FEATURE STORIES
Looking for something more specific?
Enter a search term here:
Enter a search term here:
 As I prepared my usual lunch of peanut butter (smooth, of course) and jelly, I had a flashback to 6th grade at Longfellow Elementary in Holland, circa mid-1970s... It was our first year in Holland, Michigan, having just moved from San Antonio, TX. Two words: culture shock.  It was at Longfellow that year that I was first introduced to PB&Js - seriously. It was bad enough that we did not look like anyone else at the school then, but when we opened up our lunch (I ate lunch with my two younger siblings, who attended here also), whoa, that turned heads in the lunchroom. Mama Alvarez packed each of us two tacos for lunch (I mean, what else, right?), and our classmates were unfamiliar with these "taco" things. Two cultures were about to collide in the lunchroom... Food not only broke the ice, but it also led to lifelong connections and helped feed my baseball card (and candy) addiction. And, it made me a PB&J lover for life. Here's how that worked: after letting our classmates taste tacos for the first time, they were hooked, and pretty soon we were selling our tacos to them for $1 each (a lot of money for a taco back then, but they could afford them). But there was a catch: we also got their lunches, and guess what? Yes, most of them had PB&Js in their lunches. We had found a way to adapt, make friends (connections), while also making a little money with the resources we had - tacos. Today, some of my "customers" from back then are still connections, and my go-to lunch on any given day - like today - is a PB&J (with grape jelly, of course). A fun and vivid flashback for sure, and more importantly, a reminder about being resourceful, adapting to change, and a reminder that there is a little entrepreneurial spirit in all of us. ∎
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
