I must admit to feeling a wave of envy when I see the great gear kids have to tote their lunches to school: plastic containers, compartments to keep stuff hot and cold, ziploc bags, prepackaged snack packs. When they eat, the crispy stuff is still crispy and the moist stuff hasn't gotten all soggy. A far cry from the school lunch experience back in the day.

How did we get through it without gagging, or succumbing to e-coli? A brown paper bag or a little aluminum lunch box with an action hero or Walt Disney heroine on the sides and everything thrown in together. Remember the waxed paper sandwich bags and lukewarm chocolate milk or orange soda? How about the grease spots from the baloney or tuna sandwiches? Yuck!

What do you remember about your school lunch experience? Recently some friends reminisced with me: one remembered the scoop of mashed potatoes and thick gravy served virtually every day of his school years. Another had a table-mate who would bring the world's most unusual chicken sandwich: a chicken wing between two pieces of white bread!

Many of them recalled the gloppy American Cheese Lenten sandwiches that stuck to the roof of the mouth; as a matter of fact, they quickly grabbed for some liquid refreshment at the thought of that long-ago orange-colored wad. Cream cheese and olive, lettuce and tomato . . . our choices were pretty unsophisticated by today's standards.

We decided the luckiest guy in this particular group was my husband. No, not for the obvious reason, but because as a starter on his high school basketball and baseball teams, he had a wonderful perk. The jocks had special lunch periods and were actually allowed to leave the campus and go to the local deli! The glory of sports!

What do you remember most? Did you eat at school or bring your lunch? Do you share our wonderment at surviving the lack of refrigeration and heating? We're waiting to hear from you at tcfoodie@yahoo.com.