"There was a chap who'd come back from Europe", he tells me, "I don't know if his family was with Foreign Affairs, or what they were, but I remember envying him and admiring his family's sophistication because he sometimes got triangles of Vache Qui Rit as well."
How things have changed. I remember a childcare worker confiding that the contents of the lunch boxes I prepared were some of the healthiest she'd ever seen. I had an idea such things were being scrutinised and my impression was that my children would be treated with more respect if the authorities approved of what I gave them. The fact that there was nothing at all among the provisions I supplied that they actually wanted to eat was completely beside the point.
Oh dear, now the vegemite sandwich boy has started criticising my shopping choices. What he objects to is this picture on the box of free range eggs I bought:
He says I should have explained I wanted eggs from free range chickens.
School sandwiches. Devon. Seemingly years of plain tomato sandwiches. Spam (shudder). Ham. Tuna (yes well, the less said about that the better). On some rare occasions, chicken. Buying lunch from the tuckshop/ canteen consisted largely of a wholemeal roll with salad or if I was feeling less healthy, a sausage roll or hot dog. I don't think I could have eaten the same sandwich for so many years, but I am reminded of someone I knew at the University of Qld (staff) who ate one boiled egg and hot chips every single day at the staff canteen.
ReplyDeleteI think the boiled egg must have been for his soul, as a penance for the chips.
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