大象传媒

Message 1 - School Dinners

Posted on: 12 November 2003 by Frank Mee Researcher 241911

Hello Olive,
Your experiences were like mine see the story Wartime Schooling Frank Mee researcher 241911.
My Bete noire was the boiled rice, there was a potato shortage but no shortage of rice for some reason. We got this grey sticky mess on our plates that even mixed with what ever else was on the plate tasted horrible. Like you we were overseen by the teachers who never missed a trick, the same story of our sailors dying so we could eat to make us feel guilty.
Nothing could make me eat that rice so I would secrete it into my handkerchief and into my pocket. I learned sleight of hand so well I could have been an illusionist. Mother would ask what the grey circles were on my school blazer then clip my ear for losing another handkerchief. My relief at the end of the potato shortage was something like seeing the light people talk about.
I cannot to this day eat any rice but rice pudding, I still feel my throat close up at the sight of it. The same thing applies to Curry, in the Army years later I was in the middle east and saw why people ate curry, it was to disguise the rotten meat, no refrigeration at that time. I do not eat curry in any form because again my throat closes up. probably daft but war left its legacy.
Frank Mee Researcher 241911.