Bringing lunch from home ("food stamp lunches").

[bertha katzenengel]

I just learned something new about myself. I hate bringing my lunch from home because it reminds me of when I was a kid.

Part of it is this: Those of you who took their lunches to school as a kid: remember the smell of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich that had been sitting in a box, wrapped in plastic or foil or waxed paper, for hours? :( Remember the smell if you hadn't washed your milk bottle out thoroughly the night before? :( Or forgot to toss your banana peel? :(

But I think this is a more logical reason: I don't remember ever going to the grocery store -- whether with a parent or alone, sent by a parent -- with cash. It was always food stamps (and being on welfare, I couldn't buy lunch at school).

I never understood why we got dirty looks in line at the grocery store. We'd put two separate orders on the belt: one, of food. The other, of beer, cigarettes, and magazines. (I wish I had ever noticed if the latter totaled more than the former.) Since reaching adulthood I've usually assumed we got dirty looks because it's bad to be on welfare. But lately I've come to realize some of the dirty looks were for the parent I was with, because s/he was buying so much with cash that also could've been spent on food.

But today I realize there's yet another reason I hate bringing my lunch from home. It means we are pinching pennies, and I hate feeling deprived.

Okay, now that that's off my chest, maybe I'll post my flame bait.