Hog Rotten Taters

I know we've talked about the cafeteria before, but it really was an important place. Call it a combination of the times and me being a bit "backward", but it was a place I learned to like a lot of things I'd never eaten before.

Tuna for one. We had it in grade school but I always "traded" it for something else.

Broccoli and cauliflower, which still taste a lot alike to me.

Asparagus, which I dearly love, and au gratin potatoes, which someone, I think it was Wayne McNabb, called “Hog Rotten Taters”, partly in fun, partly because he didn’t like them.

I guess the most popular thing we had was barbeque, which is more like what we call a Sloppy Joe these days. Even though I lived in Memphis for awhile, I’m still not real big on barbeque. Memphis bills itself as the “Barbeque capitol of the world”, but I always found the restaurants far too smoky and smelly for my taste. But if you do ever find yourself over that way, stop in at a place called The Rendezvous. It’s a little place and it’s in an alley, but their dry rub barbeque is really tasty, even to me.

Anyway, I thought the food in the cafeteria was good, and the ladies who cooked and served it were really nice. I remember if you were near the end of the lunch period and they had a lot of something left over, you might end up with a double helping of mashed potatoes or something. But you also ran the risk of not being able to get something else, like the barbeque.