Pre-school memories
I was just talking with a friend of mine around this the other night, and I got such a warm fuzzy memory from it, that I thought that I would share and see of other people had similar memories.
When I was in pre-school, I had to go to a neighbor's for daycare, and I can remember one of the reasons that we would all try to behave. Because, when it came to lunch, if we were really good, we could choose our tv tray first (the ones with those great cartoons on them, such as Kermit the Frog or Rainbow Bright). And we could also pick our favorite lunch (mine being the standard, white bread-peanut butter-grape jelly) combo and sit and watch cartoons while eating.
Did anyone else ever get something like that? If not, what memories of lunch or snacks at daycare do you have? Good or bad? And favorite foods that they made for you?
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34 Comments:
no memories of day care but in kindergarten my most vivid memory is when Mrs Friend (yes her real name) taught us all how to make vegetable soup, we did all the chopping even, with real knives not table knives. Now adays of course a school would never allow that, which in a way is a real shame. Best darn soup I had ever had too ;)
huney_bumper at 10:35AM on 04/28/08
Every Friday in nursery school, we had challah so we could practice the Hebrew blessing over it. Once, we had cinnamon-raisin challah, and every week after that I looked forward to having it again, but it never came.
In kindergarten, I remember making Stone Soup (from the storybook) and Rice Krispies treats.
juliec at 10:45AM on 04/28/08
I recall being served tinned fruit (this would have been in 1980-81), and the kid who got the sticky, sickly sliver of candied cherry floating around in their portion felt particularly special. I also remember how much I loathed the spinach that they periodically forced on us (I think it must have been tinned as well). It would be another ten years before I was willing to give spinach another go.
So on the whole, slightly less glowing memories than either Traveller or huney_bumper.
caley at 10:46AM on 04/28/08
It's not really a preschool memory- more of a kindergarten era one: I was one of the kids on our local Romper Room and, my first day on the show Miss Ann (evil, evil woman who came across as sweet on television) forced me to drink the milk along with our gingersnaps. During the commercial break I tried to tell her I was allergic to milk. She snarled something about I'd better drink it or else. Well, I drank it and then barfed - live and on camera for all the world to see. Shortly thereafter we had a new Miss Ann and a choice of milk or juice! lol
As far as preschool goes I remember getting those ruffle edge butter cookies and - if we were really good- we got to take them out to the playground. Happy, happy days!!
sbelle at 11:03AM on 04/28/08
Cream of chicken noodle soup out of a thermos in the neighborhood babysitter's kitchen - awesome.
Watered down Tang at my mom's school - traumatizing.
Sticking orange peels in our mouth and grinning like idiots at Mother's Day out - hilarious. (Doing the same with hard boiled eggs - even better.)
Trying to eat my strawberry jam sandwich next to the boy who smelled like poop - stinky.
renzata at 11:07AM on 04/28/08
(Didn't meant to post quite yet)
Scrambled eggs and weenies (the only dish my then-law student dad could make) - squishy.
renzata at 11:09AM on 04/28/08
My mother used to make this sandwich in my pre-school days (early '50s). It varied as to what the filling was but, more often than not, it was done with fruit preserves and was called a "quickie-pie". It was made in the device pictured here http://tinyurl.com/3jldg8 by buttering two slices of bread, spreading the filling on one side, clamping it closed. and trimming off the crusts. You then held it over the gas flame on the stove, turning from time to time and checking for the perfect degree of doneness. It seemed to take a long time to get done and then you had to wait quite a while for the thing to cool or you would get a serious mouthburn...especially if the filling was fruit. It was the first Popeil product I ever saw, sold by the father of Ron Popeil (the "set it and forget guy") and came out years before the Chop-a-matic or Pocket Fisherman. I still have it around here somewhere although it's been many a moon since it was used.
grampart at 11:12AM on 04/28/08
I have a pretty awful food story from daycare, when I was 2 years old. I've been allergic to peanuts my whole life, even a tiny fraction of one nut will cause me to go into anaphylactic shock. Despite knowing this, my teachers (a bunch of incompetent 19-year-olds) gave me peanut butter between two rice cakes for snack one day. I bit into it and immediately realized that something was wrong. When my mother came to pick me up shortly afterwards, I was so swollen that she said she wouldn't have recognized me if not for the clothes she had dressed me in that morning. I can still remember sitting at my desk as they passed out that day's snacks--it might be my first memory. Trauma!
On a happier note, in kindergarten my class "studied" Japan and as a treat we had chicken-flavored rice-a-roni that we ate with chopsticks. Culinarily inaccurate, yes, but it was just so much fun!
Vegetarianka at 11:54AM on 04/28/08
Yikes, I barely remember what I ate yesterday. :P
I went to an odd daycare-school. It was a real school, but a very small one with maybe 80-90 kids total from pre-school through 3rd grade. We went all year long, Monday through Friday, 7:30 - 4:00 p.m. There were no winter or summer breaks, if I recall correctly.
We were brought snacks in the morning, which I loved. Guava juice or passion orange juice with graham or Hilo saloon pilot crackers. Mmm. The saloon pilot crackers were slightly sweet and great with juice (I have never eaten them with sugar or butter, as I've read some ppl used to). I remember hating the smell of the milk when they didn't serve it with juice. We'd wash our cups out after we were through, and placed them back on the tray.
The administrative part of the school and the kitchen were in a large plantation house. I remember during morning classes the women would be in the kitchen bustling / clanging about making our lunches.
We would all line up along the hall and be served our plates of hot food. It was kind of like being at a grandparent's house with all the women around the kitchen serving you food while you came to the table. The kitchen had two separate doors, so there wouldn't be that funky conjestion, and then we would eat in our classroom.
Beef stew with rice was great. That is the only dish I remember. :O
Cassaendra at 11:59AM on 04/28/08
Speaking of culinarily inaccurate treats, in kindergarten we "took a trip to Hawaii" (packed bags and sat in the room in rows, til they told us we were "there). When we "arrived," they gave us Dixie cups full of "poi" which was actually vanilla pudding that we were to eat with two fingers, in the traditional style. Hilarious and fun!
BangieB at 12:32PM on 04/28/08
Not pre-school - but K-4th. I would walk home for lunch. Mom would have something waiting for me - celery and cream cheese, peanut butter and jelly, liver-sausage and crackers... and I would sit there and enjoy lunch while watching Underdog on TV. Then walk on back.
That and milk at school. I don't know if they still do that but every morning at like 10:30 we would get milk delivered to our room.
bodaciousgirl at 1:12PM on 04/28/08
It wasn't at school, but around kindergarten age I had a little friend named Jeffrey who I loved to play with (he had this cool monkeys-in-a-barrel toy that I was obsessed with, probably would be considered a choking hazard today, but somehow J and I survived). His mom was really sweet to us and would make us the most delicious chicken-noodle soup -- it was years later that I discovered it was straight out of the Campbell's can! Doesn't matter though -- I loved it, and them. I wonder if he'll be at my high school reunion in 2 weeks??
CookiePie at 1:21PM on 04/28/08
Flower-shaped butter cookies and red Kool-Aid. Magical combination.
When I was a little older, we'd get Bugles at recess and put them on our fingertips to pretend we had long, pointed nails.
My mom would mix peanut butter and jelly together in a bowl and make white-bread sandwiches with it. She told me a few years ago that it wasn't as "drippy" that way. But we thought she did it because it tasted so much better.
Editmom at 1:48PM on 04/28/08
I always loved the pre-school banana bread, and oohhh those little cartons of chocolate milk--so tasty!
My fav memories though were when I went to pre-school in the am. My dad would pick me up, we'd go home and eat pb & j's and watch The Price Is Right before it was time for kindergarten. Being the youngest of 3 girls it was always nice to have the one on one time for awhile every day.
bobcatsteph3 at 1:55PM on 04/28/08
eating paste?
LoCo at 1:56PM on 04/28/08
After Monday morning kindergarten, my best friend and I would always go back to her house before our afternoon piano lessons. Our favorite meal was good ole Kraft macaroni and cheese, with apple slices dipped in caramel, and pretzels. The best memory I have is when I swallowed my tooth while eating, thinking at the time I had just bit down on a large chunk of salt from the pretzel (hey--I was only in Kindergarten!). A bit later, I felt that my front tooth was missing, looked all over her house for it, and then made the connection that no, it was not salt but rather the tooth I had bitten.
luswim06 at 2:24PM on 04/28/08
Right on, LoCo! There were so many items in nursery school and kindergarten that blurred the line between art supplies and food. Like that thick tempera paint (mmm, tempura paint), and sometimes even crayons.
I remember eating cinnamon swirl cookies and apple juice at day camp. Doesn't sound too bad, but trust me, it was.
Kerosena at 2:28PM on 04/28/08
I remember that Nilla wafers were the way to go when it was my turn to bring snack to nursery school. My school was really health obsessed (UPNS in Soho back in the mid 80s) and you couldn't bring anything too yummy for snack. My mom would often make organic stuff for me to bring in, like mini carrot muffins or other "treats" that I would later realize were not treats to the normal kid. So we had juicy juice a lot, carrot sticks, peanut butter crackers, celery with pb or with cream cheese (ants on a log), and milk. Sometimes we could eat our snack on the carpet while Ivan - this wonderful storyteller who played guitar and read us stories - would serenade us with his guitar and gentle voice while reading Abiyoyo or Caps for Sale. He was awesome.
laurelie at 2:29PM on 04/28/08
My preschool had two variations of snacks. We were given count chocula or fankenberry cereal as a snack on Tuesday and Thursdays. Mon, Wed and Fridays were cream cheese and black olive sandwiches on white bread - the best and a favorite to this day.
souldawg at 2:33PM on 04/28/08
In my lunches I loved having yogurt and marinated mushrooms, but the best part was my butterscotch krimpet. One day a kid stole my krimpet and took a bite. I was so mad I punched him... It was my first time out.
pbisNOTmyname at 2:45PM on 04/28/08
I recently found a list of my favorite foods I made when I was about 5, it consisted of: "tordelini and pesto" (tortellini and pesto) "tona fish salid" (tuna salad) "meetball" (meatballs) "chees lettis and maynase sandich" (cheese, lettuce and mayonnaise sandwich) "grape jush" (grape juice) and "lamonade" (lemonade). That being said, I also loved the pbj sandwiches my day care babysitter made, because she used wonder bread, which my mom would never buy because she thought it was disgusting (and rightly so) and store bought jelly (my mom always made her own, and it was always something like black current,) and Peter Pan peanut butter (my mom used the crunchy kind). She also let me have spaghettios and Chef Boyardee beef ravioli, it was fantastic.
embolini9 at 2:52PM on 04/28/08
I remember getting those shoestring "fries" from a can at snack time (this was longer ago than many of you have been alive). Funny, but I hated french fries and potato chips, but those canned shoestring fries were always great.
I also recall one of our lunches included pork & beans. I bit into a piece of "pork" which, of course, is nothing more than fat. I could not abide anything that tasted of animal fat as a child, and immediately lost my lunch. It was decades before I'd eat pork & beans again. And I'm still terrified if I see that little bit of "pork" floating around in there.
p.s., i never actually ate the paste, but i remember that some kids did... it smelled of wintergreen life savers, so i totally understand the temptation...
LoCo at 2:53PM on 04/28/08
@myself "currant"....
embolini9 at 3:03PM on 04/28/08
My happy eating memories include days off when mom would take me to the chinese take out place for dim sum(she worked at night so she'd often let me stay home when I wasn't very sick to spend time together)
A babysitter who served the best snacks-sliced apples that she shook in a ziplock bag with cinnamon and sugar and cubed spam speared with toothpicks.
Cigars- sliced ham filled with mayo and a sweet pickle and rolled up.
A friend's grandma who used to babysit made the best homemade mac and cheese or buttered cinnamon raisin toast for snacks.
yum.
KtMc24 at 3:35PM on 04/28/08
Did anyone ever have the Kid's Cookbook? I remember making tuna noodle casserole and "forget the cookies, just give me that recipe chocolate chip cookies', not to mention the recipes for homemade play dough. It was so fun and I still crave that tuna noodle casserole today. It had crumpled potato chips on it and I remember thinking how special it was that I got to make a dinner that had potato chips in it. I also loooved pesto pizza from Ray's (I called it pizeye). We would go to the one on Prince Street and there were always a bunch of mobsters in there.
laurelie at 3:52PM on 04/28/08
@laurelie -- Not gonna lie, I STILL use my Kid's Cookbook. I'm used to the recipes, I love the "forget the cookies" and "disgustingly rich brownies" recipes, and "Alphabetter Soup" is an old standby! Also, my family still requests the salad dressing, which I tweaked a lot when I first made it for lack of ingredients, and turned out, I think better than the original!
embolini9 at 4:10PM on 04/28/08
@embolini - I think I'm gonna dig out the old cookbook and start using it again - no reason not to after all. and I totally used this Betty Crocker cookbook when I was little that my mom had used when she was a little girl http://www.famousfoods.com/becrcoboforb.html
II remember an ice cream cone person and some weirdly enticing gelatin salad.
laurelie at 4:38PM on 04/28/08
I do remember, back when I was in PreK and K, to attend lunch at school and I would only have white rice with ketchup. Everyday!!! my mom would ask everyday what I had for lunch and I would reply the exact same way - Arroz con Ketchup. That was the only thing I would eat for lunch and I still love it.
And at recess we used to get Grape Tang or Orange Tang with Maria Cookies... I am not sure if you in the States have Maria cookies, but they're awesome.
Then when I was in 4th or 5th grade I was the only one who would eat cottage cheese. My mom would serve us cling peaches with cottage cheese in those thermos with the frozen lid to keep things chilled. Or mandarin oranges segments. I still eat cling peaches and cottage cheese as a dessert when I go to Ponderosa.
MadelynRodriguez at 4:45PM on 04/28/08
I went to parochial school and that meant church every morning before school. My mother packed my breakfast, tuna sandwich on white bread and thermos of hot chocolate...delicious! I don't remember any snacks at school and I walked home for lunch with my sister, have no memory of what we ate.
elaine nan at 5:02PM on 04/28/08
I went to a private school from pre-K on through second grade, and I remember one day that they were teaching a Bible lesson on The Exodus and we were learning about manna. Our teacher had brought several bags of that delicious King's Hawaiian sweet bread to serve as the "manna." To this day, I can't eat King's Hawaiian without thinking of manna and The Exodus... :)
sheeats at 6:06PM on 04/28/08
I'm old enough that pre-school didn't exist when I was that age. However, we still had kindergarten. :-) I remember three things from that year - clinging to my father's legs the first day yelling "no, daddy, don't leave me!," learning to read with out learning (I could just read Dick and Jane - it was weird,) and making butter, which I guess is also part of the mason jar thread. The teacher had us all pass around a mason jar filled with cream and shake it. After a bit, we were all served matzoh bread with OUR butter spread on it with a little pineapple jam. It was just about the most delicious thing I'd ever eaten in my life. To this day, I still periodically make butter this way, sitting there, watching whatever on the tube. And it's still as good as I remember from kiddom.
chisai at 8:18PM on 04/28/08
My mom was looking for one of our ancient Swedish cookbooks the other day, and stumbled across "The Red Ants Kindergarten Cookbook for Mothers' Day" which I contributed to when I was in Kindergarten! She emailed me, asking if I remember what recipe I contributed when I was five years old, and I immediately remembered--fettuccine alfredo! Apparently the recipe I provided was along the lines of 1)Cook three pounds of pasta (my family made homemade fettuccine back in the day, although I'm pretty sure we didn't make three pounds of pasta for the four of us...) 2) Heat one stick butter and one cup of milk. Add one cup of cream. 3) Toss with pasta and add lots of parmesan cheese.
I'm pretty impressed that I could remember what recipe I contributed all those years ago, although I don't think I'll be making that particular recipe again any time soon... :-P
ChristineB at 10:27PM on 04/28/08
Banana bread? Cookies? Cream cheese? Pudding?
Wow. Compared to everyone else, my pre-school comes across as some kind of grim Victorian workhouse. Please sir, may I have some more?
caley at 9:24AM on 04/29/08
MANY (and I do mean many) years ago a staple of my kindergarten school lunch was creamed chipped beef on toast. Although we kept a kosher home I guess my 23-year old mother was being rebellious at the time. To this day I love CCB and order it every so often.
Shortly thereafter my introduction to this delacacy my mom decided no more eating of non-kosher meat outside of the home! (To this day I occasionally remind her why I still love it!)
RichardCrystal at 1:09PM on 04/29/08