Thunderstorms and hot lunch posted 6/4/2008 12:36:41 PM | 11 kudos what's this?     report abuse

Loreli

On days like this, with dark clouds rolling in, I swear I can smell the smells of elementary school lunch cooking in the cafeteria.

Perhaps when weather was bad, and I was in school, I subconciously put my thoughts elsewhere to calm my fear. Perhaps teachers used the thought of lunch to get our mind off of the weather. I don't remember.

I DO remember loving gym, and our PE teacher Mr. Erger. He was always in a quiet happy mood, and smelled of cigarettes and something I couldn't put my finger on. As I got older, thinking back, I'd guess whiskey. We all loved him and the constant smile on his face..Whatever put it there.

I DON'T remember kindergarten. My Mom tells me of all 4 of us kids, I was the only one that didn't cry that first day, just turned around, said "Bye-bye" to her, and walked in. She said SHE cried.

I DO remember immunizations at school. We'd all line up single file and slowly move forward to take our turn under "the gun." That gun was HUGE, and dangit-it hurt like *&^%. There were so many children crying nonstop that afterwards, parents had to be called. Not mine-I LOVED school..
.I cried silent tears.

I DON'T remember much about first and second grade years, except my teacher's names- Mrs. Cooper was our Governor's mother-in-law, and she dressed in dress suits and nice earrings every day. She smelled so good-nothing floral, and certainly not whiskey!

Third grade was a turning point. I DO remember Mrs. Berchenbriter, a roly, poly, cheerful lady that assigned me to class mentor in spelling. I LOVED helping the other kids, This HUGE girl, Carla, kept herself isolated from everyone. In 3rd grade, she already had a very noticeable black .moustache. I think kids were scared of her.
Not me. When I was one of the few that received an invitation to her birthday party , I said sure, I'll go! Then....I got close enough to smell her. I told my Mom I wasn't going. She said it wouldn't be very nice, so I went-only to drop off the gift.. I was close to losing my lunch.

I didn't, but I DO remember losing it in the cafeteria one day after hot dogs and apricots. I DO remember the other kids scrambling, and teachers coming to help me.I was so embarassed. I will always remember the looks on the kids faces at my table.
Never again have I eaten hot dogs or apricots.

I DO remember 4th/5th grade,the work got HARD! We had 2 Science annexes in the parking lot. The projects could be quite fun. And quite dangerous. From our annex one day, we saw the door fly open on the annex next to us, and one of the boys running out in flames. The teacher was right behind, jumping him to the ground. It wasn't a small task-she was a small woman. He was badly burned on the face and neck. She was burnt on her hands...so bad that she had to retire.

I remember 6th grade was where it all came together. My class was the first in the new addition to our school. The 2 5th grade rooms were built to open into each other, as well as the IMC. We thought it was so cool that there were automatic dividers between the 2 classes, that teachers could WRITE on! What technology!
The rooms were left open to the IMC on bad weather days, and we were herded dow those stairs often. No windows. Friends around.

I remember the teachers were grouchy, the art teacher wore tight mini-skirts and stiletto heels, me dumping paper mache in my crush's lap, the school bully beating up the special needs girl and breaking her arm. I remember "getting to be in" a select group of 6 girls, that always sat on the stairway seats, and seemed to be highly respected by both teachers..

I may NOT remember what I ate yesterday, or information garnered from a friend's phone call about her shopping trip 2 days ago.

I didn't remember what the cafeteria smelled like....until now.

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