Did you go out to eat very often when you were growing-up? (burger, pizza)

[Schuman]

My dad would pick up some White Castle quite a bit(too my mothers chagrin). She hated how a bag of sliders made "her house"smell.

[North Beach Person]

Two or three times a year maybe, usually a local diner. The Tastee-Freeze a couple times in the summer.

My dad would take me, when I was little, to a pancake and sausage breakfast the first day of deer season at a volunteer fire house.

The first McDonald's didn't open where I lived until I was 17 and it was 20 miles away. Where we lived until my dad died still doesn't have one, the closest is about 30 miles away.

[ElleTea]

AS a kid we went out to eat at least 2 times a week. One of my favorite places was Golden Corral because they had a salad bar and even as a small child that was my fave! (and I used to get mad because I was too small to reach some of it)

We also went to Big Boy or Sambo's a lot. Rarely had fast food.

[Ohiogirl81]

We rarely went out. McDonald's was a once-a-month treat, usually if my mom was sick or involved in some huge domestic project and didn't feel like cooking. Nicer restaurants, or a take-home pizza, were even more rare.

[jasper12]

Okay, this will show how old I am..we went to "Auto Mats". I thought that they were so cool, all silver, slick, modern. We also went to "Coon Chicken Inn", for Sunday dinners. (That was the actual name of the place!). But, there was no Taco Bell, or fast food places like there is now. Arbys was an exotic place, just brand new in my town. But we hardly ever went out. Just too expensive. Odd...now people eat out all the time. Back then, it was an occassion, my Grandmother would wear gloves and a hat.

[rxgrrl]

Never. My parent were too cheap. My mother made three homecooked, nutritious meals a day. The only time we ever went to a restraunt was once a year when my uncle and his family would come to town to see my Grandmother and we would go to a local family Italian restraunt.
And maybe once in a summer my Dad would take my sister and I to the A&W Root Beer stand to get popcorn and a baby mug of root beer but we had to share it.

[missik999]

Whenever I mention that we almost never went out to eat when I was growing up, most people instantly think that we were deprived, or that our family was poor. Not the case at all! We certainly didn't feel deprived when we had mom's good cooking: always a special entree, with a couple of delicious side dishes and often fresh bread or homemade rolls.

Mom was very health conscience, and we always had two veggies and fruit at every dinner. She served two meatless nights every week. On those nights she had wonderful meatless pasta dishes or soups, stews or pizza.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, each of us had a special day when we were allowed to choose a meal out at a restaurant or our favorite home cooked meal. One year my brother picked McDonalds because he had been watching the Big Mac commercials on tv, and was excited to try them. I remember sitting in McDonalds, eating my Big Mac, fries and shake and thinking that he really wasted his pick that year, eating fast food when he could have had any meal of mom's!

[Bideshi]

Almost never when I was a kid, and then it was to Wyatt's or Luby's Cafeteria. Eating out was (and still is) darned expensive. The quality of restaurant food was much better in those days however.

[springfieldva]

We had McDonald's once or twice a month on the weekends. Actual sit down restaurants (Pizza Hut, Howard Johnson's), maybe 3 times a year.

When we traveled, went to amusement parks, etc. we almost always packed a picnic lunch to bring along.

[Upstate Nancy]

We went out for pizza or a good restaurant or even a nice diner on birthdays. On day trips, too, we'd go to a little restaurant for breakfast and lunch I think.
With groups of friends, we ate at McDonald's or Carroll's (fast food) maybe once/week and something small like a soda and fries. Sometimes we'd order something at the downtown diner.