Ring, ring, goes the bell!

 

By now, most parents are celebrating the latest “back to school” ads, but dreading the purchase of all those school supplies! Remember, back in the “old days,” when you got all your supplies free from your school? Sadly, those days are gone for all of us, teachers included. 

We also have to buy school supplies, that “must have” new backpack, clothes, and of course the dreaded lunch kit. Now, when I was a kid, I had a plastic bag as my lunch kit! There were no fancy bags with cool colours and all sorts of compartments. In fact, back then I was called a “latch key kid.”  

In case you’re a youngster, and don’t know this word, it meant that from a young age, I had my own house key, which I tied to one of my pants loops. My parents both worked, so my brother and I needed to become independent … we thought it was awesome!

Since I only lived two blocks from school, I could get in and out of my house at will (I’m not sure how many of us feel safe now having young kids home alone … unless it’s that “Macaulay Culkin kid). I never lost my key, and if I forgot it at home, I was the designated “burglar.”

I was the littlest, and long before all this, my brother and I figured out how to get in one of the basement windows. I was the one who, when the window was pushed in far enough, would be shoved into the basement. That is, until the one day, when they may have shoved and lowered a little too hard, and I pulled the whole window pane on top of me, shattering the glass everywhere! I wasn’t cut, but my allowance disappeared until the window was paid for.

Nowadays, it’s all technical, where the kids can know the secret code to unlock the front door. Where’s the adventure, the risk, the danger, in that? No, hanging by your feet, being lowered by your brother’s pals is the true test of your mettle, because you never know if this one time they’re going to let go (Hmmmmm … maybe they did)!

As an adult, our kids never got their own key at a young age. Times had changed, things weren’t as simple, and I think many of us parents “hovered” over our kids to protect them. While as a kid, I came home to make my own lunch, the adult “me” became the lunch maker. My job was to provide healthy lunches so they’d have energy for all that “book learnin.”

The problem was that my son always hurried to play sports at lunch and didn’t always eat his! I wouldn’t find this out for about a week, when I would find five flattened, gross ham sandwiches at the bottom of his backpack! They were very flat, and I was very mad, because the food was wasted, as well as my efforts! It became me checking each day or so, to see if the sandwiches had become mushy paninis again (hopefully, he wasn’t just chucking them! I’m not sure I’ll ever know the full story).

I found some little lunch cards with “inspiring” sayings on them, but I think some of them were buried in that same sloppy goo in the back pack! My daughter Bree, though, always ate her lunches. In fact, I had a whole different problem with her. All she ever wanted was a plain ham sandwich or “KD” in a thermos. However, the very last thing Breanne ever wanted on a sandwich was lettuce! Through her childhood, she never met a vegetable she liked, and she resisted them as much as she could. It got so that it was a challenge to me! I’d try different types of meats, and hide one little piece of lettuce in between the meat slices. I figured that no seven-year-old was going to beat me! Sadly, each day I tried it, she came home smiling, saying “nice try Dad!”  

The ironic thing now, is that she loves all kinds of vegetables, and will load up her sandwiches when she makes her lunches! Where was this kid about 13 YEARS ago?!

One March, we were looking after two of our friends’ kids, so they could pick up their newly adopted son from a Romanian orphanage. These orphanages were very plain, very cold, and the workers even played recordings of dogs barking, so the kids wouldn’t try to wander! One of our friends’ children was a boy one year older than Brennen. I made lunches for all four kids during the week, but I heard that “John” wasn’t eating his lunches, and was selling them! I didn’t want to get mad, but Deb and I asked why he would do that? He told us that he wanted to get enough money to buy his new baby brother some books from the school Book Fair! Someone that young had learned the act of charity, to give up something for another person. It’s funny how something as simple as a sandwich can become something much more powerful.

(“Fule for Thought” is a slice of life humourous column that appears in the Strathmore Times, written by long-time resident, town councillor, high school teacher, coach, husband and father of two – Pat Fule. If you would like to get in touch with Pat, you can send him an e-mail at Pat.fule@shaw.ca)

 

(“Fule for Thought” is a slice of life humourous column that appears in the Strathmore Times, written by long-time resident, town councillor, high school teacher, coach, husband and father of two – Pat Fule. If you would like to get in touch with Pat, you can send him an e-mail at Pat.fule@shaw.ca)