"There's Bar-b-Que Sauce and That's All You Need to Know"

A few teenage boys in my third period class have taken to eating their lunch during class. As a rule, this is fine with me, providing that the food doesn't stink, an admittedly perjorative standard, but hey, it's my classroom and I have to live there for the rest of the day.

When I walked into class today, something smelled. It was a meatball sub. When I commented that it stank, the student held the sub my way and asked if I wanted a bite.

No.

By then, of course, the entire class is consumed by a discussion of meatball subs, prompting me to say that in 39 years I've never eaten one. Meatball subs are a Jersey thing and this leads to much shock and horror on their part. They demand a class trip for the eating of meatball subs. They want to go eat at the grease trucks at a local university.

Because nothing says yummy like grease trucks, another Jersey thing. Grease trucks are movable food vendors located in public places. There is an assortment near my school and it's a popular place for the Seniors to eat their lunch.

Legend has it that if you can eat three grease truck sandwiches in 30 minutes, they will name the sandwich after you. So now they are talking about their favorite sandwiches ---- featuring fried mozzarella sticks and all manner of heart clutching ingredients. And I hear one student describe his favorite sandwich by saying, "there's bar-b-que sauce and that's all you need to know" which makes me laugh out loud.

And then gears abruptly change and now we're talking about political socialization. But my tummy is rumbling and a little bar-b-que sauce is sounding pretty good about now.