Sushi and sandwich shops

My daughter Caitlin was required to stay late at work last night and to sweeten the deal, dinner was going to be provided. The options discussed were: sushi from a chain supplier, sushi from a well loved local Japanese restaurant or Chinese take-away from the shop next door. Caitlin was voting for the Japanese restaurant. It sent me into a memory lane tour of work. (They eventually opted for chain shop sushi, just so you know)

My first job was at a pharmaceutical factory. It was a world away from the world we know today. There was a bundy clock where everyone would line up to punch in and out and a tea lady who kept the canteen tidy and made cups of tea for management. I wonder what else she did. She wore one of those blue tunic style uniform dresses with the zip down the front and large pockets on the side. The canteen was largest I have seen yet, with six or seven large laminated tables and a very big pie warmer. Most of the staff were new to Australia and would bring hot lunch of dishes from their homeland. Everyone stopped to put their lunch in the pie warmer first thing in the morning, then go to change into their factory whites and line up in the corridor to clock on.  If we didn't bring lunch with us, the sandwich shop down the road provided white paper bags which we could write our order on with money inside. The shop picked up the order bags and delivered the food just before lunch. As I write I realise that Uber Eats is really a backwards step from the simplicity and efficiency of that system.

At my next job, laboratory staff had a separate lunch room to factory staff so it was a much smaller room off the side of the lab with a single table and no pie warmer. Instead there was a mini oven with hotplates on the top. It stood on a cabinet next to the sink and was rarely used which meant we all assumed it was pretty much a storage facility and there was usually a large plastic salt shaker on top. You can see where this is going....a few times the oven was turned on and the salt shaker melted.

In that place, there were no bells or buzzers to announce break times and there was rarely more than two or three  eating together. Across the yard, in the administration building, there was a biscuit tin which was regularly refilled with Arnotts Assorted biscuits and if we were particularly lucky we would be able to grab a Scotch Finger before they were all gone. On a couple of occasions there was a barbecue, if memory serves it was to celebrate a particularly good month of production or sales. We enjoyed the break in monotony but looking back, a few sausages and bread rolls was a very small thanks for the hard work of the team who were doing heavy work in extreme temperatures and loud noise, probably destroying their backs and their hearing. 

On a rare few Fridays a group of us would go to the local club for lunch, one of my colleagues was vegetarian which was not well catered for in those days (1990-91) especially in the outer suburbs. His vegetarian lunch was not even a menu item, he just ordered plain rice with soy sauce and chilli sauce poured over it. His on-site lunch was much better, every single day he made the same order : two cheese and salad sandwiches. No butter.