"Store-bought" when you were growing up... was it any different than today?

A

Aunt Marg

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Pre-packaged foods, ready-made meals, TV Dinners, disposable this, disposable that... how much or how little did store-bought make it's way into your childhood home that you remember?

As for my memories, I don't remember anything pre-made ever coming into the home, referring to the likes of TV Dinners and such. Mom always cooked and baked from scratch, so even the likes of store-bought baked goods were a rarity in our home, as were packaged cookies, etc.

The likes of paper towels and paper napkins didn't exist in my childhood home, and even long after myself and my siblings were grown and out on our own, the only time I remember paper napkins at mom and dads place was at Christmas time, and I'm certain mom only splurged on paper napkins for festive/decorative reasons, not because she was concerned about family having something to wipe their mouths with at the dinner table.

Disposable feminine pads are the only disposable thing I remember in our house, which of course is all they had back in the day, and there was no such thing as disposable diapers in our home, not at any time.

Basic canned goods such as beans, tuna, salmon and corn, were staples in our pantry, but most everything else came from the garden, and sandwiches for our school lunches were fashioned from leftovers... meatloaf, ham, roast, thinly sliced hamburgers, whatever mom had on hand, and when all else failed, peanut butter & jam or cheese and lettuce were the go-to substitutes when it came to sandwiches.

As for breakfast cereals... Rice Krispies, Froot-Loops, etc, etc, yes, we had them, because there was 5 of us kids, but standard breakfast meals were made from scratch... scrambled eggs, toasted bacon/tomato/cheese sandwiches, oatmeal, cream-of-wheat, Sunny-boy cereal, toast... usually something hot.

The only other thing I remember us having in the home was Kool-Aid, Tang, and Hershey's Chocolate Milk Powder (or whatever name brand it was).
 

Aunt Marg said:
Pre-packaged foods, ready-made meals, TV Dinners, disposable this, disposable that... how much or how little did store-bought make it's way into your childhood home that you remember?

As for my memories, I don't remember anything pre-made ever coming into the home, referring to the likes of TV Dinners and such. Mom always cooked and baked from scratch, so even the likes of store-bought baked goods were a rarity in our home, as were packaged cookies, etc.

The likes of paper towels and paper napkins didn't exist in my childhood home, and even long after myself and my siblings were grown and out on our own, the only time I remember paper napkins at mom and dads place was at Christmas time, and I'm certain mom only splurged on paper napkins for festive/decorative reasons, not because she was concerned about family having something to wipe their mouths with at the dinner table.

Disposable feminine pads are the only disposable thing I remember in our house, which of course is all they had back in the day, and there was no such thing as disposable diapers in our home, not at any time.

Basic canned goods such as beans, tuna, salmon and corn, were staples in our pantry, but most everything else came from the garden, and sandwiches for our school lunches were fashioned from leftovers... meatloaf, ham, roast, thinly sliced hamburgers, whatever mom had on hand, and when all else failed, peanut butter & jam or cheese and lettuce were the go-to substitutes when it came to sandwiches.

As for breakfast cereals... Rice Krispies, Froot-Loops, etc, etc, yes, we had them, because there was 5 of us kids, but standard breakfast meals were made from scratch... scrambled eggs, toasted bacon/tomato/cheese sandwiches, oatmeal, cream-of-wheat, Sunny-boy cereal, toast... usually something hot.

The only other thing I remember us having in the home was Kool-Aid, Tang, and Hershey's Chocolate Milk Powder (or whatever name brand it was).
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I can relate to basically everything you said.

The only time I ever had a t.v. dinner was once I was allowed to choose one to have as a quick meal before going out trick-or-treating on Halloween.
I was even in my early twenties when I first heard of Kraft macaroni and cheese boxed dinners- the mac and cheese we occasionally had (because a sibling liked it) was made from scratch and baked. And I was in high school when I first heard of instant mashed potatoes!!!
 
JaniceM said:
I can relate to basically everything you said.

The only time I ever had a t.v. dinner was once I was allowed to choose one to have as a quick meal before going out trick-or-treating on Halloween.
I was even in my early twenties when I first heard of Kraft macaroni and cheese boxed dinners- the mac and cheese we occasionally had (because a sibling liked it) was made from scratch and baked. And I was in high school when I first heard of instant mashed potatoes!!!
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Your post jogged my memory... I do remember KD in the pantry, but by no means was it a staple in our home.
 

CinnamonSugar said:
Ah, my mom sewed most of my clothes, very few "store-bought" items in my closet growing up.
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Wow! That is totally awesome!

My mom sewed a lot, too, and we did have a few homemade outfits and things to our name, but we wore store-bought things for the most part, however, when it came to Halloween costumes, mom made all from scratch.

Do want to add... we wore a LOT of hand-me-downs.
 
Aunt Marg said:
In addition to all that has been mentioned thus far, although eating-out is somewhat outside the scope of this topic, I feel it's worthy of mentioning.

As for eating-out when I was growing up, never.
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Ditto. When I was a child, we only went out to eat twice.
And never ordered anything in for delivery, either. I was in my early thirties the first time I ever called for a pizza delivery!!
 
My family was the opposite and had all store bought items and tv dinners, instant drinks - Kool aid - Hawaiian punch, stuff in jars, peanut butter and marshmallow fluff, store bought pastries, pop tarts, margarine, everybody was busy in my family's household. Mom did bake every Sunday, and she prepared homemade foods for parties, but otherwise, all food and clothes and things were store bought.
 
JaniceM said:
Ditto. When I was a child, we only went out to eat twice.
And never ordered anything in for delivery, either. I was in my early thirties the first time I ever called for a pizza delivery!!
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No delivery in our house either.

I remember attending a couple of birthday parties of friends and going out for pizza and burgers, and I thought I had won the lottery!
 
chic said:
My family was the opposite and had all store bought items and tv dinners, instant drinks - Kool aid - Hawaiian punch, stuff in jars, peanut butter and marshmallow fluff, store bought pastries, pop tarts, margarine, everybody was busy in my family's household. Mom did bake every Sunday, and she prepared homemade foods for parties, but otherwise, all food and clothes and things were store bought.
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In some ways I wish I had known you so I could have dropped by to visit you on occasion and enjoy a few goodies that we never had. :)
 
My mother didn't bake. She was a good cook, but we bought bakery bread and occasional cookies.

We never had dessert, just fresh fruit. Sometimes she made rice pudding.

We did buy packaged hot and cold cereals, frozen veggies if not fresh and frozen juices. I remember a few frozen TV dinners but they were very few. We had canned soups as well as home made.

We did not live on a farm. We ate out quite often, to nice restaurants an casual ones. I was an only child and we were not wealthy but neither were we poor.
 
We had a lot of store-bought stuff like cereal, bread, pastas and some canned goods. My mother cooked every day so no TV dinners, but as a kid I thought they sounded wonderful. :D We seldom ate out but occasionally went to a burger place that had a giant rotating mug of root beer on the roof.

When I was a teenager we had some food company that came to the house and filled the deep freeze with meats and veggies every few months. I can't remember what that service was called.

My mother would mend but she didn't sew, though my grandma made me a lot of clothes most of my clothes were store-bought.
 
RadishRose said:
My mother didn't bake. She was a good cook, but we bought bakery bread and occasional cookies.

We never had dessert, just fresh fruit. Sometimes she made rice pudding.

We did buy packaged hot and cold cereals, frozen veggies if not fresh and frozen juices. I remember a few frozen TV dinners but they were very few. We had canned soups as well as home made.

We did not live on a farm. We ate out quite often, to nice restaurants an casual ones. I was an only child and we were not wealthy but neither were we poor.
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Have to admit we were spoiled rotten when it came to homemade desserts. In my moms world, homemade desserts were equally as important as three-square meals on the table 7 days a week. :)

Like one of Janice's posts, your post jogged my memory, too, in that I remember tomato soup in our house.
 
C'est Moi said:
We had a lot of store-bought stuff like cereal, bread, pastas and some canned goods. My mother cooked every day so no TV dinners, but as a kid I thought they sounded wonderful. :D We seldom ate out but occasionally went to a burger place that had a giant rotating mug of root beer on the roof.

When I was a teenager we had some food company that came to the house and filled the deep freeze with meats and veggies every few months. I can't remember what that service was called.

My mother would mend but she didn't sew, though my grandma made me a lot of clothes most of my clothes were store-bought.
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Golly, you hit the jackpot with that food company coming by and stocking your freezer every few months!
 
Aunt Marg said:
Have to admit we were spoiled rotten when it came to homemade desserts. In my moms world, homemade desserts were equally as important as three-square meals on the table 7 days a week. :)

Like one of Janice's posts, your post jogged my memory, too, in that I remember tomato soup in our house.
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We had dessert with every dinner, and lunch too whether it was taken from home or purchased in the school cafeteria. It wasn't elaborate- pie, pudding, etc.
We only had products from bakeries when they ordered graduation cakes for my brothers.
 
C'est Moi said:
We had a lot of store-bought stuff like cereal, bread, pastas and some canned goods. My mother cooked every day so no TV dinners, but as a kid I thought they sounded wonderful. :D We seldom ate out but occasionally went to a burger place that had a giant rotating mug of root beer on the roof.

When I was a teenager we had some food company that came to the house and filled the deep freeze with meats and veggies every few months. I can't remember what that service was called.

My mother would mend but she didn't sew, though my grandma made me a lot of clothes most of my clothes were store-bought.
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By any chance was it called Schwan's? I heard they were popular back then, and they're still around these days.
 
when i was growing up we had home made clothes-the man down the street raised turkeys and chickens--our clothes were made with chicken sacks that we got for 5% the fabric was pretty--we had canned soup-hash in a can- no tv dinners--the only time we had jello was in the winter we didnt have a fridge
 
twinkles said:
when i was growing up we had home made clothes-the man down the street raised turkeys and chickens--our clothes were made with chicken sacks that we got for 5% the fabric was pretty--we had canned soup-hash in a can- no tv dinners--the only time we had jello was in the winter we didnt have a fridge
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As hard as times were back in the day, many lessons could be taught to today's generation.
 
Post war days weren't all that bad where I lived, I've been told. There were still manufacturing jobs, homes bought and education to be had on the GI bill.

But I remember stories about the war time with rationing etc. That was before my time, but even as a big girl, I remember my mother wiping off a piece of lightly used tin foil and folding it away into a drawer.
 
RadishRose said:
Post war days weren't all that bad where I lived, I've been told. There were still manufacturing jobs, homes bought and education to be had on the GI bill.

But I remember stories about the war time with rationing etc. That was before my time, but even as a big girl, I remember my mother wiping off a piece of lightly used tin foil and folding it away into a drawer.
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Absolutely, the generation many of us here grew up in, frugality ruled. :)

Nothing got wasted in our house.
 
I wanted to eat a TV dinner so badly; I had seen the advertisements of families sitting in front of the TV eating TV dinners off TV trays and it looked so...….sophisticated...… Mom finally caved in and bought me one. It was meatloaf, mashed potatoes, corn and a brownie. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy....here it comes!!!!

It was terrible! Nasty meatloaf, gluey potatoes, mushy corn and an awful brownie. I had to pretend to like it; there was no way I was going to admit I hated it.

Back to Mom's good old-fashioned from-scratch home cooking.
 

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