Field Days Past and Present

OK, so I was walking through the grocery store thinking about the last days of school and I had the strangest recollection. When I was a kid, my brothers and I always went home for lunch in the middle of the day. We didn't live that far from the school. We could walk home, eat lunch, and walk back before school started for the afternoon. It was awesome! We would eat grilled cheese and watch Popeye and I Love Lucy reruns on tv. Or maybe we'd have hotdogs or soup or whatever. Day in and day out for the entire school year.

Field Day was a different story. Do you remember field day? It was always held toward the end of the year. It was a solid day of playing outside on the playground. On field day, we would pack a lunch and eat it at school. We would pack a lunch for field trips too, come to think of it. Mom would always splurge for field day and field trips. We would get to take a soda pop in our lunch. We would always freeze it the night before and then we would wrap it in tin foil (why did we do this? I have no idea. But we always did) and put it in our brown bag. And we usually got to have a twinkie or a dingdong in our lunch too. Which we would also freeze. They are just better that way.

My kids have field day next week. Unfortunately, I have not started any field day traditions in our home. They pack a lunch everyday. Sandwich, apple, juice box, maybe a cookie. No soda pop. No dingdong.

Hmmm. I might have to start up this old tradition. Better late than never.