Lunch at Wapiti

It was lunch recess at Wapiti, the one room school I attended when I was a kid. As you entered the building, there was a shelf where all the lunch pails were lined up. In nice weather we ate our lunches outside, sitting on the porch, When it was cold, we could eat in the library.  

Lunch consisted of a sandwich, wrapped in wax paper that we must save to use for the week–maybe peanut butter and jelly, fried egg, or perhaps cheese, and a cookie for dessert or as a special treat–a pancake left over from breakfast, sprinkled with powdered sugar and rolled up tight, and a thermos of milk, fresh from the cows the night before.  

After we finished eating we played outside. In winter weather we made paths in the snow and played fox and geese, or made snow angels.  We always had big snowmen families posed around the playground. The older boys made igloos that the girls weren’t allowed in.  In nice weather we played "Annie, Annie Over, Red Rover or Tag.  There was a slide, three swings, and monkey bars in the far corner of the playground.  The boys always had a game of marbles going on.  Then before we knew it, lunch hour was over, and it was back to class.