A kid asked the other day, “What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?”
“We didn’t have fast food when I was growing up,” I informed him. “All the food was slow.”
“C’mon, seriously. Where did you eat?”
It was a place called at home, I explained. Grandma cooked every day and we sat down together at the dining room table, and if I didn’t like what she put on my plate, then I was allowed to sit there until I did like it.
We bought ice cream and milkshakes when we went to the movies, but it would have never even crossed our minds to buy food. We had eaten at home, there was no need.
I am not sure how it was here in the U.S. back then, but I know our farm -and others-made sure that people had their milk delivered to their homes, first thing in the morning. Today we can order pizza and Chinese food and it gets delivered to our home. What happened to the milk?
My first fast food was a McDonald’s burger when I was 14. I remember that I had begged for quite some time, before my Grandma finally stopped there. My first fast food order ever was a Big Mac with French fries and a Strawberry shake. I liked the shake, but wasn’t sure about the warm meat sandwich (that part hasn’t changed until today).
I loved the French fries -they were called Pommes Frites- and my Grandmother thought they were pretty good as well. We bought a potato cutter and learned to make them at home -at special occasions.
By this time, the kid was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn’t tell him the part about how I had to ask permission to leave the table. I really can make kids laugh now with my stories.
The kid laughed and I stood there smiling even after he had left.
I grew up in a small town without any fast food places. Our food was all slow too.
I was in university before I discovered mac&cheese, McDonalds, and all the processed food that’s the staple of many people today.
I quickly discovered however that I’m not a fan of fast food. I like to eat, and I like good food. Fast food and good food are mutually exclusive.
Milk? I’ve never been able to drink it … even as a kid I refused it. Thankfully I had a really, really picky brother, so this one ‘quirk’ of mine was forgiven by my mom 🙂
I loved milk all my life, but can’t drink it anymore. Now I drink or cook with coconut milk and learned to love it.
As for fast food, I wish there would be a law that “normal” food would be cheaper than any fast food. It’s just not healthy.
… and that’s exactly the problem. Junk food is cheap … fresh fruits and vegetables are very expensive – at least in this part of the world.
I love how your NONNA made McD’S European Pomme Frites. I will have to remember that clever thing about the S. Unfortunately it all too true. As soon as food got fast, we got slow and fat.
Pommes Frites…that was modern stuff 🙂
LOL! It took me a minute for that sign to sink in. LOVE IT!
I have in on my fridge…a reminder to stay away from stuff like that 🙂
Time’s a changin
When I was small, milk was delivered in the morning to our side door. I miss having milk delivered. Also, there were no fast food restaurants back then. Like you, we ate “slow” food at the dinner table together. Oh, those were the days…!
Slow food indeed! I love hearing the stories about my husband (here in northern Italy) searching for wild blackberries and snails with his father, but my favorite is the bread delivery man on a bicycle. I just can’t get that image out of my mind, with the delivery guy ringing the bell each morning and my husband going down to fetch the bread at the door!
We searched for mushrooms…I miss that.
This is so funny! And so true! I had an old phone that required the receiver to be placed on the phone station to disconnect the call and my granddaughter used it one day and was puzzled as to how to hang up …..she kept looking for the button to push on the receiver.
You were rolling with laughter weren’t you?
I sure was! It was a reminder that she lives in quite a different world than I did when I was her age.
We still live like this and even have a milk man. I cook everyday when I am home. Fast processed food is fat food. I don’t get ingredients that are as fresh and good as in Europe though.
I order many ingredients in Italy and in Austria, even seeds. If you want or need something let me know. I have great connections to Germany. I had to go back to my roots when I got diagnosed with an auto immune disorder. I cook almost every day, there are days when I strike and we go out for dinner or lunch, but I have to be very careful what I eat. I envy you for your milk man.
Yes. At home here in USA my family doesn’t eat fast food at mcdonalds. We cook at home and go shopping 1 time a week. Every once in a while we go out to eat at a real restaurant.
I remember those days well. Try explaining to a modern day child that our first tv showed only two channels, and in black and white!
Yes and there were hours when the TV didn’t show anything….go figure 🙂
In the UK there were more hours without TV than with it. The days of the test card and the disappearing white dot.
We didn’t have TV before I was 10 or 11. I was allowed to watch a few shows later, like Bonanza or Starwars, some Evening shows in Austria or Italy, but there wasn’t much to choose from. I remember that the Austrian TV station showed one movie at 10:15 am. time were different.
It was similar here. We first got tv in early 1959, when I was 5. My earliest memory is the Lone Ranger. You can now find those programmes on specialist channels and apps – times really have changed!
I had to laugh, too!
….. though everything now sounds like pertaining to another era , I remember very well that period!
Children , of course, are astonished in front of those incredible behaviors ….