For more than the first century of Deer Park Schools, students brought their meals in lunch pails and ate in classrooms, on the front steps or on the school grounds. Others walked home for their noon meal.  With the opening of the high school addition to Amity in 1935, there was a cafeteria for the first time.  The dining space was much smaller than Amity’s lunchroom today, occupying less area than two classrooms.  This was adequate space for the time though because meals were only served to high school students.

Deer Park High School students enjoying lunch, 1939

The business of managing the new cafeteria was owned and operated by Anna Hambly.  Mrs. Hambly had deep ties to our schools as she had attended the two room Amity building on Plainfield Pike as a young girl and continued to live in the community.  She made all the food from scratch and took great pride in offering a daily variety of appetizing and nutritious luncheon menus at prices which seem inconceivable to us today.  For 24 cents a student could have pork chops with dressing, buttered peas, jello salad with fruit, cottage cheese and butterscotch pudding.

Amity cafeteria staff, 1937

Anna Hambly on left.

Serving lunch to the high school students required more manpower than what just three cooks could manage. The home economics teacher organized students who were interested in working in the cafeteria galley.  This group was referred to as the “Kitchen Mechanics” or “Knights”.  The high school paper reported, “In return for services performed, in the cafeteria, during the lunch hour, a group of students receive their noon-day repast.  This group is rotated so that every two weeks a new group of Knights are present in the galley.”

Students also had the option of leaving school during their lunch period.  Some walked home to eat, but others bought lunch at small stores and delis along Amity and Blue Ash Roads.  Kirkpatrick’s was located directly across the street from Amity.  Mrs. Kirkpatrick would sell soups, sandwiches, small cans of beans etc. to the students who would eat at benches in the store.  Another popular spot was Leverenz which was close to the railroad tracks. They offered specials each day such as spaghetti, chili, macaroni and cheese or soup.  There were no chairs or tables so students sat out front on the steps and held their food on their laps.  Being a rural area at the time, there were dairies nearby so another option was a nearby dairy bar.

After a new high school was built on Plainfield Road in the early 1950s, the elementary students who didn’t chose to walk home for lunch began eating in the cafeteria.  They also took over the jobs the high school students had done helping in the kitchen. The cafeteria didn’t have an automatic dishwasher so students were the dishwashers – washing and drying dishes by hand.  Students could work during their recess period and get a free lunch and payment of a quarter a week. In the 1960s, the cafeteria was enlarged, and a huge automatic dishwasher was installed.  Students still helped but only needed to stack the dishwasher and sort the silverware.  Today’s students may be surprised to learn that lunch wasn’t served on disposable trays with sporks. Rather it was served on trays with plates, bowls, cups and silverware which all needed to be washed, and that job was taken on by students. 

Today the high school and elementary lunchrooms are bigger and brighter. The kitchens have modern appliances, some of which weren’t even imagined in the 1930s.  The student meal choices have also changed to reflect evolving eating habits and interests.  (Kids – pizza and tacos would never have been on the menu even though they are student favorites today.)  Regardless of the changes, one thing remains constant … lunch is still one of the students’ favorite periods of the day … and the teachers’ too.

“The past has taught its lesson, the present has its duty and the future its hope.”

Notes:

• Amity Road is today named Galbraith Road.
• Kirkpatrick’s was located in the small gray building that still stands on Galbraith Road, directly across from Amity School.

Sources:

1. Amity: A Reflection, 1907-2007
2. Interview with Marian (Baker) Mueller, March 2007
3. Interview with Betty Poole, March 2007
4. Submitted Amity memories, Dennis Klasmeir, 2007
5. "Tom Tom,” Oct. 29, 1936, (Deer Park High School newspaper)
6. Antlers, 1939, (Deer Park High School yearbook)

A sincere effort has been made to convey the history as accurately as possible from artifacts, documents, photographs and personal narratives in the district’s archives.

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