School Cafeteria

My Grandma Santa was something of a celebrity at St. Margaret of Scotland Parish. She was

in charge of the school cafeteria. Every day, a separate group of ladies would help in the

cafeteria and she would oversee the cooking, serving and clean-up. Grandma made the meals

she had started serving at home for a few hundred hungry kids every day. No wonder when she

cooked for 12 people on Sunday, it went like clock-work and was delicious. No matter how

many extra people showed up for dinner, Grandma made what she had stretch to feed us all.

Grandma and her Tuesday Ladies did activities on Wednesday after school lunch. They were so titled because they worked on Tuesdays but met socially on Wednesdays. One of her Tuesday Ladies was Bertha Sommers. "Bert" and "Sant" had a lot of fun together. Bert had a slew of kids, one of her little boys was a real brat. Some Sundays, Grandma and I would pick up Bert and her bratty son to take them to Mass at St. Margaret's. One Sunday, Bert was trying to get her son ready while Grandma and I waited in the kitchen. Things in the other rooms were pretty quiet and then around the corner came the bratty kid with Bert Sommers right behind him. He was screaming, "I'm not going to Communion. You can't make me go to communion." Bert's reply, "You are so going to Communion even if I have to smack your rear end all the way down the aisle." Old Catholics will remember the "No food or drink after midnight if you're going to Communion" rule. He made a quick stop at the kitchen table and took a big finger- swipe of butter that was sitting on a silver butter dish. He stuffed the butter in his mouth and yelled, "Now I can't go to Communion." Mrs. Sommers turned beet red and reached out to whack him, but brat boy was much quicker and ran out the back door. He didn't come back in time to go to church, so we left without him. I always wondered what happened to brat boy after Bert Sommers got back from church.