More about food and nutrition "back then"

I think it helps young people when I explain how average life was fifty years ago, because it gives them more perspective and context about societal and health issues that you face today. So here is some more rambling thoughts about the topic of food. I'm going to describe small town perspectives (in contrast to farm life where food was at least partially self supplied).

There were no large box supermarkets in the 1950's at all. Each town or village tended to have a grocer. In the 1960's you started to see the beginning of the local grocer close down and the box supermarket open (we were excited by a Loblaws that opened, and that's where we shopped in the 1960's). But in the 1950's you had home delivery of milk (yes, the milk truck with the milk bottles brought early morning to your door and placed in your metal milk box) and the small local grocer.

Everyone drank milk, including tough grown men. Just read the Nero Wolfe mysteries and you'll see that the private detective Archie routinely orders milk in restaurants and buys it when shopping for him and Wolfe. Ordering a soda such as Coca Cola when eating out was unheard of, because having a soda was usually the objective of going out with friends or on a date. When families ate out, or when adults had work time lunch or dinner, they all drank milk. That's one reason so many people have wisdom teeth when previous generations did not, because milk being affordable and common was something that our ancestors did not have, and lacking milk inhibited growth of bone and muscle. So the number one item that virtually everyone had at every meal was a glass of milk.

Fruit juice was expensive so that is the reason that antique and vintage "juice glasses" are so small. In a way that was a good thing because as I've explained in other posts, there's a lot of calories in juice and people used to eat the fruit itself, not have a concentrated extract in the form of juice. Orange juice became common in the morning because eating a whole orange was slower work. But it was very common for kids to get a small orange juice in the morning and a whole orange as an after school snack, or in your lunch bag. Adults often opted for tomato juice or prune juice (there was not the sniggering that there is about prune juice today). Most adults during the 1950's were only one generation away from the farm. Potty humor just wasn't their thing. They had dietary habits that had formed by knowing what was healthy and what was available.

Kid's snacks were mostly fruit. A kid got an apple or a banana, plum, bowl of berries or small box of raisins as their snack and they loved it. It was not at all hard to get kids to eat healthy fruit. It was more seasonal than today (before foods were transported cross country) and so when fresh fruit seasons diminished families started using canned fruits, especially canned peaches, pears and the ubiquitous "fruit cocktails."

Speaking of kid's snacks, having a candy bar was very rare. What usually happened is that kids would stop at the small grocery walking home from school and buy one candy type of treat out of one's allowance. Sometimes this would be a candy bar, but usually it was more of a candy type of treat (like hard candy or soft candy), bubblegum or something silly and fun, like licorice or edible wax candy. As I got older and realized that I easily gain weight, I switched all on my own from buying candy after school to buying a fruit, like a plum (it took a little doing to convince the grocer so sell me one plum!) So I lost childhood "chubby" weight by switching to fruit from candy when I went to the store after school with my friends (yeah, I had friends).

Potato chips existed but they were not snack food. I know that sounds strange so that's why it's helpful for you to hear about "how it was." Potato chips were viewed as a "side dish" for summer or party food. For example, if a family was having hot dogs or hamburgers, potato chips were viewed as one of the side dishes rather than a snack food that was around the house all the time to nosh on. That's another HUGE difference between now and then.

Likewise cheese was not really a regular part of meals except in the form of cottage cheese. Many people (again, including adult men) regularly ate cottage cheese. It was not viewed as the "dieters food" until much later. So between being regular milk drinkers and eating cottage cheese (yogurt did not exist at all), people had a very good dairy intake.

People had pretty much stopped eating home made bread and had gone to store bought loafs, but those loafs often came from local factories. For example, as a child we took a field trip to the factory nearby where they made "Wonder bread" loafs. We each received a loaf to take home! It smelled so great in there.

People ate a lot of bread, toast in the morning, sandwiches at lunch, and often a slice of bread as a side to dinner. The average person did not have "dinner rolls" at home, which were viewed as upper class party food. They used the same bread they had all day, having a slice as a side to their dinner. So people LOVED having dinner rolls with pats of butter served to them at diners. No one except those with "extra money to spend" bought hot dog buns; we all used slices of regular bread.

I remember frozen foods as they were gradually introduced. I know, it is strange to imagine, but frozen foods were very rare in the 1950's. First of all, they were more expensive than canned foods or home made. In my town I remember that my friends who were lower class like me but had a bit more money might have a few frozen foods on their weekly shopping lists, but people all thought they were throwing away their money for what they could get cheaper as fresh or canned. When Sara Lee frozen desserts came out they were viewed as treats for "those with extra money to spend." My mom would roll her eyes whenever we walked past the frozen food aisle and she saw anyone in there (that was in the 1950's and trust me, she's living off of frozen foods now, ha). But back then people had to shop thrifty, and they always opted for fresh if possible.

I remember many years of 39 cents a pound chicken. 'Nuf said!

The standard expectation at dinner was meat and potatoes. And trust me, that was not boring. Everyone loved home made mashed potatoes and men relied on the protein of meat because many worked in blue collar jobs. So the typical household would cycle through "types of meat" in a typical week, such as several types of beef cut prepared different ways, pork chops, hot dogs or kielbasa, fish on Fridays with either boiled potatoes or mashed. There was no real desire for "ethnic" food variety. We all got to taste good home cooked ethnic food at Polish or Italian neighbors, friends or relatives. So an Italian household, for example, would not have as much of the meat and potato regime as others, but they did so more than one might expect. Ethnic cooking was viewed again, as I've mentioned before, as more of treat food than regular food. For example, my mother was a German cook but we rarely had German food. Ethnic food was made more for family celebrations, as treat food or as mainstreamed standard dishes.

Relish dishes of raw carrots, celery and olives were common and both adults and kids regularly munched on them with meals and as snacks.

I remember the first fast food restaurant (a Burger King I think) opening in "the city," about ten miles from our home. I didn't get to go because like I said, it was more of a date kind of thing, so my older brother checked it out with his date. So I remember when both going out for a soda and going to a fast food restaurant was a "special" activity like a date. Kids of my generation went to fast food restaurants at most a dozen times in their life before they were in high school. Imagine that. They really were different times.

By the way, I am not a reflex fast food restaurant basher at all. I think you can see why after reading this. I grew up in times where what one ate really was a matter of having time to prepare the food and economics (what you could afford). If people are not providing affordable home cooked meals then people have to eat somewhere, and I understand that. I'm just trying to share with you what it was like when everyone really cooked their own food and when choices were fewer but people actually ate much healthier and enjoyed what they had.

I hope you found this interesting even though its not about the great events of the century, LOL, but it is a small illustration of how things have changed.