Spilt Milk

During my last year of high school, the cafeteria workers decided that the students were having problems carrying their food from the line to their tables without spilling. At least that's the theory--personally I never noticed much of an issue, and didn't drop things myself, but I guess that not having to clean up after peoples' messes (after my Sophomore year, anyway), I may have simply not noticed.

Thus, to prevent extra-spillage in the future, the cafeteria started having a rule, any time you went through the line, you had to get a tray. Which itself is a really dumb rule to try to prevent people from spilling, as I know that I'm much more likely to spill something if it's on a tray than if I'm holding directly onto the plate.

I not being the only person to think this was stupid, organization began. I'm not truly sure how many people joined in, but I do know that at least for the Blue Table, all 20 or 30 people that were by for food helped out and did retrieve a tray any time they went back for anything. That, and conveniently "forgot" several important parts of their meals, to allow for more trips. ("Doh! I forgot my fork.. ah well, new tray. Oops, now where was that spoon? Shrug, guess I've gotta get another tray..)

Now, I'm not really sure what the cafeteria workers thought about this (mostly because they only spoke Spanish), but as the entire stack of trays, plates, glasses, and other sundries made its way down the conveyor belt, some choice Spanish phrases were being fairly loudly exclaimed.

The rule was removed the next day.

There's no use crying over spilt milk. And while it may be preventable, spilt milk may be preferable to the alternatives.