Eating in the 50's

[mapper]

I grew up in the 50-60, mom had a degree in home economy from U of Idaho. She always had a large garden, my sisters and I had to help weed it when we weren't picking strawberries, raspberries and beans during the summer. Beef came from a guy that worked at the pulp mill with my dad. We rarely ever ate anything that was not made from scratch.
I can't remember the first time I had pizza, I do remember classmate of my oldest sister whose mom used to put pizza in his lunch (homemade), I asked my mom what pizza was and her answer was tomato pie. It did not sound all that good to me then. I have learned since then I was wrong:licking:
We rarely ever had school provided lunch, it was a treat when we did, the cook at my grade school was really good, she prepared everything from scratch. I especially loved the baked red snapper that was served on Fridays, in our part of the country "red snapper" was actually a red rock fish that was caught locally and delivered fresh to the school. Compared to some of the god awful crap that is served at schools now we didn't know how good we had it!
Milk was 3¢ for a half pint carton, we would by milk tickets every month or so and mom would put it in our lunch box.

 

[grnspot110]

Anybody make sauerkraut by the wooden barrel?

We used stone jars, some were to big to carry to the cellar, had to fill them where they sat. The jars weren't worth much then, Dad bought them at farm auctions for little of nothing. This 8-gallon sold for $850 at Mom's auction three years ago: Buyer came from Omaha just for the jar!

 

[Kentuckyfarmer]

I thought when I joined I was probably one of the oldest on this forum. But after reading all these posts it sure is nice seeing there are lots here that grew up when I did and mostly the way we did too. Love those days and the memories I have of them.

 

[Citydude]

Sentimental trip down memory lane for sure. I remember my grandmother's butter she churned herself. My mother's fried chicken that I have yet to duplicate. Bonanza on the black and white Zenith TV and Jiffy pop popcorn. Those were the days...

 

[mjarrels]

My dad grew up during the depression and all 13 kids ate bean sandwitches for school lunch. Bet that three bedroom farm house was really tooting at night.

mark

 

[Ken]

End of WW11 the food stamp program was lifted so Citizens of this nation could purchase any food item on store shelves with out showing the book with stamps size of postage stamp .
and the school lunch program started forgot the cost but the sack lunch begin to be forgotten.
My mom prepared home made bread and slice of sausage that covered the bread also there was a fried pie with apple or peach filling. water furnished by well at school.

There was no food preserves or even thought of food poisoning and very little keeping a lunch cool while in school it sat on shelf with rest of the lunches.

Sometimes we get black pop corn from Missouri. and shelled off cob and popped in wire basket on the wood stove. then the butter was poured on top with salt.
is it stilled sold?
shelling peanuts home grown took a while to empty gunny sack full. then roast in oven the amount planned to eat that night sitting on front porch watching the sun set.
listening the Grand ole opera and also the Oklahoma am radio clear channel playing cowboy music.
Even could hear the words of the songs and not be shocked at the language.
seem to have drifted from food to memories.

 

[fried1765]

We used stone jars, some were to big to carry to the cellar, had to fill them where they sat. The jars weren't worth much then, Dad bought them at farm auctions for little of nothing. This 8-gallon sold for $850 at Mom's auction three years ago: View attachment 501779 Buyer came from Omaha just for the jar!

That is very likely a piece of now highly collectable "Red Wing Pottery".
Made in Red Wing Mn.

 

[Norm W]

Grandma had a Servel Electrolux gas refrigerator and my folks had a kerosene one. Ours used about five gallons of kero a week. Forget about keeping ice cream in it. Probably because of the poor refrigeration everything was cooked till "Done". I think I was about fourteen before I found out that hamburgers didn't have to be crunchy. Unfortunately, fresh vegetables were cooked about the same way. Fresh string beans were rather limp by the time they reached the table. Pizza showed up about 1954. It was usually used as a fund raiser for a church or a school.

 

[Jim Nelson]

We used stone jars, some were to big to carry to the cellar, had to fill them where they sat. The jars weren't worth much then, Dad bought them at farm auctions for little of nothing. This 8-gallon sold for $850 at Mom's auction three years ago: View attachment 501779 Buyer came from Omaha just for the jar!

Another good use for those crockery pieces was to "corn" the poached bucks that were in rut to make them edible. It was a lot better than corned beef and about the only way you could eat those old deer.

 

[TomSeller]

Almost everything all year long came from the garden, chicken coop, hog pen or pasture. Fresh, canned or frozen. On the very, very rare occasion we had something on the table that was "store bought". Usually from company coming over and bringing something. We always called it by that such as "please pass the store bought bread". There were almost always leftovers of the store bought items .... or the dog had to eat it.

 

[two_bit_score]

"Store bought". Yep, that was a somewhat derogatory term around our house most of the time. At least when it came to food.

TBS

 

[grnspot110]

That is very likely a piece of now highly collectable "Red Wing Pottery".
Made in Red Wing Mn.

It was!

 

[milkman]

I thought when I joined I was probably one of the oldest on this forum. But after reading all these posts it sure is nice seeing there are lots here that grew up when I did and mostly the way we did too. Love those days and the memories I have of them.

Howdy neighbor, I'm probably older than you, graduated St Romualds '62. I remember taking wheat to the Irvington mill and going there to pick up 25lb sacks of flour. First milk shake I had was at the Irvington train station shortly after Truman came through on the rear of his campaign train. Well went dry in the summer so wash water and drinking water came from a spring at the bottom of a steep hill, hated wash day. This thread jogged a lot of memories. The first car I can remember dad had after the war didn't have a license plate, just a sticker on the windshield.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Hah! Bunch of youngsters. I graduated from college in 1964, and it took me 5 years! Not to mention that I didn't start until three years after I graduated high school.

I too had my first piece of pizza...pizza pie they called it...in Oklahoma City in 1956. It was at a place called Sussey's on North May Avenue, and about 30th Street. I was unimpressed; it was too cheesy, too greasy and too hot. All the skin peeled of the roof of my mouth (well, slight exaggeration). We moved to Albuquerque in 1957, and they had all kinds of meat pizzas on a thin crust...my favorite was then, and still is, thin crust sausage. I believe the place was called Casa Luna.

My Grandmother had a Servel kerosene refrigerator because they didn't have electricity. We had a G.E., but Mom cooked on a kerosene stove and our heating stove was wood (in the kitchen) and kerosene in the living room. It got plenty cold; I can remember getting up getting ready for the bus and noticing ice crystals floating on the water bucket. We took our baths in the kitchen in a galvanized tub...I had for many years a scar on my stomach about the size of a quarter where I got too close to the old pot bellied wood stove after a bath. Our water pump was outside, and there were times when the priming water can was tipped over, or was empty for some reason that I had to go to the creek to get priming water.

Our two-holer was just far enough from the house to make it a miserable trip on a Winter night.

 

[oosik]

I remember the first pizza I had. It was 1960 - the year I went to Seattle and started college at the University of WA. I doubt there is a pizza parlor in my home town - to this date.

 

[sixdogs]

When I was very young my father worked in an Italian fruit market and we got a lot of what others didn't buy. Since fruit then back then was in abundance with the seasons, and not every day of the year from every part of the world, we learn to eat in cycles. When a particular fruit was in season, we ate all we could hold while mom canned the rest because that was the last we would see of that fresh fruit for another year. Next week was something else in season. Nothing beats fruits when they are in season. Strawberries tasted like real strawberries.

Occasionally, bananas would show up and were highly regarded by kids...if you could get one.

 

[dmccarty]

I wonder the average age of people today that have never had popcorn (the original snack food) made with real butter...!

Funny thing is that I don't like butter on popcorn. :shocked: I make popcorn on the stove top by first putting in olive oil in the pan and then add a popcorn kernel or two. Once the test kernels pop, I put in more popcorn so that the kernels are covered in the oil. When I put the oil in the pan I also put some black pepper or maybe chili powder for flavoring. After the popcorn is cooked I put on just a bit of pickling salt. :licking::licking::licking:

Later,
Dan

 

[dmccarty]

Sentimental trip down memory lane for sure. I remember my grandmother's butter she churned herself. My mother's fried chicken that I have yet to duplicate. Bonanza on the black and white Zenith TV and Jiffy pop popcorn. Those were the days...

I made some popcorn in a pan last night and was thinking about Jiffy Pop popcorn. I remember eating it as a kid and I was wondering why my mom bought the stuff since it is so easy to make popcorn on the stove. My guess was Marketing. :laughing: Most likely I saw a Jiffy Pop commercial and nagged my mother to buy some. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Later,
Dan

 

[/pine]

Funny thing is that I don't like butter on popcorn. :shocked: I make popcorn on the stove top by first putting in olive oil in the pan and then add a popcorn kernel or two. Once the test kernels pop, I put in more popcorn so that the kernels are covered in the oil. When I put the oil in the pan I also put some black pepper or maybe chili powder for flavoring. After the popcorn is cooked I put on just a bit of pickling salt. :licking::licking::licking:

Later,
Dan

The gist of my point was the use of "other" products that "taste" like butter...the stuff they use in theaters starts off in powdered form...!
I love the taste of olive oil but there are issues with getting it too hot...


"thinking about Jiffy Pop...

 

[dmccarty]

In 1965 pizza came to our house from Chef Boyardee in a DIY box. Mix and roll out the dough, poor on a can of red stuff and sprinkle on a package of yellow stuff, bake for 20 minutes and eat.
...

Gracious. I do remember that pizza in a box. That stuff was AWFUL! But as my wife said, when you have not had "real" pizza because there is no pizza place in town. Pizza out of the box is pretty danged good when you just don't know what the stuff is supposed to taste like. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Anyone remember Chung King "Chinese" food out of a can? YUCK! :confused2:

Later,
Dan