LINDA NOLA
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HAIR NET HEROES photos by Ellie Cook and Joseph Cline
LINDA It’s 7:15 a.m. when Linda Brickers pulls up the clear garage doors that open the cafeteria for breakfast. Dozens of students file in to buy cartoned milk, Doritos and strawberry Pop Tarts before rushing to their first hour. “Good morning Noah! Is that throat feeling any better?” Brickers, one of East’s lunch ladies, knows almost all of these students by name. “Do you have any Rice Krispies left?” asks a student. “Sorry, I ordered ‘em, but they haven’t come in. We have these chocolate ones, though. Here, take two, I’ll only charge you for one. Just in case you don’t like it.” With kids Trailridge Elementary School, Brickers originally became a lunch lady to spend time with her kids there, and she continues to connect with the students here at East. “Even if I’m having a bad day, when I start waiting on the kids and running the cash register, they make me laugh,” said Brickers. “It really is the best part of the job.” After having her first son, Brickers stopped working at the gas station she and her husband owned, Amacost Gas Station. When she needed to go back to work, she searched for a job that matched her boys’ schedules, and
found one as a lunch lady at Trailridge. “Everybody called me ‘Mom’,” said Brickers. “[My children] weren’t the kind of kids to get embarrassed that their mom was the lunch lady.” She followed her children to Shawnee Mission Northwest High School, and fell in love with the young spirits and busy atmosphere of the cafeteria. After they graduated, she transferred to East to continue with the job she found a passion for. “I loved it,” said Brickers. “So I just stayed with it.” As each student walks in the door, Brickers can point out the boy who will grab a box of cereal and a banana. She can tell you who is will say hi, and whose got an A on their last chemistry test. “Once kids come in [for breakfast], they keep coming in,” said Brickers. “You get to know them, it gets fun.” The friendliness of the staff makes coming through the lunch line a highlight of the day for students like sophomore Daniel Hill. “[Linda] always asks me how I’m doing, and my response it always ‘I’m chugging through the day,’” said Hill. “She laughs like it’s funny, but I don’t get it.”
NOLA It’s 10:32 a.m. when Nola Eickhoff starts piling water bottles into the lunchroom fridge, preparing for the rush of first lunch. The only sounds are the humming of the fridge and the scrape of the water bottle cart along the tiled floor. At 6:43 a.m., 17 years earlier, Eickhoff places glass bottles on a shelf of Save You More Market, a store she owned for 13 years in Armadale, Kan. The same mom who comes into the market every Tuesday walks into Save You More, hurrying to get home to make dinner for her family, but she still takes the time to ask Eickhoff how her day is. However at East, students push each other through the lunch line to snag a slice of pizza, smiling and greeting Eickhoff as they go. Her old duties tie into those at East; she
Even if I’m having a bad day, when I start waiting on the kids and running the cash register, they make me laugh. It really is the best part of the job. — said Linda Brickers
couldn’t let go of the daily chatter with new customers. The family atmosphere in both places makes Eickhoff’s day worthwhile. “Around here it’s busy, busy, busy,” Eickhoff said, “but everyone is real respectful.” In her store, she sat around most of the day, waiting for people to come in. Working at east, despite her repetitive daily routine of restocking water bottles and granola bars, she is refreshed by the chaos of the pizza line. “I came here to work four hours, and now I’m doing six or seven,” Eickhoff said. While she stocks, Eickhoff’s co-workers are back in the kitchen, shaping rolls and putting
together sandwiches. Despite a lack of daily chatter, the lunch ladies are tight knit unit. “We just hate her here,” said Linda, laughing. Eickhoff smiles back. Senior Grant Allen is one of the students who considers Eickhoff an old friend. “I was walking out to my car at 7:45 in the morning,” Allen said. “I was going where the buses were, and Nola came through in her minivan, almost running me over. Then she opened her window and laughed about it.” It’s students like Allen that make Eickhoff’s day. “We’re just like one big happy family,” said Eickhoff. “It just makes you feel good when you can get along with them.”
We’re just like one big happy family. It just makes you feel good when you can get along with them. — said Nola Eickhoff
HAIR NET HEROES photos by Ellie Cook and Joseph Cline
LINDA It’s 7:15 a.m. when Linda Brickers pulls up the clear garage doors that open the cafeteria for breakfast. Dozens of students file in to buy cartoned milk, Doritos and strawberry Pop Tarts before rushing to their first hour. “Good morning Noah! Is that throat feeling any better?” Brickers, one of East’s lunch ladies, knows almost all of these students by name. “Do you have any Rice Krispies left?” asks a student. “Sorry, I ordered ‘em, but they haven’t come in. We have these chocolate ones, though. Here, take two, I’ll only charge you for one. Just in case you don’t like it.” With kids Trailridge Elementary School, Brickers originally became a lunch lady to spend time with her kids there, and she continues to connect with the students here at East. “Even if I’m having a bad day, when I start waiting on the kids and running the cash register, they make me laugh,” said Brickers. “It really is the best part of the job.” After having her first son, Brickers stopped working at the gas station she and her husband owned, Amacost Gas Station. When she needed to go back to work, she searched for a job that matched her boys’ schedules, and
found one as a lunch lady at Trailridge. “Everybody called me ‘Mom’,” said Brickers. “[My children] weren’t the kind of kids to get embarrassed that their mom was the lunch lady.” She followed her children to Shawnee Mission Northwest High School, and fell in love with the young spirits and busy atmosphere of the cafeteria. After they graduated, she transferred to East to continue with the job she found a passion for. “I loved it,” said Brickers. “So I just stayed with it.” As each student walks in the door, Brickers can point out the boy who will grab a box of cereal and a banana. She can tell you who is will say hi, and whose got an A on their last chemistry test. “Once kids come in [for breakfast], they keep coming in,” said Brickers. “You get to know them, it gets fun.” The friendliness of the staff makes coming through the lunch line a highlight of the day for students like sophomore Daniel Hill. “[Linda] always asks me how I’m doing, and my response it always ‘I’m chugging through the day,’” said Hill. “She laughs like it’s funny, but I don’t get it.”
NOLA It’s 10:32 a.m. when Nola Eickhoff starts piling water bottles into the lunchroom fridge, preparing for the rush of first lunch. The only sounds are the humming of the fridge and the scrape of the water bottle cart along the tiled floor. At 6:43 a.m., 17 years earlier, Eickhoff places glass bottles on a shelf of Save You More Market, a store she owned for 13 years in Armadale, Kan. The same mom who comes into the market every Tuesday walks into Save You More, hurrying to get home to make dinner for her family, but she still takes the time to ask Eickhoff how her day is. However at East, students push each other through the lunch line to snag a slice of pizza, smiling and greeting Eickhoff as they go. Her old duties tie into those at East; she
Even if I’m having a bad day, when I start waiting on the kids and running the cash register, they make me laugh. It really is the best part of the job. — said Linda Brickers
couldn’t let go of the daily chatter with new customers. The family atmosphere in both places makes Eickhoff’s day worthwhile. “Around here it’s busy, busy, busy,” Eickhoff said, “but everyone is real respectful.” In her store, she sat around most of the day, waiting for people to come in. Working at east, despite her repetitive daily routine of restocking water bottles and granola bars, she is refreshed by the chaos of the pizza line. “I came here to work four hours, and now I’m doing six or seven,” Eickhoff said. While she stocks, Eickhoff’s co-workers are back in the kitchen, shaping rolls and putting
together sandwiches. Despite a lack of daily chatter, the lunch ladies are tight knit unit. “We just hate her here,” said Linda, laughing. Eickhoff smiles back. Senior Grant Allen is one of the students who considers Eickhoff an old friend. “I was walking out to my car at 7:45 in the morning,” Allen said. “I was going where the buses were, and Nola came through in her minivan, almost running me over. Then she opened her window and laughed about it.” It’s students like Allen that make Eickhoff’s day. “We’re just like one big happy family,” said Eickhoff. “It just makes you feel good when you can get along with them.”
We’re just like one big happy family. It just makes you feel good when you can get along with them. — said Nola Eickhoff
