School dinners

From the age of five, I stayed to have school dinners. It was the accepted normal practise for children who couldn't see the school from their house. The lunch bell rang and we all formed long lines in the cloakroom and briskly washed our hands on small pieces of carbolic soap .... do you remember the smell? Then neatly (in two's) we walked at a fair pace to the school canteen. We then formed a long, long, long crocodile line and were quickly placed at tables. You may remember, just like me that it was customary to say Grace in those days so we all said the following "Thank you for the world so sweet, thank you for the food we eat, thank you for the birds that sing, thank you God for everything. Amen." Then each table of pupils would be steered in turn, to the front of the canteen where we picked up our bowls and spoons and headed towards the dinner lady (with a crisp, clean, white cotton apron and hat) and received our Hobson's choice soup of the day. We then headed back to our table (no choice where to sit) - placed our bowl on the table and waited for the table to fill up before eating our first course. In those days the crockery was made out of coloured, hard plastic. When we had finished, we took our dirty dish and spoon back and neatly stacked them at a special place by the wall. We then proceeded in the same fashion with our dinner course and lastly our pudding course. You were not allowed to leave anything on your plate - if you didn't like it that was just tough!
I remember the fact that with each course - there was no choice - if you didn't like it you still had to eat it ... I can remember, on occasion that some pupils would remain in the canteen for a good part of the afternoon stuggling to eat something that they disliked.