"Wanna trade?"

Hi Reader,
When I was a yoot...Excuse me...When I was a youth, I was one of the many fortunate kids in this country who got to eat lunch at school every single day.

In high school, my friends and I usually spent the lunch hour hanging out underneath some giant eucalyptus trees in our campus amphitheater. We ate from paper sacks, snack bar trays, or our pockets. We did our best impersonations of Wayne and Garth, or Lothar of the Hill People. I regularly tutored a couple of friends on how to swear in kindergarten-level Vietnamese, so they could taunt opposing teams in sports. We even saw a guy get pooped on by some birds one day. Pretty innocent stuff compared to what some kids did, and do, I'd gratefully admit.

Sometimes, we'd look over each other's lunches and make offers to trade. One friend always had sandwiches made with what I called "sticks and stones bread" because it crunched with seeds and nuts. Others had cheese dust puffs or pudding cups or leftover Chinese food, while I boasted my Mom's butter and liverwurst-lined sandwiches. Mmm, yesss. "Wanna trade?" someone would ask while holding out their plastic bag to a chorus of "Not!" or "Yeeeah, dude!" Sometimes I'd be in the mood for that tuna fish on sticks and stones bread, or someone else would have a hankering for my pate and cheese instead of what they had.

It often helped me see the world from another family's perspective for a few curious bites and, in my own teenagery way back then, feel more appreciation for them as well as for my own parents and family.

As luck would have it, I just made a toasted, open-faced sandwich with some cheese, tomatoes, spinach, truffle oil hot sauce, and mustard. What you got? Wanna trade?

Peace,
Tommy

P.S. - If you work with kids and can spare it (and haven’t already figured this out), try to pack extra lunches and snacks along with yours. You never know who might get milk dumped all over their only hot meal for the day, by some other kid, just for existing.