A blog about life
Food Schmood
Dining in the ’70s wasn’t meant to be a pleasurable experience. In some instances, it was even used as punishment. “You have to sit here until each and every one of those canned peas is eaten.” Homecooked meals took longer to prepare, which meant they were usually simpler. Microwaves were just finding their way into the mainstream world (we were still a few years from the marvels on microwave dinners) so that meant meat and potatoes were a staple. But on those rare occasions when we ate out, that was an entirely different experience.
In small towns, there were few dining options. The fancier restaurants served selections similar to what came from the home kitchen – meat and potatoes, maybe with the additional of a fancy, store-bought roll or a side of creamed corn. The real delicacy though, was the rare occasion when fast food was on the menu.
“Fast” is a relative term because there was nothing fast about sitting at the drive-in waiting for a greasy-but-oh-tasty burger. In fact, it was probably quicker to make the patty and cook it yourself at home. But homemade burgers didn’t come with delicious, thick-cut fries or a frosty mug of root beer. Homemade burgers didn’t come wrapped in a foil wrapper, something that somehow improved the quality of the burger tenfold.
The packets of “catsup” were also considered a delicacy. Only two per order, please. More than any five-star meal, the nights eating early fast food are ingrained in the memory.
When a curiously-shaped building opened up on the outskirts of town, we were puzzled by their strange and foreign-sounding menu. Pizza, something evidently the rest of the world had known about for a while, was about to rock our world.
They had just four or five of these strange, round items listed on the menu with exotic toppings like “sausage” and “pepperoni.” After visiting a few times, people stared unabashedly at the choices of others, curious to try new things. Soon, large fragrant pies covered in fresh vegetables we had only seen in Encyclopedia Britannica filled the space.
Pizza became not only a popular food but a Friday night symbol of status. “Are you going for pizza? What time? What are you wearing?” The discussions began in first period English and didn’t end until seventh period Earth Science.
Soon the menu was expanded to include fruit. What?? On. A. Pizza. Canadian Bacon and Pineapple was a local favorite for those wanting to put a toe over the line. Little did we know our exotic fast food adventures were only just beginning. Super burritos were on the horizon.
Ha! The town I grew up in still doesn’t have fast food! When we had to go to the big city, if Lloyanne couldn’t talk my parents into going to the Chuck Wagon buffet, we sometimes went to McDonald’s, KFC, A&W or Wendy’s. But except for Dad, who grew up a couple blocks from the original In-n-Out was and is a burger fan, no matter what make or model, we were never that impressed with any of them.
My Mom was a fantastic cook and we often had “exotic” meals and everything was homemade. Lasagna (no store bought sauce – if it was from a can, she’d canned it), tacos (homemade tortillas), enchiladas, spanakopita, pizza with homemade crust, stir fry in the wok, fancy fish dishes, fondue (in the 70s). Crepes, ebelskivers, quiche, Dutch pancakes. She loved Sunset magazine and cookbooks, and was always trying something new (we were NOT fans of gazpacho). She made our bread – heck, she made our flour with an electric grinder, with wheat we had bought at “the hippie store.” She made granola when it was weird to eat granola. She made bagels when otherwise, NYC was the only other place to get them. When we did have meat and potatoes it was venison that Dad had shot and we had cut and wrapped ourselves, and the potatoes were from our garden.
But we did have junk food on occasion – tater tot casserole and twinkie torte. Tater tot casserole – tater tots, burger, and three kinds of condensed soup along with some cheese. Twinkie torte – lengthwise halved twinkies covered with a layer of jello brand gelatin chocolate pudding, Cool Whip and sprinkled with chocolate shavings and nuts. Of course, we loved it …
I didn’t know how insulting it probably was to Mom at the time, but the other disgusting thing we loved (or at least we loved the idea of), was TV dinners. The original kind, before Lean Cuisine or Amy’s, with the foil compartmentalized trays that you had to bake in the oven. We sometimes got them when we were going to have a babysitter (think that might have happened three times) or when Mom had a Children’s Home Society meeting and Dad had to “cook.” I don’t remember particularly enjoying the food, but we got to use TV trays and sit in front of the TV to eat them!
When I hit highschool, our town bar started doing to-go orders of nachos (the fancy kind, not El Charito canned cheese and chips), and we thought we were so metropolitan! But you had to have an adult go in and get them … however by this time, Mom was all for us not relying on her for a meal, so she’d often volunteer to pick them up.
Thanks for taking me down memory lane! Think I’m going to go check out what is in the fridge …
I’m glad to hear there were other places with the same issues! Thanks for sharing!