Cafeteria Ladies

I don't know how you feel, but I think we were blessed as kids to have some of the best Cafeteria Ladies in all of the Public School system. When I walked through that serving line the first time, in the first grade... I thought I had most truly died and gone to Heaven. A quarter in my family, especially a quarter a day...was a lot of money, and I didn't always have a quarter for lunch. I always came to School with something to eat when I didn't have one...maybe a biscuit with some Damson preserves, or a slice or two of Fatback, sometimes a tomato and some salt in a napkin...but something. Someone in mid year First grade or early Second grade, I can't remember, managed to get me a job in the Cafeteria at lunch, and this enabled me to be able to eat every day. I don't even remember what all I did, I remember cleaning tables after lunch, sweeping and mopping and carrying out trash...little else. What I do remember was the way the ladies treated me. They always made me feel like I was something special...having that job throughout most of Elementary school was one of my fondest memories. We always ate last, and we got ALL we could eat and then some. There were always extra rolls and they were like the famous Lays Potato Chip commercial. "Nobody can eat just one" Seems like to me they would let you choose how many you got...but no one could get over four. I think the ladies sneaked me five or six every day before I even went through the lunch line. They were protective of you too...someone made fun of me mopping the kitchen floor. "Do that again and I'll pick up the phone and call your Mamma" came a quick reply form one from one of the ladies, and not only did I never hear another snicker there, I heard much less of them on the playground. I ate my first Pizza, Sloppy Joe, Pimento Cheese, Lazagna....even Fudge Striped Vanilla ice cream there. I remember going home and sitting around the table at Supper and feeling guilty about what all I had to eat that day at school. When asked what lunch was, I always said "I don't remember, couldnt been much to it I don't reckon" But my First grade classroom (Mrs. Ellington) was just down from the cafeteria and when the smells started wafting into the classroom when we had the door open...my morning was over...you could have asked me my name and I wouldn't have known it...I was like Homer Simpson thinking about a doughnut....hmmmmmmm