Dear Flying Hills Elementary School,
I am writing you today to see if you can help me track something down that I remember fondly from your fine leaning institution. About two decades ago, I was enrolled at your school from the last half of Kindergarten straight through to the end of 5th Grade. I still carry with me great stories of spending time in class with all of my teachers (Ms. Remlinger, Ms. Gilette, Ms. Esther, Ms. Morales, Ms. Gasthauer, Ms. Ogilvie, and the music teacher Mr. Bush), and I served as a member of not only the Safety Patrol, but also as a member of the AV department back when it was still okay for pint-sized students to push around top-heavy rolling carts that were crowned with a massive, potentially bone-crushing television.
I took part in countless fundraisers, Walk/Jog-A-Thons, science fairs, bike rodeos, and was forced to attend a great deal of FAME plays as an audience member as I was not a part of that particular group, but rather was one of the initial students that took part in the GATE program.
What I'm writing to you about today are your school lunches. It took me a good couple years to get to the point of being okay with working through the school cafeteria line (I was and still am somewhat of a picky eater), but what I discovered when I finally broke out of my shell is that I was in love with the rectangular pepperoni pizzas that were served on an almost weekly basis.
A small, school-aged economy was built using those pizzas as capital... and I learned a lot about value of product, supply and demand, and what it took to pull off a good barter. I can remember making my pre-lunch rounds and shaking hands with other kids, offering tomorrows chicken nuggets for today pizza with Jeff M., or trading my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle folder for next week’s pizza with John B. I sacrificed and negotiated my way to multiple pizzas on nearly every pizza day, and those were the best days of my childhood.
At the start of my 6th grade year, I transferred to a different school district and forever lost that pizza. None of the future pizzas ever stacked up to what I had at Flying Hills. Ashamed as I am to admit, I think about this sometimes as a nearly 30-year old man.
What I was wondering was if you would be able to track down whatever supplier it was that carried or produced those pizzas for the school during the late 1980's. I'm not sure if it was an in-house operation (I suspect it might've been), and I'm sure the recipe has changed over that time... but I'd really like to see if I can find that same school cafeteria pizza taste against as an adult. Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
In the meantime, thank you for the education you provided. I had some good years there, and always think back on it fondly.
A former student,
Danny
