BAD boys of Senior 6 CHARGED us from the opposite end of the cafeteria with war whoops shaking the rafters. A FULL SCALE food fight ensued and Bill and I were summoned to the office. I really think that if Bill's dad was a steelworker instead of a doctor, I might have finished my high school career at East Chicago Roosevelt HS.
We were told that since private schools don't get tax money, the cafeteria was leased to a company that had to make a profit to help pay teachers' pitiful salaries, which I found out at Blessed sacrament was SOOOO TRUE!!!! I made $6,700 my first year at BS, while my public school counterparts were making $15,000!!!
Anyway, that's my most vivid memory of Catholic school cafeterias!
And I let the male calves keep mama cow's milk, rather than suffer the fate of a veal calf.
Bad boys, bad boys, watcha gonna do???!!!!
Ted Z
Wow I can't believe you were paid so poorly...but I believe lay teachers still make a measly salary compared to public school teachers...
The favorite food had to be pizza.
Mrs. Katchur is the only "Lunch Lady" I can remember. Their hamburgers were were awesome. The buns were home made that morning. We used to go back just for the buns.
On Friday we used to see how many fish sticks we could eat. Bernie Olis would eat everyone's spinach.
If you stomped on that milk carton just right it would sound like an M-80.
Every once in a while, someone would puke on their tray. You could always see it coming. First the kid would get real quiet, then start to turn yellow and stare at the food on the tray. The finger tips would slowly rise to the lips. We would all stare in anticipation. We knew it would be bad but we just couldn't look away. Some body would finally ask, " Are you ok?". The cheeks would balloon, then the spew. You never saw student move so fast to get out of the way. Girls were screaming, nuns running, boys laughing. Oh those were some good times. Then Mr.Hook would sprinkle that puke dry stuff all over.
Hi Jerry, I love reading your blogs about good old BS!! You tell the stories so precisely it feels like we are right there reliving the moment. Good memory!!
I remember Mrs Stinar, and Mrs, Tompi working in the cafeteria. The ladies were so nice and always helpful. They all worked hard to give us a nice lunch everyday. I do remember how much food was wasted through out the years. Does anyone remember those black plastic tokens we had to have in order to buy lunch?
I agree with Zed, the pizza was the best, the fish stick next and the corn and pudding was also very good. Although, I was never a picky eater as my husky physique would confirm. I wonder if underdeveloped esophageal sphincters may have been the cause of all the puking in grade school? It seemed to have subsided by high school, until we began to experiment with alcoholic beverages. Then it came back for a short period again. What a topic!!! Who brought this subject up? Perz!
You guys never cease to surprise me with the topic I am reading.
I'm at work reading these and the hole puke thing made me burst out laughing and my customer with color on her hair say what's so funny. So I read the blog to her and she starts laughing.
You made my day today.
Beth
Hey Jerry Persley...you never fessed up. Was it you who would leave us messages (written with peas) on the returned food trays???
Chris, I can't take credit for that one. I always eat my peas.
Yes, Mrs. Katchur was quite the cook given the ingredients she had to work with. I think she thought I was too skinny, as I usually got a good portion.
Although the nuns breezed through the line without paying, the hand was out for my money (which was quite minimal at the time). I considered this a slight (as I was performing the same teaching service as these venerable ladies of the cloth). I complained to the real head master of the school, Fr. Louie, and thereafter got my lunch as part of my service to the school. I believe that was like making 35 cents more per day. In those days that would buy you something, even a meal at McDonald's.
At St. Mary's Grade School in East Chicago we had a milk carton break during the day and two BAD BOYZ who sat by the window in my 6th grade, 2nd floor classroom would always tell this old, hard-of-hearing German nun that we were too hot (it was winter but in the 1950's we had radiators providing heat and sometimes it DID get too hot).
They would ask to crank the window open for a few minutes and they would throw all of the crushed milk cartons outside, onto the nearby nun's roof.
We had REAL winters then when the snow would come and stay for weeks, or even a month or two. When spring came and melted the snow on the nun's roof, all of these milk cartons appeared.
The custodian was peeved and actually made these 2 6th grade boys climb a long ladder to the 2nd story roof--which was VERY slanted--and retrieve the cartons.
In this day and age you'd get sued big time for that.
Ah, youth!
TZ
Mr. Vlasic, I remember when MacDonalds hamburger were 18 cents. Gas was 28 cents a gallon and cigarettes were around a quarter a pack.
The pizza was the most popular lunch. There's no doubt about it. Believe it or not I really like the Chicken fried steak patty. I can remember asking my mom to make it at home. She didn't know what a chicken fried steak was. Knowbody did. It was good.
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