That Hot Loaf of Bread

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

My family moved from Dallas, Texas to Albuquerque, New Mexico when I was six years old.   I went to grade school at Monte Vista Elementary School there in Albuquerque. As I remember it, I was not the most cooperative student. I spent many sessions in the Principal’s office for a myriad of reasons.

Some of those visits required a stern vocal reprimand by the Principle, while others required more severe physical action, which many of you may also remember. Over the years, I’m sure there were the occasions of someone hitting someone and some pigtail pulling, that caused me to visit the principal’s office.

But there is one episode that I remember most vividly. My best friend and I cooked up this very creative way to skip school. We would take our sack lunches and sneak away from the playground during morning recess while no one was watching, and have the whole day free to go and do anything we wanted. Boy, were we clever! Of course it didn’t take long before we got hungry and were looking for a hiding place to eat our lunches. We picked the top of a garage (flat roof) only a couple blocks from the school that we accessed from a low fence in a back alley. We were sure no one could see us as there were big trees on either side of the garage to hide us.

While we were eating, the owner of the house saw us and called the school to advise them that there were two boys on his garage roof that looked like they should be in school. Great plans don’t always work great! As it turned out we had really picked the wrong garage roof to eat our lunch. Not only was the owner at home, but it just so happened that it was my family’s pastor’s house. The truant officer took us to the principal’s office and our parents were called. That was one of those cases where I got (you know what) at school and again when I got home.

On a lighter note, I have many fond memories of my time in grade school. One of the most memorable is when I was in 6^th grade. Just up the street from our school was a small bakery, and when the wind was from that direction, the smell of freshly baking bread made my mouth water. One of our school field trips was a tour of that bakery. We got to see how bread was made; from the hand mixing of the dough (with long metal spatulas) in large stainless steel tubs, to how the dough was left to rise in individual bread pans, then baked in a huge rotating oven, and finally how the finished loaf was sliced and automatically wrapped. It was all really amazing to me and the rest of the class.

After that experience I spent a lot of my spare time at the bakery watching the bakers work, and talking to them about the different stages of the bread making process. They were all very friendly to this inquisitive 12-year old. They didn’t run me off, and let me watch as long as I wanted. They told me about all the good ingredients, and how good bread was for a growing boy like me. I bet I ate a lot more peanut butter and jelly sandwiches after that. While I was in 6^th grade, one of my favorite things to do (when I could afford it) was to buy a 15-cent loaf of warm unsliced bread from the bakery and eat the middle out of it. You know how kids don’t like the crust, right?   It’s amazing how wasteful kids can be, but I just couldn’t seem to stay away from that bakery. Of course all that came to an end when I moved to Junior High school the next year.

However, I still love the smell of freshly baked bread, and it always reminds me of that time in my life when I would look forward to making another trip to that small local bakery. I can just smell and taste it now. Yummm!

The End

Tags: Boyhood adventures, Childhood Memories