I started kindergarten at Holdaway Elementary in 1973, the year I turned six. The school had just one classroom for each grade, kindergarten through sixth, plus a small library, principal’s office, and a big multipurpose room that served as the gym, cafeteria, and auditorium. It was the heart of the school, where just about everything happened.
Kindergarten was only half a day, so we went home before lunch. But by first grade, we were part of the full lunch routine. Lunch tickets cost thirty-five cents, sold in strips of five, one for each day of the week. Once a month, Mom would send a check with me to school to buy a month’s worth of tickets. In the early grades, our teachers kept everyone’s tickets to make sure they did not get lost. Later on, we were trusted to keep our own. I remember keeping mine in the pencil slot of my desk and trying not to bend or lose any before Friday.
You could buy an extra milk for a nickel, which was a big deal if you had a little change in your pocket. Everyone got chocolate milk on Thursdays, which made it the best lunch day of the week.
When it was time for lunch, the gym transformed into the cafeteria. Each grade had its assigned table. First through third graders sat at the short tables on one side of the room, and fourth through sixth graders sat at the taller ones on the other. The tables and benches folded up into the wall like Murphy beds when lunch was over. There was a table for the teachers, too. The sixth graders had the important job of lowering the tables before lunch and folding them back up afterward.
All the food was cooked right there in the kitchen. It was not the prepackaged kind schools serve now. Everything smelled like a home-cooked meal. The cooks, Marilyn Skinner and Fayone Erickson, made lunch every day for all of us. They also served the food as we filed through the line, wearing hairnets and white aprons. At the start of the line stood Mrs. Shirley Haderlie, who collected our lunch tickets as we entered. If we forgot our ticket or had run out, we could “charge” our lunch by telling her. She kept track of who owed a ticket and made sure everyone still got to eat.
One of the most memorable desserts was the peanut butter nougat ball, a sweet, chewy treat that everyone looked forward to. Every once in a while, someone at our table would collect the extras from kids who did not want theirs and roll them together into a single giant ball, about the size of a softball. It was impressive and a little gross at the same time.
Another regular item on the menu was the “salad,” which was really just a wedge of iceberg lettuce. No dressing, no vegetables, just lettuce. We would sprinkle a little salt on top and eat it like a snack.
By sixth grade, we were part of the cafeteria crew. Each week, two students were assigned to scrape trays. It was a prized job because you got to go to lunch a few minutes early. After everyone finished eating, kids brought their trays to a window in the wall that opened into the kitchen. We would take the trays, scrape off the leftovers, stack them for washing, and separate the utensils. Marilyn and Fayone would finish up after we were done, washing everything before heading home for the day.
Every afternoon, each class had a milk break around 2:30. Two students were chosen to go to the kitchen and bring back the baskets of half-pint milk cartons, one for every student in the class. The afternoon milk cost five cents, and the whole classroom would pause for a short snack and milk break.
Looking back, those lunches at Holdaway Elementary felt like a little piece of home in the middle of the school day. Everything was simple, warm, and made from scratch. They really do not make school lunches like that anymore.
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