Shepherd's Pie

Shepherd’s Pie

Jenkintown High School

1984- 85 School Year

There were only 200 students in this high school and most of them lived within two or three blocks from the school. It was a sweet, little community. To add to this good vibe, we all had a common lunch break. School shut down for an hour from 11:30 to 12:30. During that hour, the building cleared out. The kids could run home to eat or stay at the cafeteria. Most of the kids ran home to eat. Most of the time. There was only one dish that lured all of us to eat in the cafeteria. it was when Mrs. Murphy, one of the cafeteria ladies who happened to be from Ireland, made Shepherd’s Pie.

When she made that pie, the aroma would whiff through the school and everybody was abuzz.

We all whispered in delight “you smell the shepherd’s pie? It’s Shephard’s Pie today.” Everything seemed right with the world when we came to this realization. Whatever plans people had for lunch that day changed immediately. Everybody stayed for the Shepherd’s Pie.

In the beginning of the school year Mrs. Murphy would dish out huge helpings of the pie on our lunch trays. She would pile on fluffy, creamy mash potatoes and we would grateful take our heap of food and find someplace to sit in the overcrowded cafeteria.  No one spoke to anyone.  We just hummed and ate and ate and ate.

As the school year moved along and budgets became tighter and tighter as we move towards end-of-the-year, Mrs. Murphy wasn’t allowed to dish out the shepherd’s pie anymore. Our four spoonsful in September became just two spoonsful in March. And we are all sighed, Mrs. Murphy included, as we accepted our pitiful, reasonable portion of this delightful meal.