“Slotted spoons don’t hold much soup…”
Mother Nature has unkindly struck again. She grants us a couple of warmer days, note warmer not warm, and the snow melts, lawns reappear, the shoots of spring bulbs stand tall in the garden, and we are hopeful that winter is finally coming to an end. How silly of us!
This morning I woke to a snow shower. It left very little on the lawns but enough to remind us that winter has a strong grip and spring is still waiting in the wings. I put my optimism away for a little bit longer.
The house is warm, I am in my cozy clothes and I have nothing that needs doing today. I did have a few houses chores planned but they can wait until tomorrow or even the day after that. Very little in my life has an urgency about it.
When I was a kid, my mother packed the best school lunches. On days like today, they’d be chicken noodle or tomato soup in my thermos, always still hot at lunchtime. I’d pour the soup in the cup-top and sip it even though my mother packed a spoon. The sandwich bread was white, and usually it was Wonder Bread. I didn’t know bread came in any other colors or flavors until I was older. Bologna was the most common sandwich filling. I liked mine with mustard, and it was always that bright yellow mustard. She never gave me peanut butter and jelly. They always made the bread soggy and the sandwich ugly-looking by lunch. Fridays I’d get tuna salad. It was a no meat day. Sometimes they’d be potato chips. Mostly I had cookies for dessert. Oreos were my favorite. The day or two after my mother had grocery shopped, I’d sometimes be surprised to find Hostess cupcakes or pink Sno Balls tucked into my lunchbox. I drank milk from the little carton sold at lunchtime. I think it was a dime, and my mother used to put in the lunchbox so I wouldn’t lose it. We could talk at our desks during lunch but only in low voices. It was the highlight of the day.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: house chores, Mother Nature, not spring, school lunch, snow showers, urgency, winter
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
March 10, 2014 at 1:54 pm
Its Arcade Fire night down the Palace and we will wander over there around 7.00 for a chance of being Reflektor’d . We will roll the tapes (dvr) to determine the how the Bach, Juan Pablo, has true love descend upon his soccer spinning world. One final rose ? I think not
Meanwhile the cowboys are ready for a catastrophic day in AR and Brendon and Rachel are chugging along on their way to victory in the All Star Amazing Race. The Harlem Globetrotter guys would also be cool winners, along with the Father who blew his leg out and his son
Boats are sailing all over the place in Black Sails – VIII next week ends the first series and I am waiting to see who gets zapped
Michigan brings the delights of 50F today and 4″ of snow tomorrow. We are closing in on 90″ of snow for the season and I don’t think that I really have the energy to clear it again.
March 10, 2014 at 2:28 pm
My Dear Hedley,
Enjoy the concert! I do not watch that program.I didn’t know Juan Pablo, but the rose gave me the hint I needed.
Rachel is more likeable this time though I’m not crazy about her sequenced shorts. I wonder if she’ll hit a country where it is a taboo for women to dress in such revealing attire. She has worn them on each show. I wonder about the washing of that garment.
We will reach 45˚ tomorrow and will have rain on Wednesday. The snow has melted. The only snow left are in small piles at the corners of the streets.
March 10, 2014 at 2:53 pm
Mrs MDH estimates the beacons of snow/ice at the end of the driveway are Everest simulations at about 40″ and maybe a bit less in the shoot that is the rest of the drive.
I generally think that all the AR-AS teams are worthy winners, so cool whoever zips over the last check in mat to hug Phil.
Juan Pablo’s rocking dialogue for 8 or 10 shows has consisted of two sentences – “I want to kiss you” and “you no love Juan Pablo, its ok, you leave” – this has been heard from Vietnam to the Caribbean.
The Prince and assorted relatives including his Pumpa took in 3D Mr Peabody and Sherman – At one stage Mr Peabody was playing a right handed guitar upside down – Hendrix – I laughed, it slid by The Prince
March 10, 2014 at 3:08 pm
MDH,
I agree the AR-AS are all worthy winners. Some of them, though, are just easier to like. The cowboys have their own music, and it is perfect. They, I believe, have everything in place to be the winners, but they also did in their losing efforts.
You have seriously neglected the Prince’s education.
Mr. Peabody and Sherman were favorites of mine long, long ago.
March 10, 2014 at 3:18 pm
I really dislike days like that, when snow falls again and drains the body of all hope and life 🙂 We all fear that will happen here soon since no one of us can remember spring ever arriving this early. Mother nature will punish us sooner or later 🙂
We have free lunch at scvhool so I really can’t compare, the only time we brought something from home was on excursions. Then I normally had hot cocioa, if it was winter and a couple of sandwiches with cheese and spotted sausage. Sometimes it could be Christmas ham if she had saved some in the freeser 🙂 In summer it was much the same but binstead of cocoa I had some kind of lemonade.
I have the fire burning in the stove, not so much because it is needed for the heats sake but I hope the Jackdaws understand that my chimney isn’t a good place to nest in 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
March 10, 2014 at 3:27 pm
Christer,
I hope the birds get the message. I had a raccoon family in my chimney. The mother kept trying to pull up the flue cover. It was a little scary.
Maybe Mother Nature decided it is your turn for an early spring. I wonder, however, when it will be our turn. The cape never has one because of the ocean and how cold it is and how long to get warm.
Free lunch here is for kids whose families don’t make much money. They also get free breakfast to give them a head start on the day.
Have a great evening!
March 10, 2014 at 3:34 pm
Good thing that poor families get that help! Here the schools aren’t allowed to charge for anything. They tried to have a fruit break in the afternoon in the schools here but since it wasn’t the school paying for the fruit they had to stop. Some families are actually that poor that they can’t afford to buy fruit for their children. Our social nets have big holes now days and I hope our conservative government are happy that they have managed to make people so poor that they not even can buy fruit for their children any longer.
March 10, 2014 at 3:55 pm
Christer,
In many of the schools here, 60% and even more of the kids are eligible for free lunch. The cape has lots of poverty as the jobs don’t pay much. Most are related to the tourist industry and pay very little, minimum wage.
The federal government is going to reduce food stamps, aid for poor families to help them buy groceries. Many people are very angry and not just those who would lose the stamps.
March 10, 2014 at 3:41 pm
Hi Kat,
I got the snow shower, too. I was not pleased. It has all melted away but the snow that it covered it still there to remind me that it is not YET spring.
I went home for lunch in grammar school unless it was snowing. Then my mother sent us with lunch box lunch. It was usually bologna and Miracle Whip with milk in the thermos. Recess was always Saltines and peanut butter wrapped in aluminum foil. I can still remember the combined smell of peanut butter and foil half a century on.
I called about my oil burner shutting off the street lamp. The oil burner guy said it could be a ground wire that was malfunctioning and I needed to call the light company. The light company said they would note it.
Okay. Did my bit.
Tomorrow is supposed to be much warmer and nice. Don’t do chores tomorrow. Do them Weds and Thurs when it’s supposed to be nasty outside.
Enjoy the evening.
March 10, 2014 at 3:58 pm
Hi Caryn,
We didn’t have any snow on the ground before the shower and now we’re back to none. I doubt it will last too long.
I loved too far away to go home for lunch, but when I was older and had brown bags instead of a lunch box, my friend and I would hide our lunches and leave as if we were going home. We’d go and sit on benches in a small park. It was great fun and we enjoyed being a tiny bit devious.
That oil burner and the light will do that forever. Noting it is the kiss of death.
Okay, I’m convinced to do chores on Wednesday!
March 10, 2014 at 8:38 pm
Today started out cool because it was just getting light when I left the house for work. By this afternoon the sun was shining brightly and the temperature was in the upper 70s. Just a prelude to spring because by Wednesday another arctic cold front is on it’s way south.
My mother also gave us the same kind of soup in the thermos and I would always drink from the top. Bologna on white Wonder bread was a staple with the yellow mustard. I think mother’s from the 1950s were all schooled in the same place, the great depression.
I hated peanut butter and jelly. Even now I don’t like my food to touch. A peanut butter sandwich was fine or a jelly sandwich but not together. That standard purple grape jelly is my least favorite flavor. I love strawberry or plum.
Did your mother wrap your sandwich in wax paper? My kids don’t have a clue about wax paper. They grew up in the zip lock bag era. The Hostess cupcakes with the little squiggly white icing on top is still my favorite. Snowballs came in a distant third after Twinkie’s. Thank goodness that someone bought the rights for the snack foods during the bankruptcy of Continental bakery last year. Who would want to go through life without that thick cream in the middle of the cake.
March 10, 2014 at 8:49 pm
Bob,
Wow, upper 70’s. Maybe in July we might get that high. My sister is having weather similar to yours: a warm day then a below freezing day. It is a weird winter.
It sounds as if the mother’s handbook described the lunch they had to make for every kid.
I like strawberry jam as well, but I also like grape jelly. I used to make Saltine sandwiches with jam or jelly and peanut butter.
Yup, my mother used wax paper. I think that was all that was around back then. I still have some as every now and then a baking recipes calls for buttered wax paper for the bottom of the pan.
I used to eat Sno Balls the same way all the time. I’d take the icing off in a single piece, eat the cupcake and then the frosting. I loved Hostess cupcakes, especially that cream in the middle.
March 12, 2014 at 8:48 pm
Your lunch story struck me. I was allergic to grape jelly and hated peanuts, so I didn’t eat a peanut butter & jelly til I was in my 30’s. Baloney, mustard on Wonder Bread here, too, in wax paper. But your reference to the wax-paper milk cartons… oh, that hurt!! I swear, I will be standing at the Pearly Gates, and St. Peter will say, “Welcome to heaven Jay Bird, but you first have to open this milk carton.” I will be cast off to hell, I know! Still can’t get those little buggers open without ripping the top to shreds. It looks so easy!
March 12, 2014 at 9:01 pm
Jay,
I thought I was the only one totally incapable of opening those cartons without ripping the tops. I needed a straw to sip the milk as it would pour from two sides because of the mess I’d made. Okay, I admit I still have trouble with those tops!
You are the first person I ever heard who was allergic to grape jelly. Is it only grape?
At every lunch time in every school in American many thousands of kids used to eat the same lunch. Bologna was king!