I’m sure a lot of you remember back in your school days when you would open your lunch bag in the cafeteria and just roll your eyes at what your parent had made for you to eat.
I remember my mother telling me of the shame back in her school days of having a lobster sandwich for lunch. She said at the time it was what the poor kids ate, and she knew she was poor but she felt that advertising it was not a great idea. She used to ditch the sandwiches before she got to school and go without at lunchtime rather than put up with the comments from other students.
My school lunch sandwiches would go in rotation – baloney with mayo, PB&J, then baloney with mustard.
But a new one got added to the rotation after my father came back from a Navy posting in England for six months. Luncheon meat with Coleman’s Hot Mustard. And boy was that stuff hot!
Luncheon meat was just a fancy word for the ground up bits that they couldn’t sell from the animal. It was sold under several brand names including Spam, Klik and Kam.
I made the mistake of bragging that the Coleman’s Hot mustard wasn’t that hot and that I could handle it easily. Unfortunately my mom believed me. So a luncheon meat sandwich with hot mustard got added to the rotation. I felt sorry for the kids with PB & J who would trade their half a sandwich for one of mine. They’d head straight for the water cooler!
So for me, luncheon meat with hot mustard was the big disappointment. How about you?
