Pre-School Food Nostalgia

[WayneT]

As I was doing my three mile walk this morning, my mind, or what’s left of it, wandered back a few decades to the lunches my mom packed for me during kindergarten, in 1956-57. To the best of my recollection, my lunch, everyday, was a piece of Gwaltney bologna on two pieces of white (Merita or Sunbeam?) sandwich bread with a slathering of French’s yellow mustard. Sometimes there would be a slice of Kraft American cheese on it. It was accompanied by a small bag of Lays potato chips and the best part of all, three Nabisco Vanilla Wafers wrapped in aluminum foil for dessert. (I would have eaten an entire sleeve of Vanilla Wafers if given the chance.) I took whole milk from a local dairy in an old Thermos brand thermos bottle, the kind with a glass vacuum bottle inside. Yes, I broke more than one of them.

What pre-school meals did you eat prior to going to elementary school and eating cafeteria lunches?

[Jfrosty27]

Geez. Your memory is far better than mine! I don’t remember kindergarten at all. However, for elementary school, we lived directly across the street from the school and it was just a 30 yard walk between our front door and the school entrance. Therefore my siblings and I went home for lunch every day where mom had something great waiting for us.

[WayneT]

That’s not a bad thing, Jim. Some things from my early childhood would best be forgotten.

[hoovarmin]

I had to eat cafeteria food every day and it was revolting. The grossest thing I remember is the peanut butter/corn flake balls they would serve for dessert. I won't tell what they reminded me of but you can probably figure it out. 🤮

[WayneT]

I’m with you, Dave. Our cafeteria food was irredeemable except for the butter biscuits. The soup was especially disgusting with huge chunks of boiled tomato floating in it, along with a random piece of carrot or other unidentifiable vegetable. We all swore it was the dishwater from previous meals.

[Alan Brice]

Half pint of white milk n handful of Zesta soda crackers accompanied by a 30 min nap.
Prob '61. give or take.

[WayneT]

I remember those post-lunch naps too in the first grade. In the middle of the afternoon, we would get ‘extra’ milk, a half pint from the cafeteria which cost a whopping $0.03!

[Jerod Broussard]

I had lunch at school from kindergarten through the 8th grade. I do remember sandwiches containing lots of ketchup when I went on a field trip and did not have a way to refrigerate my food. Unlike Mayo and Mustard, back in the day Ketchup apparently had anti microbial properties.

[WayneT]

Acetic acid for the win!

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

Don't remember much from back then other than I started with a metal box and was carrying the plastic ones later. Probably lots of sammys... but peanut butter and honey or that horrid marshmallow spread were the most common in my recollection... but I don't remember what I did Monday so...

[WayneT]

My best friend in middle school made us sandwiches with spun, spreadable honey and peanut butter. That honey was completely a new thing to me in the mid 1960’s.

[Skip]

At home a peanut butter sandwich was common. In grade school I ate hot lunch and it was usually pretty good...but once in a while sauerkraut or cabbage soup wasn't a favorite! High school hot lunch was ok but nothing great.

[WayneT]

I think school cafeteria lunches were universally nutritious but awful.

[CaptainMike]

I was 10 years later, but this is pretty much how I remembered it:

To the best of my recollection, my lunch, everyday, was a piece of Oscar Mayer bologna on two pieces of white (Wonderbread or Rainbo?) sandwich bread with a slathering of French’s yellow mustard and Best Foods mayonnaise. Sometimes there would be a slice of Kraft American cheese on it. It was accompanied by a small bag of Lays potato chips and the best part of all, three Nabisco Vanilla Wafers or some Oreos in a plastic bag for dessert. (I would have eaten an entire sleeve of Vanilla Wafers or Oreos if given the chance.) I took whole milk from a local dairy in an old Thermos brand thermos bottle, the kind with a glass vacuum bottle inside. Yes, I broke more than one of them.

We rarely had a lunch card for the cafeteria.

[WayneT]

🤣🤣🤣 You must be my brother from another mother. That is uncanny.

[CaptainMike]

Hahahaha, I remember like it was yesterday!

[Jim White]

My kindergarten was about five years after yours, but we only did half days, so I walked back home for lunch. I do have vague memories of graham crackers and milk there, though, so we must have had a snack. I even sort of remember the little rug I slept on when we napped.

My mother was home that year and for my first and second grade years, too, so I had great packed lunches. From third grade through sophomore in high school, she worked in my grandparents' flower shop, so there was some cafeteria time and lunches I helped pack.

Flash forward to my last two years of high school, and my mother was no longer working so she packed amazing lunches for me. Think meatloaf sandwich and a big slice of chocolate cake. Why, yes, I was quite spoiled, but I did work after school most days in the local grocery store.

[WayneT]

I see where your foodie influences come from.

[Murdy]

Went to K-5 in the Chicago suburbs in the early 1970s. Surprisingly, we did not have a cafeteria, so we all brought our lunches. We left our lunch boxes/brown bags in the hall where we hung our coats, unrefrigerated. I would usually have a sandwich of either boiled Polish-style ham or Prasky (which is a Czech bologna-ish sausage, with a heavy dose of garlic and marjoram), milk in one of those fragile thermoses, and for desert, sometimes a couple cookies (plenty of 'Nilla Wafers, as I recall), or, on a good day, a Ho-Ho.

[WayneT]

Yep, no refrigeration so lunches were pretty limited. I also had a metal lunchbox with some cartoon character on it who I don’t recall.

[Murdy]

I recall having one such lunch boxes with the Apollo Astronauts on it.

[Alan Brice]

Flintstones

[Attjack]

The only meal I recall from kindergarten is popcorn with Elmer's glue (thanks a lot, William). However, I also remember visiting my grandparent's house where they had white bread and bologna. We never had these things at home as processed foods were generally frowned upon. I liked the bologna sandwich EXCEPT that the only option was Miracle Whip. Yuck.

[WayneT]

Ouch on the Miracle Whip.

[Murdy]

Nothing like a good ol' Bologna with Miracle Whip and Velveeta on some Wonder Bread.

[Alan Brice]

99 times out of 100, PB&J. Very little meat in the early years. 3rd grade on it was cafeteria at 25 cents, then 35. HS it was ala cart. Hardly ever did that as well.

[WayneT]

Dang it! I meant to say Nabisco SUGAR Wafers in the OP instead of Vanilla Wafers, a totally different experience for a 5 year old.

[Oak Smoke]

Dang I feel left out! In the Texas panhandle we didn’t have kindergarten. I got another year of burning ants with a magnifying glass and hunting sparrows with my Daisy BB gun. I do remember fried bologna sandwiches with Frenches mustard on them. My dad had a friend in the restaurant supply business so we had potato chips in 5 gallon cans. Other than that when first grade rolled around I was one of the poor unfortunates who had to eat in the lunchroom. It was terrible! I remember peanut butter smeared on celery and the runniest nastiest Mac and cheese i had ever seen. I’m sure the meat was from a government program. We never knew what it’s was.

[WayneT]

Fried bologna sandwiches, where the edges were black and crispy, were the best! I used to use two pieces of thin bologna and put a slice of cheese between them after frying on one side. Yum!

[Purc]

I remember fried bologna sandwiches, peanut butter and jelly or peanut butter and brown sugar sandwiches. Raw chocolate chip cookie dough. Outside of hair loss, hearing loss, poor eyesight, and weight gain, eating the cookie dough had very little effect on me.

[Oak Smoke]

Wow! The cookie dough caused all that! I ate it too and have the same symptoms.

[RichieB]

Thoughout grammar school K to 6. There was no cafeteria. We walked home in all types of weather, eat lunch and walk back. When I was in 6th grade I was allowed to go to a local lunch counter near the school one day a week.