Lunches in a One room school

Down The Hill and Across the Road

Lunches at the One Room School


I preface this story by saying it is not my story. It did not originate with me and it is not something I experienced. The source of this story is my brother Laverne Gray who passed away last year. Laverne was a great story teller. It is sad that his stories have gone on with him. I am certain he never put anything in writing.

So much of our life as children was associated with the time we spent at school. For the most part we all stayed at home most of the time. Things were so different then compared to now. Compared to how we live today, everyone back then was poor. Some were poorer than others. Our family always had plenty to eat; it may not have been exactly what one preferred, but there was always enough. The School had no means of supplying food for our lunch. So, we brought our lunch. We didn’t have fancy lunch boxes to pack our lunch in.  No lunch boxes with movie stars painted on the out side. The most common lunch container was a gallon syrup pail. In those days folks bought their syrup and molasses in one gallon metal pails. These served great as a lunch box, they were weather tight, water proof, and plenty of room inside even for the largest lunch. Since they had a bail which made them easy to carry and one could use it as a weapon, by simply grasping the pail by the bail you could swing it and bonk someone pretty good.

Our lunches mostly consisted of some kind of bread like biscuits, cornbread, or what we called light bread, and meat. Very seldom did we ever have store bought bread. Bologna was a real treat but it was hardly ever in our lunch. One thing we had that I really liked was a flat piece of pie crust baked to a golden brown and then covered with chocolate icing (not frosting) the glaze type icing like what is on donuts.  I thought we always had pretty good lunches.

So much of the time short stories are dull because they do not contain certain elements like detail, elaboration, suspense and emotion. This story contains all of these. Laverne said, one fall when school had just gotten underway he became bored with his lunch. He said for about four days straight all he had in his lunch was cornbread and turnip greens. Let me explain turnips greens. Turnip greens are made by cooking the leaves of the turnip like spinach is cooked. Now turnips are a fall crop, so the turnip tops are available right up to frost, which is also the time of the beginning of school. Laverne said, the way the cornbread and greens was fixed was “you take a square of cornbread and cut it horizontally so you have a top and a bottom, you pile the turnip greens on the bottom half and then place the top on and there it is cornbread and turnip greens” That year a new boy had started school at Mineral Point. Laverne said, he didn’t know who he was but he lived on the “other side of the creek”.  Now, there was a creek that ran from south to north between our place and Mineral Point School. Laverne always spoke of our side of the creek and the other side of the creek. As Laverne would say “well anyway” he noticed that the new kid always ate his lunch off to himself down near the woods. Laverne was sure he must have something really good in his lunch, probably chocolate cake, store bought bread, bologna, and maybe mince meat pie. He was sure it was much better than cornbread and turnip greens. So, he figured out a plan….if he were to switch lunch pails with this new kid he could have a wonderful lunch. He did o lot of thinking the rest of the day, many thoughts crossed his mind, (would this be stealing?) If it were stealing, Mom and Dad would put him out of the family and he would have to live alone in the woods and eat whatever he could find and sleep on the ground and probably die before he was very old. Finally he decided it would be an honest mistake, he just picked up the wrong lunch pail the lunch pails all looked alike anyway. So the next morning he stood in the cloak room where all the kids hung their coats and put their lunch pails on the shelves. When he was sure no one was looking he switched lunch pails. At first recess he wanted so badly to get the lunch pail and see what was inside, he could almost taste the chocolate cake. When noon time finally came; he grabbed the lunch pail and ran as fast as he could and went behind the coal shed where no one would see him. His hands were shaking so badly he could hardly open the lunch pail. When he finally popped the lid off, there it was his lunch…….Two hickory nuts and a small ball peen hammer with a short handle!

I miss you Laverne. See you before long on the other side of the creek!

Jim Gray

Peculiar Missouri




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