1. 1960's US Army - fish on Fridays. All Fridays. But usually a choice of a non-fish main course as well. Actually, helped me as I had never had fish before. 2. Never ate school cafeteria food. In grade school we went home for lunch. In Junior High, always brought my lunch from home and the one time we were ordered by the principal to buy the school lunch under penalty of detention, I, alone of 900 students refused and was not punished. Family had enough influence. NOTE: even then I was not keen on blind obedience but I also was not a Mormon. I had a roommate at MIT who was at MIT instead of Harvard because he had led a successful - 100% successful - boycott of the school cafeteria in Wenatchee, Washington and his principal dissed him in a letter to admissions. 3. In HS, we were overcrowded and so either got to school after lunch (10th grade) or else left at lunchtime (11th and 12th grades). 4. Now I enjoy eating salmon so long as it is from Alaska.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/31/2014 05:22PM by rhgc.
I remember that. It used to irritate me even then as a kid that the public school menu had to revolve around Catholic rules for years. My parents were irritated too, but comically they would have supported imposing their LDS alcohol rules on the world.
It was especially funny how Catholics at the time explained that fish wasn't meat. Then after years of making everyone following their dumb rules, they changed their rules! That practice is gone.
It was harmless but I've never seen an apology for how stupid and pushy they were about this dietary rule (which they don't believe because they think for themselves!).
It was an example of Catholics trying to impose their beliefs (of course they think for themselves and don't really believe everything!) on everyone else which they are still doing with their views on birth control (which they don't really believe because they think for themselves!).
Don't get me wrong. I'd rather be with Catholics than the nut job born again types that currently surround me.
What is troubling to me is when any religion does not extrapolate how they would like that kind of intrusion by any other religion. It never seems to occur to them what life would be like if other religions had the luxury of having power or being the majority.
Catholics are STILL trying to impose their briefs (which they don't follow because they think for themselves!) into the lives of other people, but not as much as any of the other religions would if they could. Catholics are enabling male priesthood and intrusion into women's reproductive systems by supporting and empowering the religion. It doesn't matter if they think for themselves and don't really believe. What matters is that the religion will intrude when it can into the lives of other people.
Zero pity. Eating fish once a week is good for the environment and our health. Having an official meat break built into the week is simply a good idea whether it is fish on Friday or Meatless Monday. I try to do both. So sue me. I loved the tradition of restaurants having great fish deals on Fridays. I am sorry one sees less of it these days.
As for the public schools RESPECTING the beliefs of their students -- what a terrible, horrible thing to do! They should sit those Jewish kids down and put pork in front of them and tell they are not getting up until they eat it. They should make all students wearing Meat Is Murder t-shirts eat hamburgers! That is what getting an education is all about!
Do you realize that if the Catholics recommended breathing you would hold your breath until you turned blue? Hmmmm. I have no pull, but it might be fun to see if we can get them to work on that...
janeeliot Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > As for the public schools RESPECTING the beliefs > of their students -- what a terrible, horrible > thing to do! They should sit those Jewish kids > down and put pork in front of them and tell they > are not getting up until they eat it.
I beg to differ. In Belgium, jewish kids have always been expected to eat the vegetarian option whenever pork was served. But now that we have 3.5% muslims (most of them jackmuslims), suddenly schools serve only halal meat, meaning animals killed without any sedation, and of course no more pork.
I preferred the one-size-fits-all policy with more variety of meat, fish and vegetarian options (thursday was vegetarian only) and with higher humane standards of breeding and slaughtering. Wouldn't you?
Thanks much janeeliot for weighing in with your viewpoint.
But i believe my Post is being misconstrued.
I actually LIKE fish-sticks!
As i think back on my Elementary School days in my small home-town i can't help but crack a smile at the thought of just being offered fish-sticks on every Friday for the PUBLIC SCHOOL cafeteria lunch because of CATHOLIC beliefs.
I just thought it was an interesting obvervation to point out to see if others had experienced that as well in their Wonder Years of growing up Mormon!
Look. I'm a vegan now at least 95% of the time I'd estimate. I try to make the best decisions I can when I have choices.
What is happening to fish populations is not always so great for the environment but that's beside the point.
The issue was the forced schedule requiring the whole community to eat a certain thing on a certain day because a religion dictated it.
I don't care if you want fried fish bits every day of the week. Just don't let your religion dictate when I'm supposed to eat it.
No bona dea, there were not other choices back then at my school in So. California. It was a cafeteria line with one meal for that day.
I'm not addressing the issue about what is healthy to eat or what is good for the environment. I'm addressing the influence and control a religion can have over others.
We all need to look where we allow intrusion. It's only a matter of degree how much overreach a religion has. One day it is dictating fish on Friday. The next day it might be praying or dressing a certain way based on the religious majority.
Even a Catholic apologist ought to understand concern about this issue of religious intrusion.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/31/2014 05:22PM by dagny.
"Do you realize that if the Catholics recommended breathing you would hold your breath until you turned blue? Hmmmm. I have no pull, but it might be fun to see if we can get them to work on that..."
Just want to clarify this means what you said. You implied that it would be fun if I stopped breathing.
Is it possible you have a sense of humor? Who knew!
The point is, you are defending your religion's ability to dictate when to breathe, what to eat, or who to screw. It's not about being against them, it's more about preventing religious intrusion. You may not take them seriously, but when they have power to impact behavior options of others, there should be boundaries.
It's not a big deal to accommodate people when it doesn't harm anyone else. Where you hurt by eating fish once a week?
We had fish in my school, too, but it was random. Friday was pizza day, which had no more religious significance than TGIF. I ate fish sticks when they served them, so having them every Friday would not have bothered me at all.
So you had to eat fish which is good for you one day a week? How awful. You probably had other choices too. I know we did. If not, you could being a lunch. How awful that schools should make an effort to accomodate their students.
I taught in the schools for 30 years and there was almost always a choice and brown bagging it has always been allowed. Fish is better for you than a lot of the crap served in school lunch and is recommended over meat by doctors. Fish sticks may not be the best form of fish but it has to be better than hot dogs or mystery meat
Yep. Elementary school in California in the 1960s, fish sticks every Friday. I hated them. I hated the tartar sauce. The evil bitch who ran the cafeteria insisted we eat everything on our plate, so I'd hide the fishsticks in my pants pockets, Cold green beans that had been frozen and were ice-damaged. Horrible fish sticks every Friday. Cream of corn that looked and tasted like vomit. The ONLY good thing about lunch was the mile (not enough of it). They gave us paper straws, so you got one good SUCK and that was it, the sraw was DONE. Only good thing was the oreo cookie and the milk. Everything else on the plate was completely and UTTERLY unedible. I still can't stand fishstricks today, can't even look at them when I go shopping. Fishstricks on Fridays reminds me of Mormon Church services every Sunday....dreaded it. Absolutely....dreaded it.
I thought Catholic kids were lucky to have tuna or frozen fish cakes once a week. My mom was not much of a cook and I was glad for a hot meal at school.
Meh. This one isn't a big deal to me. Most likely, there would be fish occasionally on the menu anyway, so intersect it with religious beliefs of some other local taxpayers. It's not as if anybody's being forced to fast, or save dead people, or pray, etc. Brown bagging is an option for any food that a student may not tolerate well.
I'm not a Jesus believer, but I still do holidays, and try to be aware of other peoples' beliefs and customs. I look at it like that. Others mileage will vary.
I went to a village primary school that was Church of England in the 1980s. I would have been so happy to have fish fingers (sticks) - we had fish on fridays - sardines, pilchards, bright yellow smoked haddock or mackerel. All the cheap cr*p. The pigs got most of it - we had 'swill buckets' where the unwanted food went to a local farm.
You could take a packed lunch, but as that put the school dinner programme under threat, my mother wouldn't fill in the permission slip.
I did love dessert though - or as we would say puddings - all the traditional British stuff they don't make much these days - spotted dick, treacle tart, rice pudding with proper skin, tapioca, semolina, bread and butter pudding. 'Lardy' cake is perhaps something best forgotten, but it was like a last hurrah for Victorian institutional food.
Those on the school dinner programme these days get ready meals trucked in, and someone re-heats them a few minutes before the break.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/31/2014 04:50PM by austrobrit.
The ONLY thing I liked about school cafeteria lunches were the spaghwtti, the Hamburger helper, and the Sloppy Joes. True, the meat in the spaghetti was unedible, but you could work around it. The hamburger helper was actually a bit taste, and the Sloppy Joes were the best. We'd had that once a month. I DREAMED of Sloppy Joe day!
Sounds like pretty interesting stuff to eat. I have no idea what 90% of it is. All I know is that I'm glad they didn't send me to England on my mission, because I was in an "English" restaurant in Los Angeles California, once, and they just made Kidney Pie, which smelled like hot diseased old-person piss, and I almost lost it right then and there.
At least fish was also reasonable since half the students were Catholic. 10% were Jewish so we got the Jewish holidays off as well as Good Friday. The top group at school in JH was 80% Jewish and 10% Presbyterian.
I usually had pbj sandwiches. I never had money to buy a dessert. Well, if I did, I saved it.
At the Elementary schools I went to in California, in the 1960s, we had "hamburgers" where the meat tasted like leftover diseased horse along with remnants of old road-kill. The buns were harder than cement, and tasted like cement, and the ketchup, what little there was, tasted like coagulated bat blood. We had a little pickle slice in the middle, so I took the little pickle slice and at that, along with one good swig of milk before my paper straw collapsed on its own weight, and then I'd stuff the baby-vomit (i.e. creamed corn) and the ice-damaged green beans that tasted like burnt electrical wires into my pants pockets, and the horse meat road kill burgers and the hand-as-cement buns, and then I walked out. One day I had a hole in my right pants pocket, and the creamed corn dribbled down my leg my right shoe, and every time I took a step you'd hear a "SQWEESH".
I was really embarrassed as an 80s child bringing in sandwiches made of homemade bread and jam with peanut butter, homegrown vegetables and fruits, plus home-baked desserts. I wanted the hot lunch sooo bad and it wasn't cool back then to have everything home-made and "organic." My friends would always beg for a taste of whatever my mom baked for my dessert.
ETA: I still hate bologna sandwiches, though. Blech.
Grass is always greener, eh?
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/31/2014 06:33PM by Itzpapalotl.
I grew up in a small town with no school cafeteria. We got an hour for lunch and we were to either to brown-paper-bag it, or go somewhere for lunch.
However when I went away to college I ended up living in the Lambda-Delta fraternity house. For those of you who don't know Lambda-Delta was the male version of Lambda-Delta-Sigma which was an all LDS (hence the choice of Greek letters) sorority.
At the Lambda-Delta house we had a cook who served fish on Friday. None of us thought much of it other than it was funny that we Mormons were being given a Catholic menu, but, hey why not fish, and why not on Friday. One of the guys joked on it once to the cook. She became very offended. We had to go out of our way to mollify her on that one.
The Lambda-Delta house was for RM's and prospective M's. I was a prospective M. Noticing how self-centered, arrogant, and un-Christ-like the RM's were compared to the prospective M's was one of the early blows to my fledgling "testimony."
One of the more interesting things about living there in the mid '60s was when Paul H. Dunn came to campus as the LDS representative for "Religion in Life" week. He spent an evening at the Lambda-Delta house just hanging with us and talking as an equal. For Sacrament Meeting he was the only speaker and it vacillated between comedy routine and sermon.
When he visited my ROTC class he told the story of the guy dying in his arms. I was about 10 feet away from him when he told it. He was a stirring speaker and seemed to be a great guy. He got caught stretching the truth. All the other GAs do that too, but he did it in a way that made it too easy to check out. His problem wasn't that he was a bad guy, it was that he was a Mormon GA.
The time he was the only speaker at SM, was the most engaging sacrament meeting I've ever been to. I remember thinking at the time, "wow, what if Church could always be like this." That was probably the only sacrament meeting I've ever been to where I didn't look at the clock longing for the closing prayer.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/31/2014 06:38PM by baura.
I was a Catholic kid so I ate the fish sticks. They were better than some cafeteria slop. The best thing in our high school cafeteria were chocolate chip cookies that came 3 in a package.
Yes, I do remember fish sticks. Even as a born-and-raised Catholic, I refused to eat them. My mom used to tease me good-naturedly about that. I packed a bag lunch on Fridays.
However I did like the Catholic custom of fish on Fridays. My dad would often pick up very tasty fish and chips for dinner. To this day I still often like fish or meatless dishes on Fridays.
I loved getting to buy lunch on Fridays. Loved them fish sticks. Fish on Fridays has morphed into a cultural ritual in the South. Our deli always has catfish-your choice, baked or fried.
My school district didn't serve hot lunches till the 1978-79 school year, and we occasionally had fish on the menu, but not regularly on Fridays. I remember the first time it was served that year was on a Friday, though, because my mom freaked out about it. Not because she thought it was a Catholic custom, but because she was a hypochondriac and thought I was allergic to fish. She wrote a letter to my teacher saying if they would be serving fish on Fridays I would be bringing a lunch that day. It was so embarrassing. BTW, I was not allergic to fish, and I have no idea why she thought that. I never showed any signs of food allergies as a child.
I grew up in Ontario in a main stream Protestant family and my mother always made fish for dinner on Friday. I asked her why we had to eat fish on Friday when we were not Catholic. She said that was when the stores had the freshest fish.
Fish sticks seems pretty innocuous compared to what Catholics are doing here now. Their organizations are quietly buying up all the small community hospitals. Need help with birth control or other womens issues? Too damn bad.