What’s For Lunch?

“What’s in your lunch bag?”

“A hotcake.”

“A what?”

“A hotcake. You know, it’s the same thing as a pancake. It was left over from breakfast.”

“That doesn’t sound like a good lunch.”

“It’s yummy. While it was still hot, I spread fresh butter on it so it soaked in real good. Then I sprinkled it with sugar and rolled it up like a cigar.”

That was what my mother packed for lunch when she was in school. I watched her numerous times as she slathered butter on her hotcake and sprinkle it with sugar. It was pretty good that way! I learned to fix mine that way, too, but not to pack for lunch.

When I was a kid, Mama made hotcakes for breakfast many times. She cooked three at a time in a big cast iron skillet. One of the boys usually got the first stack. She went around the table loading a stack on each plate, then she’d start over again. The boys ate boocoodles of hotcakes – at least 9 each- at one sitting. Mama didn’t get any until they were all done. I wish I knew how much hotcake batter she made at one time.

If my granddad was around, the cat got the first pancake that was cooked all alone in the pan as a test to see if the skillet was the right temperature. If a little kid was around, the test pancake might get put on the kid’s head before it went to the cat.

My lunch bag never had a hotcake in it. Sometimes it did have a maple stick in it though. That was a rare treat!

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