Cotton Candy at the circus.
Refusing to eat mushrooms of any sort because I was certain all species of mushrooms were poisonous (thanks to the many fairy tales I read).
Kool-Aid made from a packet. Mom would often mix it with orange juice instead of water.
Pixie Stix.
Waxed candy lips and candy cigarettes.
Milk Bone dog biscuits. Hey, I was 3, they were tasty and the dog didn't mind as long as she got her share. Enough said!
Cold milk, sipped through a paper straw, and graham crackers. That is what they served us, as a mid morning snack, in grammar school.
Cozy Inn hamburgers...the world's original slider. One would always smell like onions for the rest of the day upon leaving this little dive.
Hot Dr. Pepper...it was nasty! Does anyone else remember that advertising campaign?
Gnawing on the "crisp" from Mom's oven backed ham.
Quisp Cereal.
Aunt Martha's and Uncle Otto's sausage from the pigs butchered on their farm.
Eating Junior Mints during the Saturday morning cowboy flicks at the Fox Theater.
Bierocks served in the high school cafeteria. Everybody ate lunch, at school, on Bierock day!
Going to the A&W Drive In and being served root beer in a frosty mug.
Peanut butter and potato chip sandwiches (oh so yummy!).
Being turned on to potato chips dunked in soy sauce by 4th Sister...as if potato chips weren't salty enough already.
And speaking of salt, being served salt tablets during meals at summer camp.
Popcorn served with homemade chocolate fudge. Oh how I loved the sweet/salt combination!
Taco Tico's "Sancho"...kind of like a wet burrito.
Fresh, made from scratch, limeade from the Peter Pan Ice Cream Shop.
Hot, scalding cocoa at the soda fountain of the local drug store...only in the winter and only after Sunday School.
Green (yes, GREEN) chipped beef on toast (a junior high sleepover concoction).
Mom's homemade corn dogs and fried bologna sandwiches with mustard.
Sauer Kraut and Sausage with potatoes...I'm 75% German so, of course, this is comfort food to me.
Sneaking over to Danji and Praba's home for an authentic Indian lunch. Oh how I loved Praba's cooking. I credit her for planting the seeds of the future foodie I was to become.
And finally, Dad's story about how poor they were during the Great Depression: You see, they were so poor that they rarely had enough meat to eat. Grandma would apparantly tie a string to a small but thick slab of pork. She'd serve the pork to one child only to yank it out after a few chews to serve to the next kid. I was so gullible that I believed this story for a very, very long time.
What are some of your favorite childhood food memories? Feel free to comment below. I've enabled it so that you should be able to comment, even if you don't have a Google account.
(Hey Tats...if you're reading this please note that your blog
is not allowing commentary)
7 comments:
What is the "hot" Dr. Pepper? I don't remember that campaign at all (maybe it's a southern thing?) but so many of your other childhood memories brought back many for me. I guess we are now old enough to talk about "the good old days" like our parents did.
Great list! I remember some of the same foods you do.
I laughed at fried bologna sandwiches because, when I was a kid, that was the only thing I ever saw my dad cook. He still loves them and was in heaven when we found them on the menu at a little restaurant near Myrtle Beach. My son laughed his head off that Grandpa was ordering a fried bologna sandwich in a restaurant.
Did you ever try making Kool-Aid out of the powder in the Pixie Stix? We used to do that but all it ever tasted like was colored water!
Sidenote to Tattoos and Teething Rings - I can't remember your AR name! I was going to give you a shout out about the comments on your blog.
We were debating on letting my daughter try Pixie Stix or Cotton Candy! My teeth hurt just thinking about them!
My memories include:
Coke in bottles OR from our local drug store, where they made it presumably with extra syrup, as it was sooooo sweet!
Those "dot" candies on strips of paper.
Necco Wafers (still a favorite) - Before I made my first communion, my mom would slip me one so I wouldn't feel "left out" in church! Boy, was I surprised first time I tasted a real communion wafer! ;)
Ice cream sodas... made from soda water from a fountain, chocolate syrup, milk, chocolate ice cream.... I make homemade ones using tonic water, but it's not quite the same!
Creamed salmon over mashed potatoes - it LOOKED horrid, and my sister and I were embarassed if mom invited friends over for dinner when she was making that...We'd "EW!" a lot, but always cleaned our plates!
My Uncle Pauls' Goulash - From what I could remember it had ground beef, corn, carrots, rice and finely diced potatoes, onions, garlic, tomatoes and every spice from the spice rack!
And fried smelts! They look too fishy for me now, but mom would dredge them in seasoned flour and pan fry them.
Schaefer and Schlitz beers! My uncle and father drank those, exclusively, so those were the first beers I ever snuck...hated them both, but they're a sentimental favorite I suppose!
Thanks for posting this!
Thanks for the heads-up about my comments being disabled, I think that I was able to fix it. Great food memories, by the way. And, as a sidenote, I noticed you had something called a "sancho" on your list, that's Mexican slang for a lover on the side- a colorful name for a food :)
Hot Dr. Pepper: it was an advertising campaign from the early 70's, I believe, where, in order to increase their market share they encouraged people to heat up their soda in a pot (this was before microwaves) and add a twist of lemon for those cold winter days. And it wasn't a southern thing per se as I lived in Kansas at the time.
Willoughby: Every once in a while the hospital cafeteria will serve fried bologna for breakfast...I've been know to sample it a time or two.
Christine: your creamed salmon actually sounds good. Reminds me of Mom's creamed tuna with peas, only she served it over sliced toast. Oh, and my dad drank Schlitz and Falstaff. Oh the memories!
Tats...that is soooo funny! I loved the sanchos but never knew what it meant. When I moved to the big city I remember trying to order a sancho and the Mexican waiter snickering at me. Now I know why!!!
OOO! I remember paper straws at burger chef!
lol, love your Dad's story. So many of those things sounded familiar, good times :)
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