I remember the daily lunchtime march towards our school’s multi-purpose room that mysteriously transformed everyday into our lunch cafeteria by the stroke of 11:30am. My kindergarten class marched in unison with the first graders in a single formation, as if we were militant soldiers breaking for chow time. In perfect strides, the soles of our loafers and black & white tie up shoes rustled through the reddish orange leaves which outlined the direct path to lunchtime heaven. The squeaking of metal lunchboxes painted with cartoon legends like Wonder Woman, Spiderman, Popeye, and the Smurfs, drowned out the subtle crackling of the limited hand-carried paper brown bagged lunches.
The squeaking chipmunk voices outside the multipurpose room alerted the lunchroom monitors that the lower class militia had arrived. Suddenly, the dragging and vibrating scrapes of metal chairs being extracted away from the wooden topped tables signaled the ringing of brass covered bells, cuing the militia to regain order and silence. One last bellow of brass ringing bells chanted in our tiny ears, giving us the green light to begin consumption of our daily bread.
A high fashioned buffet of rainbow bright sandwiches slowly revealed mouth-watering morsels of pleasure, yet sometimes the unleashed smell of rotten egg salad sandwiches would trigger gag reflexes.
My lunch as a child brought pleasure to my ravenous palate, and often prompted others to whisper deals of exchange and trial periods – but the delectable treasures were exclusive to me. I adored the double mounted slap of apple butter equally glazed across two toasted slices of Sunbeam squares; squished between a brown stripped yellow banana and a yellow thermos filled to capacity with strawberry Kool-Aid, laced with powered mix around the brim. The perfect ending to this memorable lunch was the sweet indulgence of my favorite Hostess cake, the Susie Q. My belly tingled with satisfaction from the mountain peaks of sugary vanilla icing that triggered memories of pure enjoyment of lunch as a child.