Bento…… Nostalgia??
Jun 19th, 2008 by Sylvia
Imagine my surprise at finding out that my Mother was preparing me bento lunches years and years ago….. I don’t think she even knew it!
Bento is a Japanese lunch box prepared with compartments where every little space is filled with a delicacy. The food is made to look good and taste good. See this picture of a bento from justbento.com? This is exactly the kind of thing my Mother used to make! The hot dogs cut into fish shapes is SO my Mother! LOL!
I truly was a strange child, most likely because my parents bucked the traditional norms in child-raising. I was a free-spirited, independant child. I followed my inclinations in education and hobbies. No one ever told me I couldn’t do anything. I wore homemade clothes, not something all that common even in the 60’s and 70’s, I collected rocks and I could hold intelligent conversations with adults, probably because I was an only child and not around children much til I was school age. I was the first girl in my elementary school to wear pants to school and got called to the office for it. It was a pantsuit, actually. Remember those? My Mother was called from work to come get me and she promtply told the principal that since it was the middle of winter and I walked to school, I most certainly would be wearing pants. End of that conversation. LOL! Everyone started wearing pants after that, even the teachers. I think that was 1968.
One of the strange things my Mother did for me, strange at least to my childhood friends, was to pack elaborate lunches for me when we would go on field trips and outings at school. When I was a child we went on many field trips each year and we were to bring a lunch. Instead of the common fare such as pb&j, chips and a cookie, my Mother packed lunches like:
fried chicken leg, celery sticks with pimento cheese, homemade pickles, homemade cheese crackers and carrot cake.
OR….
Tiny tomatoes, each one stuffed with a tidbit of homemade chicken salad, homemade cheese straws, cream cheese and dates spread on brown bread, oatmeal bars.
And she arranged these lunches in flat plastic boxes so that the contents looked like something out of a food advertisement. All my classmates had to peer into my lunch box before we ate, they were fascinated. I remember one particular year when she took a 5# coffee can and painted it with gold metallic paint and then painted red and silver designs on it. The lid on the can came on it from the store and it had a red handle on it. It was a natural for making a lunch tote. She would pack layer upon layer of delicacies and delicious food in that can for me, including a canned Sprite.
At the time I was a little embarrassed at having such an culinary artiste for a mom. But as time went on I grew to enjoy her artistry and attempted to emulate it. Our meals were never typical of modern, urban professional families. We ate plain foods but she always dressed them up. I never had a Coke or a twinkie til I was about 17 years old! Everything in our house was homemade, from puddings to pizza, wrapping paper to curtains.
Imagine my surprize… when I started researching bento boxes and simple lunch plans and found that my Mother, here in the edge of nowhere, USA was making them way back in the 60’s 
This is fascinating, Sylvia. Your Mother was a treasure! If only she knew… I have never heard of bento before. I think it is neat that you were self-confident enough to buck the norm day after day. Did you never ask your mom if you could just be normal? From what you wrote, it sounds like you didn’t care about the norm, but were comfortable the way you were and the way you were raised.
Those lunches… wow! No wonder you go above and beyond to make pretty foods (albeit simple) for your family. You’re carrying on your Mother’s tradition.
Love, Wardeh
Oh Wardeh, I don’t think I ever thought I wasn’t normal until I was a teenager. I remember telling her once when I had done something or other that was typical teen misbehavior that I was just an ordinary teen and she said, “No, you’re not! You’re extraordinary and don’t forget it.” LOL! Not until years later did I really understand that I thought and behaved differently than the majority. Yes, she was a treasure and I am thankful for my years with her.
Love
Sylvia
In three ways I can relate:
1. I collected rocks…still have ‘em.
2. I’ve always been a bit…different.
3. H. presented me with a bento…gee, I think it was for Mother’s Day. It is sooo cute. H. does the bento thing better than me. She has the little animal cutouts for cheese, makes rice balls, and has some sort of contraption to shape boiled eggs.
…we really need to visit on a porch glider some day, with sizzling cold sweet tea… Ha!
I am definitely all about cold, sweet tea!
Yes, I have always thought we had a lot in common, your post just reenforces that.
And I still have my rocks! We could compare rock collections. Of course my children love my rock collection but most people are less than interested. LOL!
Love
Sylvia
Your mom sounds like a wonderfully creative woman - I’m inspired to get more creative with lunch-packing. I actually bought my husband a Mr. Bento for his birthday. He loves it - even if he doesn’t get cout-outs and fun shaped foods. This is what his lunches are mostly like: http://sara-at-home.blogspot.com/2008/01/introducing-mr-bento.html
I love the coffee can lunch tote - that would be a great keepsake!
Sara, I like the Mr Bento thing! We have a store here that sells things like that, I may go and peruse a while to find something for my hubby.
Love
Sylvia
I love bentos! Each of my girls have one. You can read about it here
http://appliejuice.wordpress.com/2007/03/19/lunch-and-snacks/
I am in the process of deciding if I want to purchase a Tiffin for myself. LOL Anyhoo, your mom sounds wonderful. My mother was not like that at all. We bought our lunch. Chocolate milk cost 10 cents, and a cheeseburger cost 25 cents. The cheeseburger came open faced in a box and the teacher would put it in the microwave (this was before home microwaves), and zap it for a minute or two. I thought I was in heaven, having cheeseburger five days a week with chocolate milk. LOL I think I would rather have had your lunches.
I’ll give you my plastic cheeseburger for a stuffed tomato or some homemade cheese crackers. 
No, ok, how about the recipe for the cheese crackers then?
Do you ever trade?
Seriously, your mother sounds wonderful. What a blessing.
Yes, I would love to trade! LOL!
I would have been equallt enthralled with a hamburger every day.
A Tiffin, huh? I had to look that up. Actually, I have seen those but in the Amish stores and communities around here they are just called ’stainless steel stacking lunch boxes’! LOL!
I have often thought I’d love to have one, but its the idea of having it more than actually having a need for one.
Sylvia