I lived in a suburb of St. Louis during my grade school years in the mid-1960s. We were a family of six; two parents and four children. I think our family was lower middle class; we didn't have money for extras. EATING AT HOME
For breakfast we kids normally had toast with margarine, or cold cereal with milk. My mother tried to make us eat oatmeal, but we hated it. We'd go to school with no breakfast rather than eat it, so she finally gave up. On weekends we often had French Toast. That's bread dipped in an egg and milk mixture, fried, and then eaten with syrup. Yum!
For school lunches, we carried a brown paper bag containing two peanut butter sandwiches. We bought a small carton of milk for 2 cents. You'd think I'd hate peanut butter as an adult, but I still like it.
My dad was a salesman for several different companies over the years. We never knew when he'd be home, so we kids ate our supper soon after we got home from school. We came home starving! TV dinners were popular then. They were the kind that came in a metal tray that you baked in the oven for 30 minutes. I believe the brand was Swanson. I'm sure we had something else for dinner, but that's what I remember best; except we sure ate a lot of canned pork and beans! My mother bought 10 cans for a dollar.
On the weekends, we all ate together for lunch and dinner. My favorite foods were fried chicken, fried potatoes, mashed potatoes and gravy, and corn on the cob.
SUMMER VACATION TRIPS
Every summer we went to visit family in Southern Illinois. Most of our relatives lived in small towns or on a farm. At that time there were no interstates; just two-lane highways. The trip took a lot longer back then. When we had reached past the half way point, we always stopped in the same small town and the same small store to drink a cold soda. Soda was in bottles and we pulled one out of a chest full of ice. I liked Grape Nehi and Orange Crush. This was a special treat because we rarely had soda at home.
My Aunt Helen and Uncle Lloyd lived on a farm and Aunt Helen canned all her vegetables. She always cooked a big meal when we came and I ate like I was starving. I loved her green beans, which were seasoned with bacon grease. The green beans we ate at home were from a can.
Our Grandma always had Pepsi and puffy marshmallow cookies or wafer cookies. As soon as we arrived, she offered them to us. Again, this was a treat because we rarely had soda or store-bought cookies at home.
AT HOME DURING THE SUMMER
My dad had a small garden in the backyard and grew cherry tomatoes. These are small tomatoes about the size of a large marble. We'd go out and pick them off the vine and eat them without washing them. They were so warm from the sun and had such a great taste.
We also had a huge apple tree at the side of the house. All the neighborhood kids would come and play and we'd eat apples off the tree. If an apple had a worm hole, we just ate around it. Sometimes we'd pound an apple against the tree truck to lightly bruise it. It made the apple juicier and sweeter. If there were rotten apples on the ground, we threw them at each other.
The Mr. Softy ice cream truck would drive down the street, playing music so you could hear it coming. Sometimes my mother would give us money to buy something. I always wanted an ice cream cone rather than an ice cream on a stick. The ice cream for the cone was soft and I loved watching the driver twisting the cone so the ice cream made swirls.
My mother would freeze Kool-Aid in plastic molds, with a stick for a handle, similar to a popsicle. Those were great on hot, summer days. We also drank Fizzies, which were tablets you put in cold water to make a drink that would fizz (be carbonated). They had grape, root beer, cola, and cherry flavors.
Every summer, we went to Bible School, and that's where I had my first snow cone. They had grape, lime, cherry, and lemon, but I liked a rainbow snow cone best. Instead of putting one type of syrup all over the shaved ice, they'd put all four flavors onto the ice in separate sections (like a rainbow).
SPENDING OUR ALLOWANCE
We received 20 cents a week for our allowance. There was a neighborhood grocery store within walking distance and that's where we went every Saturday. On our way to the store, we were on the look-out for soda bottles thrown on the ground. We could turn them in at the store and receive 2 cents for each one.
Most of the candy was a penny each, so we often would choose 20 different pieces (or more if we found soda bottles). The candy was behind a glass case and the shopkeeper had to pick out each piece as we asked for it. I liked snaps (colored licorice pieces). Bazooka Joe bubble gum, candy cigarettes, dots (tiny candy dots on a long sheet of paper), pixy stix (sour powdered candy in a straw), Mary Janes (peanut butter flavor), and so much more. I don't remember a candy I didn't like!
There was a penny gum ball machine in the store and if your gum ball had dots all over it, you got a free candy bar. I actually got a candy bar once.
THANKSGIVING
At Thanksgiving, my grandparents, aunt and uncle, and my uncle's parents came to visit. This was exciting because we rarely had visitors. We were allowed to eat all day long.
We had turkey, ham, pickles, olives, celery sticks, baked sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top, banana pudding, German Chocolate cake, French Silk pie, fresh fruit salad, pumpkin pie with whipped topping, cranberry sauce made from fresh cranberries, mashed potatoes and gravy, and corn and green beans.
CHRISTMAS
We didn't have company at Christmas, but we did get hard candy, oranges, nuts, and apples. We had to eat breakfast before we could look at our presents, but then we could eat candy, fruit and nuts all day. I'm sure we had some kind of meal during the day, but I don't remember it. The candy was too much of a treat.
BIRTHDAYS
We didn't have birthday parties or receive gifts, but we got to choose the dinner for that night and have any type cake we wanted. I always wanted fried shrimp for dinner and an angel food cake. My mother had a wind-up musical cake plate that played "Happy Birthday" while the cake rotated around in a circle.
We had other foods, of course, but these foods are memorable. What foods do you remember from childhood, or what foods or food smells remind you of a certain holiday or event?
I've written some other childhood memory web pages on Squidoo. I've included the links.
