Going on from eating in the fifties, how about school dinners?
My first school was a nissan hut, but every day these great big couldrons of veg and mince used to turn up every dinner time. Cabbage cooked to destruction, huge great boiled spuds al dente, and stewed meat of different varieties, but fish with parsley sauce on fridays.
Frogspawn for pud but every now and then cereal set in chocolate, (my favorite)
When the bombed out school was rebuilt it had it's own kitchens and an army of huge great women used to cook the dinners each day. We had eight to a table and 2 boys were sent to the hatch to bring back the days offerings. We always went around asking the new kids what they didn't like and if it was anything we liked they were sat at our table. When SECONDS were shouted you could have been killed in the rush, but as one of the boys had his mum working in the kitchen so we never had to worry. We always said grace, (do they still do that) and lumpy mash pebbledashed the ceiling, all for a few pennies a day for me and my bruv.
Sandwich's were not an option, school dinners or nothing, really poor families got them free.
