My favorite scene from Billy Madison is when Billy, played by Adam Sandler, and his elementary school friends are in the cafeteria at lunch. As they pass jokes back and forth, a lunch lady approaches them with a pan stacked with Sloppy Joe sandwiches.
"I know you kids like them extra sloppy!" she cackles as she scoops them up and dumps them onto their lunch trays. Some of the sandwiches lose their buns during the transfer, and she pats them down with her spatula, making them seem all the more "sloppy."
Although the women that work in food services are not nearly as creepy as the one in the film, some students at Appalachian can argue that the food served on campus is very similar in quality to the sandwiches seen here. Who knows? Maybe that lunch lady uses the same recipe that Food Services uses when Sloppy Joe Day rolls around. So don't eat the food on campus, go out to buy something, or even, dare I say, turn on the stove and cook up a meal. But those options can become expensive, and no one likes to clean dishes and put out potential house fires due to improper cooking.
After living at school, a student can learn fast how to survive, taking advantage of every opportunity for free food, good food, and that long sought after good food that's free. It really makes you miss how Mom always had something good in the oven that would leave the entire house smelling like a fancy restaurant in Paris. Personally, my Mom bakes a lasagna dish that makes me want to speak Italian while eating it so that I can pay respect the flavors and ingredients inside it.
If there's one thing that I learned while at school, it's to take advantage of great homemade food. My mother seems to have recognized this as well, judging by the way that she insists I eat more while I'm at home, even if I'm full. So the next time you have flashbacks of the sloppy Joe scene in Billy Madison as you pass through an on-campus dining hall, call up your mother. I'm sure she'd be more than happy to overnight ship her finest dish to you—at least I know mine would.
