Nitrites, trans fat, refined white flour and high fructose corn syrup - the staples of childhood in the 70s.Those of use who went to Oak Park schools may remember the "hot dog lunch." The day the sign-up form came home was a good one. Your mom filled out your order and a few days later, the hot dog lunch appeared in your classroom. For $0.60 you got a warm, foil-wrapped hot dog encased in a soft, steamy white bun, a bag of Superior potato chips, and a half-pint carton of orange drink. You got to eat it at your desk instead of the bologna-smelling lunchroom.
My mom was always a hot dog lunch volunteer, which made me proud. Plus, if there were leftovers, she sneaked them to me AND when I got home that day, sometimes I found extra bags of chips that she got to keep.
The joy of filling my tummy with all that crap was evident in my expanding frame. But what else are the elementary years for but growing out of those first years of saltless, sugarless baby food and working hard to acquire a taste for everything that you will eventually need to stop eating when your arteries begin to fill up with plaque?
2 comments:
We had hot dog lunches at Fatima, too! What a great day that was. Ours came with chocolate milk. Yummm.
We used to ball up the foil the hot dog came in and play basketball with it in the lunch room when we had to throw our stuff out. Fun times I tell ya.
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