The Saga of the Hudson Nutrition Department

Disclaimer: First of all, this entry really has nothing to do with exercise or weight loss...except that it does have the word "nutrition" in the title - stretching, but this story must be told! (ha, ha). I've been wanting to blog about this for awhile and finally after this past Tuesday I am ready! At the risk of sounding incredibly cheap, getting in trouble, and possibly offending anyone involved with the Hudson Schools (or all of the above)...here goes...

It is Tuesday night. It is around 7:20pm. The Ramsey home phone rings. No one moves to answer it. (This is not that unusual as no one usually moves to the answer that phone. The connection is filled with static and you usually can't hear the person on the other end, but then again no one usually calls us anyways. We should really just get rid of our land line altogether, but I won't because of emergency purposes, etc, but I digress...) No one usually calls us on that phone...except for on Tuesday nights at around 7:20pm.

Usually someone will yell through the house, "Don't answer it. It's just the Hudson Nutrition Department!" Even Zachary will yell it. We are all trained. We have been getting this same phone call for about 2 1/2 to 3 years now. Every Tuesday at around 7:20pm.

The recording says, "This is the Hudson Nutrition Department calling regarding the balance in your (insert grade here) third graders school account." That part of it I have memorized. Usually I've already deleted it before they finish the rest, but I think the rest of it goes something like this..."There is a balance in the account that needs to be paid. Please call (insert phone number) with any questions." Then it definitely says, "This message will now repeat" and we get to hear, or not hear, the message again.

Now, what is this all about? Glad you asked - funny story. When Zach was in 1st grade (he is now in third) and was just learning about this having lunch at school thing, he must have had one day when he decided (on his own - just for the record) to buy milk. Now also I need to note that we have always packed his lunch and never once forgot...so far. But as kids will be kids, he apparently wanted to have some chocolate milk or something. But the darling had no money. But what he did have was some puppy dog eyes and a nice cafeteria lady who agreed to give him the milk for free! Well, at least this is what Zach told us later. Honey, there is no such thing as a free lunch or free chocolate milk.

Enter the first phone call from the Hudson Nutrition Department - probably later that month. "...First graders account..." Back then they used to tell us the amount we owed - literally under $1. Okay, so life got busy and we never did call to pay off this great debt and I honestly figured they would just chalk it up as a loss - new kid with the new lunch deal...whatever...It was not like we arranged for our 6 year old to have any sort of account with anyone and as I mentioned before he was a steady "packer".

Well, no. We continually got phone calls during the rest of that year. Every Tuesday at around 7:20pm. Summer was quiet, but we all anticipated what would happen when school started up again in August. Sure enough, every Tuesday we got the same message except this time it was "in your second grader's account". We were all cracking up at this point. How long will this go on, we wondered? This is ridiculous! Will this go on through high school? Will Zach's transcripts be held up because of the .50 cents he owes to the Hudson Nutrition Department? Wait, will there be interest?! We can hear it now..."in your twelfth graders account...you owe 1 million dollars or he cannot graduate...!!"

So, that is the story. Right now I am way too entertained (and stubborn) about this whole thing to make any attempt to pay them. Maybe one of these days, before Zach graduates, I will actually call and arrange to pay and get the monkey off our back once and for all. Hmmm...I wonder if they'll take a check?!