Lunch and Coppers

Lunch in most of the western world is the midday meal. When we were growing up in Newfoundland, Rick and I didn't know lunch in that way. One of the things we did know, however, was 'lunch goin' to bed.' This was the fourth meal for many Newfoundlanders, the milk, or tea you had with bread/toast or whatever was available. Mainly it was bread/toast and tea.

In my family when you had a 'little lunch' it was an afternoon snack, as it was at my great grandmother Hearn's house. She always had something for her visitors. Mary Hearn always busied herself getting a little lunch for Mom and me whenever we visited her.

My mother always remembered her the same way when she and her brothers visited Maa Hearn, as they called her. In addition, she always had coppers (pennies) saved for them as well.They always looked forward to their visits after which they went to the shop nearby and bought candies with their coppers.

What is now called lunch was dinner to us. Even today we call the midday meal dinner and need to be very specific of the meal time for our midday meal guests.

In this twenty-first century, our granddaughters have snacks during the day, lunch at noon and they won't know about coppers because they are no longer in circulation. Change!