Sunday, September 14, 2008

Some VIPs we have Overlooked -


- and not thought much about until now.

These are the cooks and servers at the BHS cafeteria in 52-57.

L-R front row - Mrs. Thomas Miller, Angie Milton, Mrs. Wilson, L-R back row - Mrs. Alton Miller, Essie Magers, Mrs. Rob Roberts (Alma).

For many years Ms. Marcella Arnold and her sister cooked in the cafeteria. I do not remember the sister's name. They were evidently retired at this point in time.

The government-provided meats and cheeses were tastefully prepared by these cooks and were very good. The meals were only 20 cents ($1 a week) at the time. Often when everyone was served there would be seconds (the big guys would get it). There was always one milk for each meal, and sometimes two. No one was allowed to bring a cola to drink with the meal.

The lower grades were served first beginning at 11 AM or slightly before, and then upward through the top grades. The primer and first grade was in the same building and didn't have far to go, but we marched there in an orderly manner instead of running and pushing kids out of the way.

Imagine an orderly happening at a school these days....

12 comments:

  1. Carl, some of them were working there long before 1952. Angie Milton and Essie Magers were there when we were in the 2nd grade.
    Mrs. Arnold waas there in the 1940's also. I can't remember her sister's name either.
    Dave

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  2. I asked Ms Hortense when she was in the nursing home where she learned how to discipline kids so well and she said she learned it from her Daddy. She would have been impressive in any era.

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  3. This is the crew I remember being there..I don't think in their day any of us ever talked about the food being bad..I always looked forward to lunch...Fridays was cherry cobbler..I can still taste how good it was..

    Wallis

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  4. Wallis, what I recall most was the "killer" meat loaf they made, I think it was on the Wednesday meal menu. If I ate no other day, that would be the day I didn't miss.

    I was known to sneak a biscuit and sausage to school and use my lunch money to buy a model airplane kit from Jake Lindsey.

    I still love meatloaf, and gauge today's by that standard at the lunchroom.

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  5. My favorite lunchroom food was the freshly baked peanut butter cookies with the criss-crossed fork marks on top. Wish I had the recipe.

    Carl, I remember those airplane kits. They were made of balsa wood with a blue ink design stamped on and you could punch the pieces out and glue them together.

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  6. Re Miss Hortense: I was as scared of her as I was of Mr. Baker.

    Re the lunchroom: I remember those peanut butter cookies too. I couldn't figure out the criss-crosses. But my favorite food there was graham crackers and peanut butter. That was rather exotic to me. And I loved the vegetable soup.

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  7. I guess I was easy to please. I do not remember anything served that I could not enjoy. We were always given 2 half pints of milk. several of the students, both boys and girls did not drink but one, and I always had an extra, or two. I loved milk.

    EWC

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  8. In those years I lived one house away from Miss Hortense, and her brother, Milton--many times she would stop by in the mornings and drive me to shcool, she had a white or lite gray 46 Ford and it was told that on one occasion she went into Prather Ford and requested that the air in her tires be changed becaused it had been in there since she bought the car--It is very true that she left a lifetime impression on us all (to her credit) I'm a better person because of her. Thanks Miss Hortense

    John Melvin

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  9. By far and away my favorite was the sloppy joe style hambuger. The only problem with them was that one just wasn't enough!

    Phil C

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  10. Oh yeah! During the holidays the turkey and dressing they served was also great, but that ham was not fit to eat!

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  11. My favorite meal was the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. These two ingredients were mixed together to look like a deep grape colored mud concoction. It was never jelly on one piece of bread and PB on the other but always mixed together. I still make mine that way today. We always had this sandwich with the homemade vegetable soup and that was always served on Thursdays, best I remember. I suppose it took the first three days of leftovers to get enough ingredients for the soup. Sloppy Jo's was our Friday treat along with the peanut butter cookie. No matter what was served on what day, it was all good and I was always glad to get it. More often than not, it was the best meal of my day.

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  12. Do you-all remember the "milque" toast they made tray after tray of? We knew it as milk toast then. It was real thick-sliced bread and had real butter with milk and cheese on it and was baked golden brown.
    UMMMMM!

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