Some of you who are as old as I am can remember the time before schools had lunchrooms. Those were the days that were called brown bagging it. Some children were fortunate enough to have a fancy lunch box with a picture of Roy Rogers or Hopalong Cassidy on the front of it. I was part of the larger crowd who had to carry what we called a paper poke.
At lunchtime each child would break out his or her paper poke to eat his or her sandwich. I guess it was natural to wonder what the kid next to you was going to have for lunch. Having known from breakfast what your own lunch was, it was sometimes real exciting to trade your sandwich off. If the kid next to you had something you were especially fond of, you might offer him a nickel to boot, which was to be paid on Friday. Sometimes your appetite might keep you from seeing the nickel Friday matinee at the Lyric Theater. It’s awfully hard to plan ahead when you are in the second or third grade.
I remember one time that I traded my sandwich off, and got beat, B-A-D. Billy Joe had a cheese sandwich with mustard on it and I had never tried a sandwich like that, so I traded with him. I can’t remember what I traded off, but I know it was much better than what I got.
My taste buds just can’t stand the combination of cheese and mustard together. I went home hungry that day because I had to give or throw that sandwich away. It’s funny how impressions in early years stay with you. For even to this day I can’t eat mustard and cheese together. If I order a cheeseburger, I tell them emphatically, “Hold the mustard.”
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