Dear Reader,
Every year I am amazed at the quality of the writing entries I receive for the Write a DearReader Contest. It's difficult to choose just three winners, so I choose Honorable Mentions as well. Today's Honorable Mention was written by Brandi D'Angelo. Thank you so much Brandi for sharing your story with us.
The sequence in the school cafeteria was always the same. An unfortunate student lost their grip, and their plastic lunch tray clattered to the floor. All decorum was lost. Food splattered everywhere and silverware clanged against the linoleum. Then a brief, all-encompassing silence, as everyone’s mouths hung open in disbelief and suspense. Then it came- the slow guttural “oooooh,” slowly crescendoing until it was a collective din across the cafeteria. We suppressed grins and thought to ourselves, “Today is going to be a good day.”
The lunch lady scrambled to the microphone and ordered us into a silent lunch. The cafeteria workers craned their necks to see what calamity had occurred. Sometimes a few rebellious students who chose to carry on were singled out and punished. And back in those days, you could be paddled by the principal. I know this for a fact because my brother was paddled once. The school tried hard to keep order in those moments, but we students lived for the excitement and adrenaline that broke up our tedious days. Lunch was the highlight of the day.
I tended to be a sack lunch kid, bringing my lunch in a brown paper bag. I envied the kids who had a cool lunch box with a TV character on it. My brother recalls that our sandwich bags were the type that you folded over to close. He said that Ziplocs were for rich kids. We were a frugal family.
Sometimes Mom packed our lunches. Later at school, I would slowly peer into the sack to see what peculiar thing she sent. It could be a tortilla rolled up with cheese and salsa. Oh no! Kids would stare. Even sandwiches could elicit looks because my mom added weird things like nuts, wheat germ or sprouts.
Sometimes the best lunches were ‘other’ people’s lunches. One time when my parents took a trip overseas, my brother and I stayed with my best friend’s family. We thought we had hit the jackpot with things like Pepsi, Mountain Dew, sugar cereals, and white bread. We loved the sandwiches we were sent to school with, soft, white Wonder Bread, American cheese, and tasty bologna. My best friend, her sister, and brother were chagrined when it was time to stay at our house, and my mom cooked bulgar wheat for breakfast, and sandwiches were on whole wheat with lettuce and tomato; maybe even some wheat germ sprinkled in.
I miss school lunch, hanging out with friends and trading gossip. Nowadays, I sit here at home with my “lunch buddy,” our Pug-Chihuahua. No excitement of dropped trays; only dropped crumbs.
– Brandi D'Angelo, Honorable Mention, 2022 Write a DearReader Contest
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com
* This month's Penguin Classics is The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton. I have a copy of the book to share with a lucky reader, so start reading and enter for your chance to win
Recent Comments