The "Cafeteria Special" Story

It was an ordinary day. We were expecting our friends Jerry and Just Sue for a visit in Lancaster. We told them not to stop for supper because we were supplying the meal tonight. Jerry and I grew up together. We lived a few blocks from each other, but very rarely played together when we were younger. He had friends in his block he played with and I had friends in my neighborhood that I played with. Upon entering elementary school we got to see each other more and slowly became better friends. Well, we enjoyed eating lunch together and had our favorite meals in the lunchroom. You only had the choice of buying the “Special” or bringing your own lunch. Most times we had the “Special”. At least I thought we both did. Tonight we were going to have one of his favorite “Specials”, or so I thought it was a favorite. They arrived from State College about 5:00 PM and after exchanging welcomes we settled around the table in our kitchen area. Carol announced that we were going to have something that I said was one of Jerry’s favorite meals in elementary school. She had made it a few times before for our kids, but it never received great revues with them. It was and still is one of my favorites. As they sat around the table Carol presented the platter in the middle of the table. CREAMED PEAS AND EGGS ON TOAST!! “One of our favorites in elementary school, right Jerry?” I said to my friend. “I’m sorry Ldub, but I don’t ever remember eating this,” Jerry said. “What is it?” Carol makes it by making a white sauce and taking a can of green peas and putting them in the sauce. She simmers this for a while, then puts chopped up hard-boiled eggs into it. It is poured over white toast. Very tasty!! Well you better like it I thought, because we have more than a dozen pieces of toast on the plate covered in this concoction of white sauce and chopped up eggs. You know what? We ate the whole thing. At least Jerry, Just Sue and I ate it all. Carol announced before they arrived that she just couldn’t force herself to eat it and to this day I still have no idea what she had for supper that night. Oh yeah, we needed applesauce as a supplement to the tasty meal and cartons of chocolate milk. Topped supper off with ice cream Dixie Cups, just like in elementary school. We used to take the wooden spoons, stick them in the middle of the ice cream, turn the dixie cup on it’s side and roll it on the table to cause the ice cream to separate from the carton. Then you could pull the ice cream out of the cup and hold it like a popsicle. Pretty neat! At least I thought so. We’ll have to have it again soon. NOT! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.