Lunch Box – Friday Fictioneers

/ JoHawkTheWriter

Title: Lunch Box
Source:  Friday Fictioneers sponsored by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields-Addicted to Purple
Word count: 100 words

PHOTO PROMPT © Fatima Fakier Deria

Plastic containers remind me of school. Mom insisted on packing healthy food, and ample quantities. She always included a sandwich of homemade bread and last night’s leftovers. No one else brought salmon filet BLTs, or tomato, eggplant, and mozzarella on focaccia, neatly sliced and arranged next to weird snacks.

I was self-conscious, and embarrassed, as the kids gathered to investigate mom’s latest concoction. Most days they sneered, but sometimes, someone asked for a bite.

Years later, they said I was lucky to have a mom that loved me. Amid protests, I continue the tradition and pack my kid’s lunch box.

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

36 thoughts on “Lunch Box – Friday Fictioneers”

  2. My mom was never that fancy, but she always put fruits and vegetables in my lunch. I drooled over everybody else’s processed crap. Now that I can have it whenever I want, I wouldn’t touch it.

    Liked by 1 person

  5. You WERE lucky. I used to envy the kids that had packed lunches. Most of the time I didn’t get lunch at all. The “rich” kids would steal my free lunch ticket. They ate high on the hog while I starved. That’s when I discovered that I could find an entire salad in the school yard…well, unless the snow buried it.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Oh, my. Children can be so cruel to each other. I was lucky. We lived in a small town and one of the lunch ladies was a neighbor. She looked out for us and made sure everyone got fed, even if they didn’t have the money. Sounds like you made the best of a bad situation, my friend. 👍🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      • Makes me ever so thankful that I listened to my Great Grands when they told me what was edible in the yard, and Mom, for all her abusive ways, did teach me how to hunt and fish. I’ve been hungry, yes, but I’ve never completely starved. Fall and winter are hard for green edibles, though.

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  9. You are doing your child a good service. Michael Moore’s movie, “Where to Invade Next” shows what school lunches are like in other countries and then compares it to the offal (synonym for what it is) US kids have to choose from in the cafeteria. When my kids (now in their 30s) were in school, they got a peanut butter sandwich, baby carrots, fruit rollups, and fruit juice box. They still hate those baby carrots even today!

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  14. My kids’ lunches were sandwiches with homemade bread, homemade desserts. Other kids always wanted to trade with them. Once I discovered one of my sons was trading my good sandwiches for icky boiled hotdogs in store-bought buns. To him, it was a treat. Didn’t last long, though 🙂

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