Post by Kath on Jun 21, 2024 10:17:57 GMT
240619-Mother Gets A Health Kick And I Don't by Kath Polley, on Flickr
Some time in the early 80s as I was in my mid teens, mother discovered Health Foods. Out went the egg and chips, Bernard Matthew's Turkey Burgers and Penguin chocolate biscuits. In came brown rice, wholemeal bread, carob and chickory in place of chocolate and coffee, lots of lentils and millet and a refusal to pay for 'rubbish' school meals. Packed lunches were in. At school, everyone else played a daily game of swapsies to see who'd take your pack of quavers for a pack of Wotsits, or a mars bar for a Marathon (apparently no peanut allergies back then). Nobody wanted to swap for home made weetabix cake or marmite and cucumber sandwiches on stone(ground stone) bread. I barely ate any of these meals and chose to spend the earnings from my Saturday job on nasty coffees from a van at the back of the school which also surrepticiously sold single cigarettes and a couple of matches. In truth, I didn't get a box of orange juice in my packed lunch. I don't think those small boxes had been invented yet. My juice was in a rinsed out Mogadon bottle (mother was a pharmacist and interested in reusing things even back then) which caused more consternation among the staff than my smoking habit.