1930's High School Football

Mar 23, 2018, 4:25 PM

I had planned to use the title, "1930's High School Football Team Pre- and Post-Game Meals" but we didn't have any team meals, nothing was planned and we ate what was in the pail or paper sack.I don't even remember if we had a football budget. The country was just emerging from the great depression but that good news had not yet reached our area. If we did have a budget all of the money would have been spent on adhesive tape. Most of the tape was used to hold pour uniforms together and not for our bodily injuries and ankle taping'

I suppose over one half of our students were bussed in from the rural area. We didn't have a cafeteria so those who rode the bus had to bring their lunch from home. Those of us who lived in town walked home for lunch, a novel idea. Those fancy decorative lunch pails with Disney and other characters may have been available but they cost a fortune when money is scarce. Most of the farms had hogs and their own supply of lard. Crisco had a three pound metal tub of lard with a wire handle, just the thing for a lunch pail, so the family bought enough tubs of Crisco lard so every child in the family had their own munch pail.

The contents of that Crisco lunch pail contained every food item found on the dining room table of a farm family but the standard fare always consisted of one or more sausage or ham biscuits. In several of those lunch pails would be a "cat head" biscuit. I knew what a "cat head" biscuit was when I saw one but no one ever explained to me what the dimensions were to distinguish it from a regular biscuit. I can assure you nothing beats a hot "cat head" biscuit with gobs of fresh churned butter and an ample supply of cane syrup. But the real trick is in the preparation of the biscuit. Take the right index finger and make a large hole in the middle of the biscuit The butter and syrup goes in the hole.

On the day of a football game, the players who rode the bus brought their lunch pails filled to the brim, enough food for lunch and their pre-game meal. If we had a home game they ate their pre-game meal in the Home Economics building. Those of us who lived in town had an early meal at home. For an away game, we ate on the bus enroute to the game site. Those of us who lived in town had our food in a paper sack. Often times we would swap food items. I had learned who had the best biscuits and would prefer swapping food items with them. There were always food crumbs on the floor of the bus and a thorough cleaning by the bus driver could never eliminate the aroma from all of those foods. The aroma would linger for days. Sometimes we would have a little food left over from our pre-game meal and that was a welcome morsel for an after game snack.

We always liked to play teams located on the East side of the St. Johns River. We usually went through Palatka to and from the game and had discovered a popular restaurant in Palatka. We always made this a regular stop on our way home. They made the best pies in the world ------- Banana Creme, Lemon, Pecan, Apple, Coconut Creme and many others. One-fourth of a pie for fifteen cents and a pint of milk for ten cents. Soft drinks were five cents and there was no sales tax. Several of the guys didn't have a quarter, but not to worry, we always found enought quarters so that every one had their pie and drink.

We were as poor as the old church mouse but did we have fun? You can bet your sweet patootie we did !!!!!!!

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1930's High School Football

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