Let's Do the Time Warp Again!

It's been a back to the future kind of week. OJ Simpson is back in the news. Howard Jones (!) is playing at the Birchmere soon. And I ate lunch in an elementary school cafeteria for the first time in nearly 30 years. (Boy was that painful to type.)

I joined Abby for lunch on Tuesday and was amazed by how much -- and how little -- school lunch has changed. The lunch ladies -- and gentlemen, to be fair -- seem about the same. The food is quite similar, but there are soooooo many choices! When I was in elementary school, each day every single tray looked the same. You picked yours up, full of food, at the end of the line. Today, the kids have options, man. Three entrees, multiple sides, salads, desserts -- it's like eating at Sizzler or something.

There is no more paying with cash, or even the quaint little punchcards that I had in high school. Nope, now there's a debit account, complete with a PIN number for the little darlings to learn. (Note to those who enjoy irony -- parents have been besieged with pleas from the school to have Johnny and Jane memorize their PIN number and, above all, NOT to share it with anyone. However, at lunch time, all the kids in Abby's class marched into the cafeteria wearing tags with their PIN numbers in about 75 point font...)

The real fun was getting to hang out with Abby and some of her classmates. There was the class clown who rarely stopped talking, a couple of very shy girls, and a few boys who would speak only if spoken to. They were fun and silly and seemed genuinely glad to have me at their table. Abby held my hand, talked to me, and didn't want me to leave. I wonder how long that will last!

Later in the week, we attended Back to School Night. The Principal now addresses the parents via live TV-broadcast and overhead projectors have been replaced by Power Point presentations. But the room is basically the same as I remember from my childhood -- with the reading/listening center, play areas, a big calendar and gathering space, etc. Some things will never change. And that, as far as I'm concerned, is a very good thing.