They Really Mean It (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday

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Linking up with Wordless Wednesday, BeThere2Day, and Sandee at Comedy Plus.     

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Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and has become a moveable feast of word or picture or music prompts to encourage us to write stories, poems, or whatever strikes our fancy.    

This month, the prompts are being provided by David M. Gascoigne and will appear on Elephant's Child's blog.  

This week's prompts are:

1. Coveted
2. Single
3. Lunch
4. Chance
5. Wallet  

and/or

1. Earned
2. Sense
3. School
4. Pester
5. Owner

An additional prompt from Charlotte (MotherOwl) is to include Bright Red Orange in your take on the prompts.

 Have fun.

The SCHOOL LUNCH has often left much to be desired.

In many ways i imagine it's not always their fault.  They have to take into account budgetary constraints and the fact that institutional food is usually prepackaged for ease of serving many, which does not make for fine dining.

The fact there's no one OWNER of the system to whom to complain who can do anything about it adds to the problem, as there would be at a restaurant.

The school i attended was a girls only church school.  Those who sent children to this school EARNED good incomes and paid for everything from their own WALLET.  You would think, with the tuition, fees including the lunch fees, and all the fundraising they were doing all of the time, they'd have enough to keep the cafeteria food quality up to a certain level.  It would make SENSE for it to be so, but it was not so.

In fact, one of my friends became so enraged one day at what she found on her tray she went to the pay phone in the courtyard and called the Health Department.  A surprise inspection resulted in many citations against them, and my friend was disciplined by the school for doing it with a behavioral probation and loss of phone privilege.  But i digress.

Each student received a lunch card at the beginning of the month with her name on it which was presented to be punched at the date on the bottom when we received our meals.

Many of us expressed a desire for a salad instead of the fare they were serving, you might say some of the young ladies would PESTER the cafeteria staff about it.  The head of the cafeteria agreed those who would put their card in a bowl she left in the front of her office before class would receive a salad instead, with their card on the tray with it, already punched for that date.

The problem became too many of us took this CHANCE to eschew the normal fare.  These were very nice chef's salads, with fresh lettuces, Bright Red Orange cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, other seasonal veggies, shredded cheese, diced turkey, croutons and salad dressing in a large bowl, enough to keep you full until you got home from school, and she had made them all, every SINGLE one.

The salads became so COVETED they finally had the good SENSE to put in a make-your-own-salad bar, we'd grab a tray and bowl, get the card punched, and simply go to the station on the other side of the cafeteria and make our own meal.  It became an expected institution and it beat the tar out of fish sticks and macaroni and cheese, taste and health wise.

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Today is:

Ambarvalia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (purification festival to Ceres, date approximate)

Ascension of Baha'u'llah -- Baha'i

Castleton Garland Celebration -- Derbyshire, England (a Garland King and Lady ride the bounds of the parish on white horses, after which the garland the King wore is placed on the church tower; possibly dating back to Oak Apple Celebrations)

Democracy Day -- Nigeria

End of the Middle Ages Day -- considered such by many historians because of the fall of Constantinople on this day in 1453

Feast of Mars -- Ancient Roman Calendar

International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers -- UN

Learn About Composting Day -- can't find a sponsor for this day, but there is a week sponsored each year here; and you can learn about composting here, too 

Mount Everest Day -- Nepal (declared on the anniversary of first ascent in 1953)

National Coq Au Vin Day

National Senior Health and Fitness Day -- US (don't let age get in the way of staying healthy!)  

Oak Apple Day / Royal Oak Day -- England (celebration of the restoration of the monarchy; no longer officially recognized, but many localities have traditions that have grown up around this date which are still celebrated)

Pink Flamingo Day -- Don Feathersone created the first one on this day in 1957

Put a Pillow on Your Fridge Day -- supposedly dating back, in Europe and the Americas, to the days when you put a piece of cloth in your larder for good luck; why it became a pillow no one knows

Runic Half-Month of Odal (home, possessions) commences

Squoosh an Ice Cream Sandwich Day -- rules say you must squoosh, not squish or squash!

St. Bona of Pisa's Day (Patron of couriers, flight attendants, guides, pilgrims, travelers; Pisa, Italy)

Anniversaries Today:

Rhode Island becomes the 13th US State, 1790

Wisconsin becomes the 30th US State, 1848

Birthdays Today:

Noel Gallagher, 1967

Lisa Whelchel, 1963

Melissa Etheridge, 1961

Adrian Paul, 1959

Rupert Everett,1959

Annette Bening, 1958

LaToya Jackson, 1956

Danny Elfman, 1953

Anthony Geary, 1947

Kevin Conway, 1942

Al Unser, Sr., 1939

Francis Thomas "Fay" Vincent, Jr, 1938

Paul Erlich, 1932

John F. Kennedy, 1917

Tenzing Norgay, 1914

T.H. White, 1906

Bob Hope, 1903

Oswald Spengler, 1880

G.K. Chesterton, 1874

Patrick Henry, 1736

Today in History:

Ottoman armies under Sultan Mehmed II Fatih capture Constantinople after a siege, ending the Byzantine Empire, 1453

Charles II (on his birthday) is restored to the throne of Great Britain, 1660

Treaty of Middle Plantation establishes peace between the Virginia colonists and the local Natives, 1677

The right of Canadians to keep Indian slaves is upheld at Quebec City, 1733

In Patrick Henry's historic speech against the Stamp Act, he answers a cry of "Treason!" with, "If this be treason, make the most of it!" 1765

Present constitution of Switzerland takes effect, 1874

Chemist John Pemberton places his first advertisement for Coca-Cola, the ad appearing in the Atlanta Journal, 1886

Igor Stravinsky's ballet score The Rite of Spring receives its premiere performance in Paris, provoking a riot, 1913

Ocean liner RMS Empress of Ireland sinks in the Gulf of St. Lawrence with the loss of 1,024 lives, 1914

Bing Crosby, the Ken Darby Singers and the John Scott Trotter Orchestra record Irving Berlin's "White Christmas", the best-selling Christmas single in history, for Decca Records in Los Angeles, 1942

Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay become the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest, 1953

First of the annual Bilderberg conferences, 1954

Amputee  Steve Fonyo completes cross-Canada marathon at Victoria, British Columbia, after 14 months, 1985

Space Shuttle Discovery completes the first docking with the International Space Station, 1999

Olusegun Obasanjo takes office as President of Nigeria, the first elected and civilian head of state in Nigeria after 16 years of military rule, 1999

A WWII Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C., US, 2004

Scientists describe the 160-million year-old fossile of Aurornis xui as the most basal species of Avialae, possibly shifting the evolutionary position of the Archaeopteryx as the oldest known bird, 2013

A heatwave in Karachi, Pakistan, kills 65 as temperatures soar above 110 degrees Fahrenheit, 2018

The world's smallest surviving baby, a girl, is discharged from Sharp March Birch Hospital in San Diego after being born at 23 weeks weighing 8.6 ounces (245 grams), 2019

A man disguised as an elderly disabled woman throws cake at the Mona Lisa in an unsuccessful vandalism attempt (it is behind protective glass), 2022