My Missing A Great Meal Rant

. . .And I Missed A Great Lunch For THIS!?!

Here's an interesting rant from my college days.

Having discovered (through popping a zipper) that my clothes were shrinking (or something like that) from all of the delicious, all-you-can-eat college fare served in our dining room, I decided that it might be wise to become more aware of what--and how much of it--I was putting in my mouth.

So, I began to cut corners here and there.

One thing I did was to read the menu for the week (which was posted on the door of the dining room), allowing myself to have all I could eat of only two items: buttermilk pancakes and chicken croquettes.

Everything else on the menu I'd only have one serving of.

I also went from three squares to two meals per day, so I had a lot of planning to do at the first of the week--then, I stuck to it.

One week, I noticed that they were going to be having chicken croquettes. Just reading the name made my mouth water.

A few days later, I went over to the student center where the dining room was with my mouth watering enough to make the mouth of Pavlov's Dog seem like the Sahara Desert.

My mouth watered even more when I picked up the aroma of this rarely-served dish as it wafted out of the dining room into the lobby.

But, then, it happened! I spotted an adorable baby, and I'm a real pushover when it comes to babies!!!

So I went over to tell his Mommy what a cute baby she had.

She thanked me and told me that she and her baby were waiting for her husband to finish his class.

We chatted for a few minutes, during which she mentioned how bored and lonely she got at times while waiting for her husband, so I invited her to be my guest for lunch, saying that they had prepared my very favorite dish.

I had a meal ticket, which gave me the opportunity to eat all I cared to eat of everything served during three meals per day.

If I took a guest who didn't have a meal ticket, I could give him/her the same privilege at lunch for a mere dollar. To do so during breakfast was (if I remember right) eighty cents and either $1.25 or $1.50 for dinner.

She turned me down, saying that she would be eating with her husband after he got out of class and that he was expecting her to be right where she was.

She then began telling me what a great guy her husband was, how they met, etc.

I put my dream-meal on the back-burner and sat down beside her and kept her company until her husband arrived.

When I saw him, I recognized him as an upperclassman I'd seen around from time to time.

After saying goodbye to the three of them, I made my way into the food line.

Lunch was almost over, but, perhaps, there might be at least one chicken croquette left for me.

There wasn't--so I ordered a hot dog instead.

Anyway, I didn't resent or regret for a single moment the time I'd spent with this woman and her baby. I was sure that this dish would be served at least once more before school ended for the summer--turns out it wasn't.

So, what's my rant?

Am I mad because I missed out on my favorite dish while having a great visit with a woman and her adorable baby?

Not at all.

But it just so happened that the woman's husband and I had a mutual friend on campus, and this friend told me that the husband had told him about how his wife had complained about my coming over to her and bothering her while she had been waiting for him.

I thought this was very strange, because, if she had just told me that she wanted to be alone, I would have gladly made a beeline to the dining room before they had run out of chicken croquettes.

Instead, she had acted as if she were glad she had someone to talk to besides her baby.

I told my friend this and said that I didn't know why she had told her husband this story--or why she hadn't been more direct (while being polite) and telling me that this was generally a time she used to collect her thoughts and was, therefore, not in that much of a mood to visit.

When I invited her to lunch, she could have said something like, "No, you go on ahead. I really want to be alone to gather my thoughts, anyway."

My friend concluded that there are some people who are just a little strange and that they're going to pull numbers like that at times.

Now, I'm sitting here over 30 years later and suddenly have a craving for chicken croquettes. . .wonder why!?!