It's middle school in the 90s or 80s and it's PIZZA DAY.
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This surfaced forgotten memories. I was fascinated by the concept of "bagged lunch" begged my mom to let me have a bagged lunch. (I thought it was very exotic like in an anime)
My mom was so confused and annoyed to her "bag lunch" was for "poor kids" and she didn't work in the math mines all day to have her daughter eating out of a paper bag.
Also since she was a math prof she had no time to make a lunch ... and tried to get Dad to do it who was baffled.
It quickly came to: "if you really want to have a bagged lunch you need to make it yourself."
I was excited to try!
It was a disaster!I think I gave up after a few months. But the strange little plastic containers and boxes I found hung around in the kitchen for years.
Later I was obsessed with a "factory lunch" and using the old lunch pail that belonged to my grandfather when he worked in the mills.
That went a bit better.
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@futurebird Aren't you from the East Coast? Wasn't your pizza better?
"school pizza" has nothing at all to do with any other dish that might go by that name.
it's a different food basically.
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It quickly came to: "if you really want to have a bagged lunch you need to make it yourself."
I was excited to try!
It was a disaster!I think I gave up after a few months. But the strange little plastic containers and boxes I found hung around in the kitchen for years.
Later I was obsessed with a "factory lunch" and using the old lunch pail that belonged to my grandfather when he worked in the mills.
That went a bit better.
Thing thing about only "poor kids" bringing their lunch wasn't really true at our school. Most of the kids who brought a lunch just had very fussy mothers who thought the cafeteria food was terrible.
They were not totally wrong.
But my lunches... they were worse. I have memories of friends taking up a collection to feed me because I'd brought something that made no sense... like two cups of white rice with ketchup and nothing else.
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"school pizza" has nothing at all to do with any other dish that might go by that name.
it's a different food basically.
@futurebird Ours in New Mexico must have come from a different supplier because there were no bubbles in the pizza.
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@futurebird Ours in New Mexico must have come from a different supplier because there were no bubbles in the pizza.
They made ours from scratch with government cheese I think.
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Thing thing about only "poor kids" bringing their lunch wasn't really true at our school. Most of the kids who brought a lunch just had very fussy mothers who thought the cafeteria food was terrible.
They were not totally wrong.
But my lunches... they were worse. I have memories of friends taking up a collection to feed me because I'd brought something that made no sense... like two cups of white rice with ketchup and nothing else.
@futurebird @MCDuncanLab @llewelly I never went to a school with a cafeteria that served food, so all kids brought their lunch to school or went home for lunch if they lived close by.
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It quickly came to: "if you really want to have a bagged lunch you need to make it yourself."
I was excited to try!
It was a disaster!I think I gave up after a few months. But the strange little plastic containers and boxes I found hung around in the kitchen for years.
Later I was obsessed with a "factory lunch" and using the old lunch pail that belonged to my grandfather when he worked in the mills.
That went a bit better.
@futurebird @MCDuncanLab
I often made my own sack lunch when I was a child, and in those days my dream sack lunch went something like this: thick slice bread, preferably from the end of the loaf so it's tough, thick slice cheese, thick slice tomato, fried egg, 2nd thick slice cheese, 2nd thick slice bread, again preferably from the end of the loaf, thermos of tomato juice. But I think I only got to make that twice, and ended up leaving out ingredients and substituting practically every time. -
They made ours from scratch with government cheese I think.
@futurebird The reason I asked about the East Coast thing is that in NM we got local-inspired (
️) food that was pretty good. -
It's middle school in the 90s or 80s and it's PIZZA DAY. Yay!
One of the square slices behind the counter has a bubble. The dough has somehow acquired an air pocket. It's huge. The size of a tennis ball.
Everyone is talking about "The Bubble"
How do you feel about the bubble?
@futurebird I was the weirdo who thought the pizza was gross so I was in the other line and unaware of the whole bubble thing (and probably reading a book)
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@futurebird @MCDuncanLab
I often made my own sack lunch when I was a child, and in those days my dream sack lunch went something like this: thick slice bread, preferably from the end of the loaf so it's tough, thick slice cheese, thick slice tomato, fried egg, 2nd thick slice cheese, 2nd thick slice bread, again preferably from the end of the loaf, thermos of tomato juice. But I think I only got to make that twice, and ended up leaving out ingredients and substituting practically every time.That sounds much more responsible. I didn't really have a planning skills to pack a lunch so I'd just... find things in the house, and around the house and put them in the box to figure out later.
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It's middle school in the 90s or 80s and it's PIZZA DAY. Yay!
One of the square slices behind the counter has a bubble. The dough has somehow acquired an air pocket. It's huge. The size of a tennis ball.
Everyone is talking about "The Bubble"
How do you feel about the bubble?
@futurebird it makes the dough chewier but it means less of anything else, so I am neutral to The Bubble!
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Thing thing about only "poor kids" bringing their lunch wasn't really true at our school. Most of the kids who brought a lunch just had very fussy mothers who thought the cafeteria food was terrible.
They were not totally wrong.
But my lunches... they were worse. I have memories of friends taking up a collection to feed me because I'd brought something that made no sense... like two cups of white rice with ketchup and nothing else.
@futurebird @MCDuncanLab @llewelly I went to high school in Victoria during the '90s, when we had a fairly extreme neoliberal/libertarian state premier named Jeff Kennett.
Jeff was a complete tool on every level. This is a guy who once boasted about collecting golliwog dolls and naming them after his favourite Aboriginal footballers. After politics, he ran a football club until a major racism scandal.
He privatised pretty much everything he could (electricity, the gas utility, public transport). He awarded an ad agency that happened to be owned by his wife a bunch of government contracts. He sacked all the democratically elected local councils, merged them together, and appointed CEOs to run them. He wrecked a major urban renewal project (Docklands) by letting developers run amok. And he corporatised any government agency he couldn't sell.
Privatising state schools was a bridge too far even for Jeff, but he did merge them together and corporatise them.
Before Jeff, school tuckshops were typically run by volunteers, usually grandparents or stay at home mums. I remember pies cost $2.60 and $1.60 for sausage rolls. Vanilla slices were $1.10.
You'd write your order on a brown paper bag and pay at recess, and then collect your order at lunchtime.
And excess stock was then sold off during lunch time.
Jeffrey Gibb Kennett couldn't privatise schools, but he could contract out things like cleaners, groundskeepers, and canteens.
So he did.
So we went from a volunteer-run tuckshop to a for-profit privatised school canteen where the deep-fried rubbish cost double. -
It's middle school in the 90s or 80s and it's PIZZA DAY. Yay!
One of the square slices behind the counter has a bubble. The dough has somehow acquired an air pocket. It's huge. The size of a tennis ball.
Everyone is talking about "The Bubble"
How do you feel about the bubble?
@futurebird i unironically loved The Bubble(tm) even though it usually meant less proportional dough and therefore fewer calories compared to a normal slice of cafeteria pizza.
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It's middle school in the 90s or 80s and it's PIZZA DAY. Yay!
One of the square slices behind the counter has a bubble. The dough has somehow acquired an air pocket. It's huge. The size of a tennis ball.
Everyone is talking about "The Bubble"
How do you feel about the bubble?
@futurebird I was homeschooled after 3rd grade in 1984. But I remember pizza day. We had no bubbles, but I'd imagine it would be like finding a double M&M or Cheeze-It — lucky!!! If I had a double-M&M, I'd put it inside the bubble. Make a little house for them to live.
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It quickly came to: "if you really want to have a bagged lunch you need to make it yourself."
I was excited to try!
It was a disaster!I think I gave up after a few months. But the strange little plastic containers and boxes I found hung around in the kitchen for years.
Later I was obsessed with a "factory lunch" and using the old lunch pail that belonged to my grandfather when he worked in the mills.
That went a bit better.
@futurebird @MCDuncanLab @llewelly We were "suburban" middle class (the suburb had no urb), so we got metal lunchboxes. I had the Strawberry Shortcake one, but I really wanted a Star Wars or He-Man lunchbox. Not acceptable for "girls." Plastic lunchboxes came out during my short elementary career, with a built-in thermos. Not nearly as cool as the metal ones. Those are very cool to this day. I don't remember too many status issues over bringing a lunchbox vs. havinga ticket for a hot lunch. Either I was too autistic to notice, or the lunchbox flattened the sense of have-not.
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@futurebird @MCDuncanLab @llewelly We were "suburban" middle class (the suburb had no urb), so we got metal lunchboxes. I had the Strawberry Shortcake one, but I really wanted a Star Wars or He-Man lunchbox. Not acceptable for "girls." Plastic lunchboxes came out during my short elementary career, with a built-in thermos. Not nearly as cool as the metal ones. Those are very cool to this day. I don't remember too many status issues over bringing a lunchbox vs. havinga ticket for a hot lunch. Either I was too autistic to notice, or the lunchbox flattened the sense of have-not.
@corbden @MCDuncanLab @llewelly
We had lunch boxes in elementary school. And I remember the plastic boxes coming out and thinking it was a major downgrade.
I think the selling point was you could put them in the dishwasher (but then the sticker would come off... sad times)
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That sounds much more responsible. I didn't really have a planning skills to pack a lunch so I'd just... find things in the house, and around the house and put them in the box to figure out later.
My older sister was a pain in the butt, at one point maybe when she was in 2nd grade she pitched a fit about what my mom made. Mom said fine 2nd graders make their own lunches. When I hit second grade that meant me too.
I ate peanut butter and butter sandwiches every day probably until 6th grade.
We also got a gross red delicious apple, and two chocolate cookies, which my sister was in charge of making, and I did get a milk card.
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@corbden @MCDuncanLab @llewelly
We had lunch boxes in elementary school. And I remember the plastic boxes coming out and thinking it was a major downgrade.
I think the selling point was you could put them in the dishwasher (but then the sticker would come off... sad times)
@futurebird @corbden @MCDuncanLab @llewelly I had an ALF lunchbox and periodically I see it on eBay and I'm halfway tempted, but the sticker always looks rough
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@corbden @MCDuncanLab @llewelly
We had lunch boxes in elementary school. And I remember the plastic boxes coming out and thinking it was a major downgrade.
I think the selling point was you could put them in the dishwasher (but then the sticker would come off... sad times)
@futurebird @corbden @llewelly
We had metal boxes until they became uncool probably late elementary or 6th grade and then it was a paper bag.
I think I had to make the bag last all week, because I definitely remember have a ratty torn up bag.
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It's middle school in the 90s or 80s and it's PIZZA DAY. Yay!
One of the square slices behind the counter has a bubble. The dough has somehow acquired an air pocket. It's huge. The size of a tennis ball.
Everyone is talking about "The Bubble"
How do you feel about the bubble?
@futurebird Former pizza cook reporting in:
That wasn't an accident, we made sure you got a bubble
