I love going out to lunch. Even more than dinner at a fancy restaurant. Even more than a down-home eggs-n-bacon breakfast. Just take me to lunch. I think it’s because, for most of my teaching life, lunch was an elusive luxury. Now that we’re retired, my husband Ed (also a former teacher) and I go out for lunch often, usually frequenting our neighborhood sandwich shop. We go there so often the staff knows our names and our order. Always on the lookout for a good story, I’ve observed our fellow lunchers and grouped them into four categories. I couldn’t help myself. It’s a teacher thing…
The Toddler Lunch
The Toddler Lunch
- Prefers outside tables away from the crowds
- May include high chairs, wet wipes, juice boxes
- Menu: Mostly finger foods
- Adult lunch is secondary to the feeding of the young
- Duration: until the toddlers loose interest and become “free-range” Children
The Kindergarten Lunch (aka the rhyming lunch)
- Involves school-aged children
- Children choose their own lunch, but complain about it later.
- Conversations revolve around school and may involve helicopter parents testing newly aquired phonemic awareness skills. “The sun is hot. Can you think of a word that rhymes with hot? Here comes our lunch. What rhymes with lunch?” ( I was this mom)
- Duration: until Mom runs out of rhymes or Dad gets annoyed. “You ordered grilled cheese. Now eat your grilled cheese.”
The Teacher Lunch
- Note: if its a weekday, you won’t see any teachers at the sandwich shop. If you do, they’ve been reported as MIA from thier school. Please resist the urge to report them. They need the break.
- Lunch is typically eaten in the classroom and may involve a Diet Coke with caffeine, sandwich, leftover dinner, or if these items were accidentally left at home or in the car, lunch may be marshmallows and pretzels borrowed from the afternoon’s STEM project.
- Duration: somewhere between zero and thirty minutes, depending on the length of the teacher’s to-do list.
The Retired Lunch
- Try to be seated away from groups one and two above.
- Characterized by talking about the healthy choices on the menu, but caving at the last minute and getting the lunch special: sandwich, chips, and soft drink.
- Reminiscing about the times we had the toddler lunch, the kindergarten lunch, the teacher lunch. The kids we raised. The students we taught. It went by so fast. Do we miss it? Maybe. Sometimes.
- Duration: as long as we want. We’re in no hurry as we savor our sandwiches, talk about our granddaughters, and plan our next trip.
Threads of Thought
Can you identify with any of the above lunches?
Do you have a new one to add to the list?
What is your favorite meal to eat out?
For more stories from check out: Out of the Crayon Box: Thoughts on Teaching, Retirement, and Life http://amazon.com/author/debravandeventer
I can picture you at Baggins. Wish I could join you!
Yep! That’s where we were. Wish you were there too!
I was lucky enough to join you and Ed for lunch at Baggins. Yes, we ate outside outside and took our time it, was lovely.
I’ve spent the last 2 weeks with a 5 month old. In the process of feeding him we got carrots in his hair, apples up his nose, and sweet potatoes, well we won’t talk about where the sweet potatoes went.
I think you had a “baby lunch”. This is a new category altogether. Very messy, but hilarious! You need to write about this!
Debra, you are so clever with your photographic set-up. Yes, I agree, lunch is best. We go to large and small restaurants after the peak lunch hour so we can play our favorite board game, Upwords. We try to select restaurants void of groups 1 and 2.
I love that you find a place to relax and play Upwards!