YE OLD CRAPATERIA

If this picture isn't the old cafeteria at Field (nee) Grade School in MTV, then it's a replica or facsimile thereof. The only thing missing is the cooks who didn't seem to care much about the food, the kids, or the kitchen.

Well, that's really not quite right. They cared more about sterility and cleanliness of the place than they cared about the product.

I honestly can't recall one good meal I ever ate there, but a few good bowls of chili at some kind of effort to support the neighborhood schools in the day of neighborhood schools. In other words, we were given tickets to hawk for our parents and neighbors to come to the school for a chili supper. Sometimes there were plays or skits or performances, but I don't remember taking part in them, so the baseball team,(or did we play softball--I was on the team, but I don't remember), basketball team, or chorus that I participated in wasn't asked to show our skills.

So what was wrong with cafeteria food? Succotash for one thing. I loved corn and green beans as a kid. Just not together. I liked mashed potatoes. Without lumps. But sometimes the mashed potatoes were more like the look and texture of applesauce. And the meat. Simply awful.

I did like the trays that separated the different items. Sometimes, I'd still like those trays so my chicken and rice wouldn't try to snuggle up to my runny beets. So my bread wouldn't be stained by Aunt Nellies' pickled beet purple color.

Junior high cafeteria food was better. Edible spaghetti and fried chicken. Not in the same meal, but separately. Even their salad wasn't too bad.

High school macaroni and cheese was the best. But that was about it.

Yet none of the crapaterias looked like the one in the photo. Except the one at Field School circa 1959.