To continue my ranting musing from the previous thread.....a few things I'd forgotten to mention (but others have now mentioned some of them)
- Takeaways were very rare treats
- For some people (older than me - I'm 56), eating outside in the street was the height of rudeness. Just Not. Done. By. Ladies.
- Sweets at home were a treat. We used to have a tin of M&S double Devon toffees and db and I would have one each after supper (and not every night) - and mum and dad, as often as not, wouldn't have one.
- That was why sweets in Christmas stockings and when you went out guising ("Trick or treating" for Southerners ) were such a treat and not eaten all at once.
- While we got an Easter Egg, it was small - and just the one.
- You sat down at a table to eat. Even at lunch time. You didn't stand at the fridge door and muse what to eat next. At work even in the 80s when I started with ICI, there was still a proper works canteen and you ate a proper meal at lunch, with your colleagues.
- Crisps were a treat. And if you did have a bag, it was a small one. Children didn't have them that often.
I agree that pasta only really came in in the 70s. My mum was unusual in that she was quite a cosmopolitan cook - maybe because we were originally South African and Mum and Dad had friends of many nationalities.
I remember when things like Vesta Frozen meals and Pot Noodles were launched. They were revolutionary. Personally never cared for them but there again, my mum was a great cook and even though she was a full time student (once db started school) and then worked full time, always cooked most meals from scratch. (Mince/steak pie with a puff pastry top and blackcurrant pie from M&S were the only exceptions I remember).
NB: my comments re "not grazing" do not apply to teenagers (especially boys
). They have hollow legs
so my mum said and I see that too with ds
I'm starting to sound like a Grumpy Old Woman