The Po Show

Salad Days

I went to school to volunteer to help with the salad bar today. I'm terrible about volunteering for stuff, so I was actually sort of glad when one of the moms (you know, those moms who always organize events and things at school) called me on Monday night and asked if I could fill in.

Every Wed. there's a salad bar as a choice in the cafeteria. It has to be manned (or womanned, such as the case may be), since the kids really can't be allowed to fill their own plates. Naturally they'd load it up and not eat it all. So parent volunteers come in to dish the items up for them.

I found it educational. I found that the little kids eat almost nothing but fruit (no veggies other than carrots), but they'll eat tuna salad or hard boiled eggs. The older kids (almost all girls) will eat the green salad and even veggies like red bell pepper. But almost nobody would eat kiwi, and not one single kid I helped wanted black olives.

My kids got a kick out of seeing me there in the cafeteria, I think. I was a little afraid Matthew would be weirded out by my being there (out of the routine), but he smiled and waved repeatedly. Tessa kept waving at me throughout her lunch period. She also TALKED AND TALKED AND TALKED throughout lunch, which explains pretty well why she often "doesn't have time" to finish her lunch. She was literally the last kid to get her jacket on and get into line when it was time for her group to go out to recess, because she'd been TALKING so much. Oy.

Matthew sat by himself at lunch. There were other kids at his table, but they sat around him with sort of a bubble of space surrounding him. I've asked repeatedly this year whom he's sitting with at lunch, and he always says by himself, in the same place, when he can, meaning that is his first preference. He got in an altercation with a kid who sat in "his" seat and tried to take it back when Matthew moved there while the kid was getting his hot lunch. I saw for myself that he really does not want to sit with anyone at lunch. Normally I'd find this upsetting, but frankly I think he needs some time, after being in class all morning, to retreat into his own head and work through the stress of trying to deal with other kids.

My kids eat the same lunch every single day (gogurt, apple, and lemonade for Matthew; tofu, juice box, and goldfish or dried strawberries for Tessa). It's kind of amazing for me to see that other kids actually choose what they want, from a variety of choices. Salad days indeed.

(And here's the reason the title of this post is so amusing, at least to myself. My favorite all time movie is "Raising Arizona." Ross and I know every single line of the movie, and employ them on at least a weekly, if not daily, basis. Nicholas Cage has a line that goes: "Our love for each other was stronger than ever, but I premonished no return to the salad days." As soon as I found out I was to help out with the salad bar, I kept thinking "salad days." I told Ross I was helping out with the salad bar, and he immediately said, "salad days." I love that man.)