From: Karl Wiggins  (Original Message)

Sent: 10/01/2001 00:05

Does anyone recall anything about school dinners?  I remember trying to touch the girls up in the queue and I think you chose which canteen you entered depending on what was on the menu, but all I remember of what we ate was you either hated it or you didn't hate it.

Sent: 10/01/2001 21:31

This message has been deleted by the author.

From: Bob Long

Sent: 04/02/2001 22:45

Does anyone remember the school dinner item "Kromskies", I think that's the right spelling.  It was sausages wrapped in bacon, or "Pigs in blankets" as my kids call it.

I seem to recall that most vividly, probably the only thing I liked, apart from puddings.  I still love school type puddings, but sadly can no longer eat them due to an allergic reaction to wheat flour! Probably brought on by overindulgence during the intervening 3 decades!

I do recall the fight for the queues when you were in the First form, because you were always the last year to be called to eat, there was only the unpopular choice left by the time we got down.  There were always scuffles between the two queues as well, probably not the best planning to have both lines next to each other on a 3 foot walkway.

From: Catherine Cook

Sent: 05/02/2001 01:45

Who remembers the ice creams that were sold after lunch in the canteen?  The best thing was the passes for early dinner, because you had band or choir or sports practice.  I remember using one on a daily basis from early in my school days, so avoiding the horrendous queue outside the tech. rooms.  What about that ghastly 'salad' dressing???  I can still remember the taste!!

From: Tony Dymoke-Bradshaw 63-70

Sent: 07/02/2001 22:55

When we first arrived at Downer the school meals were arranged into two sittings.  Food was delivered to our tables.  In order to make sure that the dinning halls were full for the first sitting (which was for the upper school) we first years took it in turns to line up for spare places.  This usually meant that no more than one 1st year was on a table with 7 from the upper school.  I actually remember it being quite enjoyable apart from queuing up in the cold (in our shorts). 

If we queued up and were not needed to fill up places we then had to come back for the second sitting.  It was quite a waste of time and only worthwhile if there was some particular activity in the lunch hour.

The food was excellent.  I remember beef olives and plum pies, as well as prunes which, unlike most, I loved (still do).

Later the dinner service became a canteen-like system and the food quality dropped enormously.

Tony Dymoke-Bradshaw 63-70

From: Bigbadwoolf (Sue Wolf)

Sent: 11/02/2001 23:38

No, no, no, no, no Karl.  Maybe the boys chose their dinner on the basis of what was on the menu.  However, there was a contingent of hormonally enhanced girls who would choose what to eat and where to eat on the basis of whether the best-looking blokes, 2 to 3 years higher, were eating in dining room A or dining room B.

And thus, the diet of a whole generation of women has been determined by who they fancied in the 2nd year!

Incidentally, the other thing I particularly remember about lunches was the disgusting, large plastic receptacle into which you slopped your left-overs at the end of lunch before stacking up your plate.  It's a whole sensory thing if you can cast your mind back that far.

From: Pennie Lauezzari

Sent: 15/02/2001 20:50

I agree with Sue about the timing to ensure that you 'coincided' with some guy that you had focused on as dishy.  I recall a guy (who I will not name) who was in the lower sixth when I was in the third or fourth year whom I could not stop thinking about so it was always worthwhile eating the food to co-incide a visit to the canteen.

I also ran the school tuck shop with Nicky Spinks for a while.  It can never have made a profit as we used to discount to our friends , which seemed rather numerous at the time!

From: Bigbadwoolf

Sent: 17/02/2001 00:36

Confession time!  Running the ice-cream freezer thingy at lunch breaks had its benefits too.

1) You got into dinner early

2) If the male-of-the-moment was not in the dining room you were eating in then there was also a good chance that he would stop-me-and-buy-one

3) When the stocks were getting low there was always an opportunity to lean provocatively over the freezer if no.2 didn't work

4) When stocks were really low the only thing that was left were Hearts, which sold for a rediculous 1/- (pre-decimalisation).  You could strike up a more candid conversation over an over-priced Walls Heart than a sixpenny Split or or a Rocket.

From: Robert Head

Sent: 03/07/2001 13:46

I remember (55-62) that the school years were mixed for meals - forms 1, 3, 5 and LVIth for example and we had to 'behave'.

I never realised just how good the meals and the system were until my own kids went to school here in Sydney, Australia.  No real 'meal-time', only sandwiches - and they had to 'invent' the peer support programme to get older kids to help younger kids, all because they didn't eat together any more and discuss things.  I remember the food being quite good (and it's not just becasue my mum was a school cook) at Downer though).  I remember Long John Baldry pinching the 'gill' of milk from others, that we were given at break time.