Remembering the food of my childhood
I got to thinking about how food has changed since I was growing up in the 60s. When we think of the food of the era, we tend to think of those molded jello salads and food creations that resemble a child’s art project. But really, these were special-occasion things we rarely encountered. Here’s what I remember:
Orange juice came as a frozen can of concentrate that you dumped into a pitcher and stirred up. Frozen juice concentrate may still be available, but I haven’t noticed it in eons. Alternatively, there was Tang, which was deemed to be healthy because the astronauts drank it.
Hams came in cans, which needed to be kept in the refrigerator. The cans opened with little metal keys that never worked right. Once opened, the hams were pale, flabby, can-shaped lumps surrounded by some kind of jelly.
Fish came frozen in rectangular bricks, which needed to be put in the fridge to thaw a couple of days before cooking.
Pineapple was also frozen. I’m not sure if canned pineapple was available then, but I only ever saw the frozen kind. The only time we ever saw a fresh pineapple was when the neighbors brought us one from Hawaii.
Tuna was only available canned in oil. If you were on a diet, you had to rinse the oil off.
Canned clams were also a thing and made food fancy. Canned artichokes also made food fancy.
Coffee was either instant or made in a percolator. Chock Full o’ Nuts coffee that you ground in the machine at the store was the fancy stuff.
Yogurt was not a thing. There was pudding, which came canned unless you cooked up your own on the stovetop
= new reply since forum marked as read
cambells canned soup was about the only kind (sometimes lipton dried chicken noodle) except after Thanksgiving when we might get leftover turkey noodle soup.
cold cereal on school mornings, but never the good all-sugar kinds we really wanted.
salad was iceburg, bland tomatoes, cucumber, sliced radish, green onion - maybe avocado if the relatives in CA shipped us a few and bottled Italian dressing.
lots of casseroles, often with strange things to add texture such as nuts or crispy "Chinese" noodles. (
)
"store bought" (white) bread was it, and still considered by my Mother as an "improvement" over homemade. peanutbutter and honey sandwiches.
vegetables were mostly canned
apples were red delicious. grapes were boycotted to support farmworkers - didn't leave much for fresh fruit except oranges. occasionally cherries or strawberries were around, but often sliced and sugared to put on some other desert item like cake or ice cream. grapefruit came from a relative's tree. same with apricots. peaches were picked at the orchard in season. some were frozen in sugar for later. the apricots made into preserves/jam. huge seed-filled watermelon in summer, canteloupes occasionally.
still frozen juice around, but Tang tasted better back then - must have had a unsafe ingredient that tasted good. it was the vitamin C that was "healthy." my Grandmother's friend (cousin?) used to serve us special chicken salad sandwiches and welche's frozen grape juice in cut crystal glasses - wooo that was special.
at the grocery store! I did get some of the bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, and water chestnuts to add to our beef/broccoli. It makes it go further when my 19yo son has dinner at home 
Like a small tin of mace and allspice that lasted liked 20 yrs
...peas -
...succotash -
...creamed corn -
...creamed mixed vegetables - (the same goes for cream of vegetable soup - blecchhh!)
