Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Lunch Memories



Lunch. I just like the sounds of it. Let's stop mid-day and have a bite. Lunch can be satisfying, or quite disappointing. My earliest packed lunch memories are of going to Day Camp at Calumet Park in Chicago. Mom would pack me a bologna sandwich, wrapped in waxed paper. A can of pop would be wrapped in foil. Did it really keep it cold? There was ALWAYS Twinkies, Ding Dongs or Ho Hos. Come to think of it, I don't remember a day going by in my childhood without SOME Hostess product. I always felt loved when I opened my lunch at Day Camp. For a brief moment, I was home. I was loved. I was safe.

In grammar school I was one of the fortunate kids that got to walk home everyday for lunch. I was always greeted with a nice grilled cheese sandwich and bowl of soup...and yes, you guessed it...a Twinkie. Sometimes mom would have a new pencil or something special there for us too.

Today I pack my own lunches. I still feel the same way when I open it. I feel home. I feel a connection to the things that I love. I know people that eat nothing but fast food all the time. They are missing out on something special.

Do you have any lunch memories?

9 comments:

  1. I have a memory of going to a friends house for lunch and being served a sandwich and soup together and thinking it was strange because I had never been given them both together before. I thought this is great and proceeded to devour this great feast. My home always had and still has those yummy Hostess products too. Yes, a lunch from home is special. That's a cute lunchbox! Take care.

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  2. I love your perspective on lunch from home! :)

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  3. My lunch memories did not include Hostess!!!!
    I am so jealous.
    Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich and some sort of canned fruit in a "thermos" oh and milk in a thermos. I had a Charlie Brown lunch box and loved it. My dad still has the lunch box in his garage. I think he keeps his drill in it...bah!
    Basically our family ate hot lunches at school. There would be 6 separate piles of lunch money waiting for us on the kitchen counter in the morning. I did say piles, that was when lunch was 50-75 cents!!
    We did not get to purchase the 5-day lunch tickets, we only got enough money for each days lunch. I do remember feeling oh so special when my dad would splurge and give us enough for a 3-day ticket!

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  4. Every lunch was like a pot-luck. All the girls in my grade and the grade behind (this was rural Colorado so the two classes totalled about 9 girls) would sit down at one of our round lunch tables and toss into the middle whatever parts of their lunch they didn't wan't. After that it was a free for all to scavange through the goodies. Oooh the treats that would come out of that circle!

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  5. Lucky you! My school lunches consisted of a sandwich and a piece of fruit. If we got lunch duty, we could help serve the hot lunch in the cafeteria and got to have the same for our lunch when we were done. I volunteered as often as possible.

    Currently, I love my little bento box lunches, they're cute and fun to prepare and eat!

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  6. very cute blog Jaym, I had numerous lunch boxes. I hate bologna always have. Still found it's way into my box. My mom always took a bite of the sandwich then wrapped it. Still wonder about that. She said it was love, but I think she was snackin. Hostess for me as well. Could explain the wt problem now, eh? Always milk, i hate milk, always have. For me the best thing about lunch was the friend time. It still is! Let's do lunch! Love u.

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  7. lunches were always wrapped in wax paper, unless my mom packed a pickle then it was wrapped in tinfoil to prevent leakage. in fact to the day my dad retired everything in his lunch was packed in wax paper. At his retirement party the guys from work wrapped all his gifts in wax paper.

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  8. I love this! What a fun walk down memory lane. I couldn't have said it better. I remember having a hostess fruit pie (peach or cherry) and one of those little jug o' juice thingys.

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  9. My Dad always had the same thing in his lunch every day: a thermos of coffee, 2 Archway raspberry thumbprint-thingy cookies, a ham & cheese loaf sandwich and canned peaches.
    I was given the same sandwich and I always threw it away! Why didn't I ever think to tell my Mom that I didn't like those sandwiches instead of wasting them?!

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