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Well, unless you like bland, the food scene was pretty bad. Lots of canned stuff. Nothing ethnic to speak of. Many of the second generation immigrants were trying to prove how American they were by eschewing their native cuisines.
Well, unless you like bland, the food scene was pretty bad. Lots of canned stuff. Nothing ethnic to speak of. Many of the second generation immigrants were trying to prove how American they were by eschewing their native cuisines.
You can't be serious about canned stuff and a bad food scene? Nothing ethnic in the 50's? This country was settled by immigrants and at least in the northeast and midwest, you had German, Italian, Portuguese, French, British, Chinese, and many many other nationalities who pretty much settled together in certain areas/neighborhoods. My goodness you could always know what was cooking when you walked down the streets in some neighborhoods. There was no a/c ... the windows were always open in the good weather.
There were always recipes in the newspaper, bakeries were everywhere for pastry and bread. Ethnic cooking was wonderful. Girls studied "home economics" in school pretty much from the 7th grade on through graduation from high school. We learned to cook, sew, home finances and so forth.
All the moms and grandmothers, all the women I knew were wonderful cooks, and they made everything from scratch, and taught their daughters and yes, sons, how to cook. In my neighborhood all the moms and my grandmothers had a big pot of homemade soup on the stove at least during the week; we could come home from school and have a bowl of soup. It was always ready to scoop in case there was a sick neighbor or someone needed a hot meal.
Especially in the agricultural areas most veggies and fruits were fresh, farm stands were everywhere. In the colder climates there may have been more canned food, I can remember peas and corn canned but that's about it. Even in the northeast, just about everyone found a patch of land and planted a garden patch in the backyard.
HaHa ... we even knew how to make the best popcorn over the stove, by covering a pot, heating the oil and loose corn, and then shaking the pot until about every kernel was popped w/o burning it. The best, made from scratch.
Well, unless you like bland, the food scene was pretty bad. Lots of canned stuff. Nothing ethnic to speak of. Many of the second generation immigrants were trying to prove how American they were by eschewing their native cuisines.
Guess your Mom wasn't an adventuresome or inventive cook. Having lived in mainland China in the late '40s, Japan in the mid-'50s and with a Paris-raised, French grandmere (grandmother), food at our house was quite ethnic and diverse. Not many cans at all. Far more of a from-scratch and fresh ingredients cuisine.
Last edited by Curmudgeon; 02-05-2013 at 09:56 AM..
Well, unless you like bland, the food scene was pretty bad. Lots of canned stuff. Nothing ethnic to speak of. Many of the second generation immigrants were trying to prove how American they were by eschewing their native cuisines.
Bland?? Eschewing their native cuisines?
Not in my Southern family (with the caveat that we are not second generation Americans. Our English, Scots-Irish, Scottish, Irish, French, Channel Islander, and German ancestors came over quite early, and a few other ancestors probably met the boat).
We enjoyed fresh vegetables from our green-thumbed Grandpapa's garden (especially Country Gentleman corn), Grandmother's banana bread and made-from-scratch biscuits, game, including duck, elk, and venison from the hunters in the family, fried chicken at my other grandmother's house, where we were also treated to lemon chess pie from a generous neighbor, wine jelly with boiled custard every Christmas, pound and fruit cake ditto...along with mince pie
An older lady-cousin in Richmond would invite my family to come by "for a sandwich" when we were passing through en route to visit other kinfolks - then would present us with a groaning board including both Smithfield ham and fried chicken (because she wasn't sure my mother liked ham), green beans, rice, fresh sliced tomatoes, corn pudding, light-as-a-feather homemade biscuits, and both pie and cake (because she wasn't sure I liked pie).
My great-aunt's damson preserves and rock cookies, homemade applesauce from my grandparents' apple tree, pear preserves from the pear tree, peach pies from the peach tree, watermelons and cantaloupes fresh from the garden...I am making myself both hungry and nostalgic.
Good food, good times, good family...
Last edited by CraigCreek; 02-05-2013 at 09:54 AM..
We all ate at home all the time. My food may have been considered bland because my grandparents were English but Yorkshire pudding and roast beef with gravy didn't taste bad to us.
All kinds of warm pies cooling on the shelf in the pantry. (Not Mrs Smith's either!)
Homemade cookies almost every day of the week, homemade brownies.
Muffins were homemade, blueberry were my favorite. You'd pick the blueberries, the small sweet wild ones. You didn't have to get them from the store. Homemade banana bread.
The garden produced loads of food and one of the best was fresh corn on the cob. The lady next door would come over and she and my mother would put up green beans and other vegetables in glass jars for the winter.
We made popcorn in a basket with a long handle that your shook over the stove. It was a special treat.
Meatloaf with mashed potatoes, shepherds pie, roast leg of lamb--and always a dessert. If that's bland, then so be it. It was good and it was healthy. No junk food and lots and lots of vegetables.
We all ate at home all the time. My food may have been considered bland because my grandparents were English but Yorkshire pudding and roast beef with gravy didn't taste bad to us.
Meatloaf with mashed potatoes, shepherds pie, roast leg of lamb--and always a dessert. If that's bland, then so be it. It was good and it was healthy. No junk food and lots and lots of vegetables.
Bland? Not a bit of it. True, wholesome comfort food. It just doesn't get much better than that!
We eat a very healthy diet of grilled, lean meats, fish and poultry with fresh, home-grown vegetables but when we crave (or need) comfort food, the above is what we turn to.
I was a youngster in grade school during the 1950's. We had nice clothes but my mother made part of my clothes and I loved them as they were really nice. My shoes were the ugly oxfords but that's what was available at the time.
I didn't know what the F word meant until I was about age 15. And I sure didn't date until I was at least 16 or age 17. I had a skimpy sex education from the gym teacher at about age 15....and when I started my monthly periods I didn't know what was happening as my mama died when I was age 12 so I was at a disadvantage in that respect.
My main toys were my dolls, a hula hoop and a pogo stick and my pony. My brother had an electric train set which smoked from the smokestack and a gun and holster set with chaps and a hat. We both had baseball gloves as we played baseball a lot with the kids in town.
We didn't have a colored television but it sure was great to watch Ed Sullivan, Sky King, My Friend Flika, Lassie, Ted Mack Hour, Loretta Young Show, Fury, Dick Clark's American Band Stand and many others. My dad was a farmer in a rural area so we only went to the big city once every couple of weeks. The grocery stores in smaller towns let you charge your groceries. The bigger grocery stores carried dolls, dishes, glasses, toys, trains, besides the groceries. But you didn't need to purchase a lot of glasses as jelly came in glassses you kept and laundry detergent came with towels and wash clothes in the box and the cracker jack prizes were super!!
Produce was limited in the winter for sure but most folks grew their own produce and canned it in the summer. I remember my mama and my grannie, with me helping, spending hours and hours cleaning, cutting and canning vegetables and fruits and meats also.....although we had a freezer so most of our meat went in the freezer. We ate a lot of wild game which my dad shot out in the fields...rabbits, pheasant, deer, dove, quail, wild turkey were the ones we liked.
We had a small movie theater and many people went on Saturday night.... I think it cost 25 and maybe later 50 cents. In the summer, when it was stifling hot (no air conditioning back then) the movies were shown on a big white screen in the town park.
The OP asked how my life was. I grew up with no exposure to drugs as kids are exposed to now. I was a well balanced child and then a teen and still am well balanced and I think it directly stems from my life in the 1950's - 1960's. I had everything I needed and didn't miss what we didn't have. I'm exposed to the young kids of today and am appalled at everything that kids want these days.....a car to drive to school, money in thier pocket without having to do chores, television in their room, computer in their room, dating at age 14, asking for $25 when they go somewhere, demanding $100 pair of jeans.
I didn't grow up to be a bad person and surely didn't suffer for living during those years.....I had a college education and was successful in the business world. To compare those days to current days is like comparing apples and oranges....they were different and will never be the same. Today's world has a lot to offer to kids and adults both....but each has to be willing to accept what they have and use everything they have or are given wisely in order to have a good life.
Last edited by rural chick; 02-05-2013 at 11:56 AM..
Excellent post rural chick. My parents always reminded me of their wonderful childhood on the family farms. I think todays children(not all) have a sense of entitlement. My 17yr old works hard doing chores and has a part time job, as well as getting all A's and B's. She pays her own phone bill and does not expect to be given things for free. She is saving for her first car.
Rural Chick, I think you're delghtfully balanced and I like your style. "My" childhood America wasn't that rural - militaryfamily - but was none the less wholesome, enjoyable and wonderfully memorable.
We all ate at home all the time. My food may have been considered bland because my grandparents were English but Yorkshire pudding and roast beef with gravy didn't taste bad to us.
All kinds of warm pies cooling on the shelf in the pantry. (Not Mrs Smith's either!)
Homemade cookies almost every day of the week, homemade brownies.
Muffins were homemade, blueberry were my favorite. You'd pick the blueberries, the small sweet wild ones. You didn't have to get them from the store. Homemade banana bread.
The garden produced loads of food and one of the best was fresh corn on the cob. The lady next door would come over and she and my mother would put up green beans and other vegetables in glass jars for the winter.
We made popcorn in a basket with a long handle that your shook over the stove. It was a special treat.
Meatloaf with mashed potatoes, shepherds pie, roast leg of lamb--and always a dessert. If that's bland, then so be it. It was good and it was healthy. No junk food and lots and lots of vegetables.
My husbands family made their own butter and ice cream. They were raised on their own fresh goats milk. Three boys and the father built their home and expanded it when grandma came to live with them.
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