LONG AGO...

I was in grade school, and baggies were standard equipment for lunches brought from home. My friends and I would gather at the lunch tables during the appointed time and eagerly reach into our lunch boxes (mine was the Osmonds) to find out what was in store. There was generally a profusion of pb&j and baloney sandwiches, animal crackers, apples and bananas. Then there was my lunch.

My peer's reaction to my lunches ranged from curiosity to concern and suspicion, but everyone would take a moment to survey the contents. This was something I looked forward to every day. My "lunch" consisted of at least five baggies of the twistie-tie variety filled with a multitude of snacks. Not just any kind of snacks, but healthy snacks like roasted soy beans, carrot sticks, dried figs, cheese and crackers, beef jerkey (carcinogens were unknown then,) oatmeal-carob cookies, and brocolli. This last item always got a rise out of everyone. Whatever that day's selection, there was usually a brief Q & A about the what and why of my lunch box.

When I use baggies today I think about the time in my life when I felt my mother was always with me through her expression of love by carefully packing me my daily lunches. Her insistence on nutrition and taste and textural variety made me feel special and cared about. Feeling special as a result of those lunches also extended to the group of kids I hung out with because of the attention I received. Through the food I brought to school a statement was made that I (and my mom) were part of the hippie movement which, in those days, was seen as bohemian and exotic...




I felt really cool then, and baggies
remind me of that time.