I think kids these days are pretty spoiled by the options they have in their school cafeterias. It seems as though they can always find something on the menu or from a vending machine that interests them. Such was not the case when I went to school. You had your choice of the offering of the day or packing your lunch. I normally packed my lunch for a couple reasons – first, I knew what I was getting and second, I didn’t have to stand in line. This guaranteed one a prime spot at the lunch table. The lunch table was an important social circle. It was the most gender-segregated time of the day when boys left their girlfriends to sup with the guys. It was almost fraternity-like in that there were hazing incidents, pecking orders for seating, etc. Everyone looked forward to lunchtime in the cafeteria.
That is until someone found a Band-Aid in their food (I think it might have been a hamburger). I suppose one of the cooks had cut themselves and applied the bandage to stop the bleeding. After making some burgers all of a sudden the bandage was gone. What a treat the student in question had when they bit into the food and found the prize. Now most everyone grumbled about the quality of the food but this was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
These were the early days of the Hippies and the Vietnam War. The protest movement was just getting started and there were a few in our class who were enthralled by it. Somebody made the off-handed comment after the Band-Aid incident that some sort of protest was in order. Something like, “We ought to boycott the place.” The idea began to snowball and before you knew it, more and more kids were packing their lunch. I think it started with the seniors and began to work its way down into the underclassmen. Soon the cooks were preparing way more food (with or without Band-Aids) than was needed.
There were no secrets in the high school and everyone from the lowliest freshman to the supervising principal was aware of what was going on. They just couldn’t figure out how to stop the boycott. After all it wasn’t like the leaders were SDS members or anything. It was a pretty loosely knit group that fanned the boycott flames. The school administration didn’t want to make an announcement over the intercom or at an assembly about the protest. I think they figured this might lend credence to the rumor that the students actually wielded some power. More subtle methods were employed. Teachers took some of their better students aside in an attempt at reason. I recall the National Honor Society advisor, Mrs. Grossman, asking me if the NHS leadership might play a role in ending the boycott. I had to sheepishly admit that most of the officers were involved in planning it. She was non-plussed by the revelation. I think her response was, “Well!”
I don’t think the boycott was ever officially called off. It was, as they say, just “overcome by events.” More important things came up (like basketball season or the Christmas dance, etc.) and mothers got tired of packing lunches. Most of the protestors went back to standing in line but they were more observant when they bit into their sandwiches. As always happens in such cases though the school administration had the last laugh in the end. They disapproved the traditional class outing to Kennywood Park late in the school year. While no official reason was given everyone knew that the protest’s pigeons had come home to roost. “Ski” had gotten his revenge!
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