Field trip lunches

My usual method for taking lunch to work is to grab something (granola bar) as I'm passing through the kitchen on my way out the door and pop it into my purse, which always seems like a good idea in the morning because I'm never hungry when I first wake up, but doesn't seem like such a great idea at 1 p.m. after toning class when I am hungry.
This morning, I changed things up. We had massive amounts of fruit salad left over from yesterday and I decided to take some of that for lunch. The only Tupperware bowl I could find that had a lid was pretty large but I figured, hey, it's fruit salad, so I loaded it up. I also spied a few pimento cheese biscuits in the fridge so I wrapped them up and put everything in a grocery sack.
Walking across the parking lot with my giant lunch bag, I was reminded of elementary school field trips. On regular school days I usually ate the cafeteria food but on field trip days, when a sack lunch was required, I had some favorite foods that always found their way into my bag. I'm not sure what it was about field trips, but they meant big crazy lunches. A field trip was license to pack completely decadent foods, enough to live on for a few days if the bus should break down leaving the whole class stranded on the side of the highway somewhere.
My field trip lunches were comprised of
a. a sandwich - usually peanut butter and pickle or bologna and mayo on whole wheat bread

b. a crunchy side - Munchos, Doritos, or those potato sticks that came in a can

c. a sweet - Swiss Cake Rolls were a favorite

d. a pop - usually a Crush or Dr. Pepper, frozen the night before then wrapped in aluminum foil

e. a random piece of fruit - usually an orange

So, even though my lunch today looked large, and even though it involved biscuits, it was definitely healthier than a field trip lunch.

Comments

[Lori Houlihan]

Dude! Peanut butter and pickle....really? I don't know...I eat some crazy combos, but I'm not sure I understand the peanut butter/pickle thing. You just get more mysterious all the time.
Wanted to let you know that I REALLY like your new header and the sketch.
I am seeing some light at the end of my self imposed tunnel and am thinking that I may suprize you all with a quickly planned C.R.A.B.S. soirée any day now!

[JLK]

Aw man, I had almost completely forgotten about the frozen can of soda wrapped in aluminum foil ... elementary field trips were the only times that we were allowed to have soda for lunch, as the only option in the cafeteria were those five-cent half pints of milk (it wasn't until middle school that we got to eat in THE GRILL and even had the option of soda) ... but I remember that there was one time that there was a kid who thought he was smart by putting his soda into his thermos so it wouldn't have to be frozen and still stay cold by the time we got to lunch, and then have his thermos explode on the bus and ruin his lunch as well as those unfortunate enough to be near his brown bag ...

why were pops ALWAYS better when they were wrapped in aluminum? i miss school lunches! my mom wrote a note in my lunch everyday until I graduated from high school.