Lunch in the Great Depression.

The old prune picker (me) lived in Pomona, California during the 1930s.

Times were hard. I remember going to school in the sixth grade. I walked a couple of miles. At lunch time the children would sit on benches under a tree and eat the lunch that they had brought from home. Some walked home for lunch

Often I would not have any lunch and there was not any food at home. I would walk away from school pretending that I was going home, go around a corner,  wait until lunch was over, and then go back to school. I mean times were hard. What did the 11 year old prune picker think about being hungry? I know that I often picked fruit from fruit orchards to get something to eat.

Later in the sixth grade school year I came home to find all of our furniture (not a lot) in a pile in the front yard. We had been evicted for not paying the rent.

When I attended the seventh grade in junior high there was a cafeteria. One of my teachers paid the cafeteria to give me a bottle of milk every day. I like milk. I remember Miss Beach with affection. I can almost see her face. That was 77 years ago.