The Over 40s Club Meeting

[RJDiogenes]

^^ Hmm, school lunches. When I was in Grade School in Dorchester, we brought our lunch and ate at our desks (old desks that actually had inkwells). We had to pay "milk money" every week, and somebody would bring in a milk crate of those single serving cartons. When I moved to Weymouth, I got to walk home and have Hot Dogs for lunch. In Junior and High School, my favorite lunch was on Fridays: The English Muffin Pizzas with Orange Juice.

My mom used to make cubed steak and fried potatoes.

Ah, Cube Steak! Yeah, we used to have that, with skinny French Fries. I loved that.

 

[Shatmandu]

I am 42 and have fond rememberances of a restaurant called Dog N' Suds, which served hot dogs and root beer (I'm sure, in retrospect, they served other foods, but that was pretty much all we ordered therein). Not sure if it was a nationwide chain, but a popular restaurant in my town.

Great place. They're still around, though the one close to my house closed last year.

Joe, ruff

 

[Mallory]

And, we didn't have any fast food chains in my hometown until I was about 6 or 7, and even afterward if we went for "fast food" it would be the local chain places: Arctic Circle, Flying Scott, Pietro's Pizza (which had an honest to goodness merry-go-round) and my personal favorite, Deb's (Mallory, does any of that ring a bell with you?) Deb's was a real old fashioned drive in where you pulled up in your car, parked under an awning, used a phone to dial in your order off a lighted menu that was at each parking space, and the waitresses would bring the food out to you on rollerskates and it would hang on a tray from your rolled-down car window. Ahhh, those were the days.

Never got to eat at Deb's and I'm not sure Flying Scott is still around anymore. But we still have Arctic Circle and Pietro's and I still try to squeeze in a meal at those places now and then to try and help keep them alive.

 

[T'Grinch]

School lunches. In junior high, the food was great. I was only allowed to buy lunch twice a week, but I loved it. Most times, I brown-bagged my lunch.

Man, I remember the school milk. Any Americans remember "Fizzies?" We put one in someone's milk (a rootbeer one,) when her back was turned. I see they still sell them. My kid bought me a pack. YUCK! What the HELL were we thinking? I've not had Kool-aid since I was a kid, but I bet it would taste like crap now too.

Best food memories from childhood: Mom's homemade Boston Creme pie. Heck, most of Mom's desserts! Grandma's molasses cookies. Great-grandma's homemade vegetable soup. Scooter-pies, before they changed the formula (they now taste like those nasty moon pies.)

I got my own breakfast from middle school on, but if it was a wintry day and Dad had made Coco-wheats (hot cereal, think chocolate Farina,) he would always make enough for me to have a bowl. Yum, yum.

We had milk delivery at the door. When my kids were young, boy would that have been useful. And I miss good bakeries. Mom and Pop bakeries are going the way of Mom and Pop stores.

We had a real "penny candy" store that lasted through the late 1970s. It had many varieties of candy that ranged from 1-3 cents each. For a quarter, one could walk out with a small sackful. That was an awesome store and located right across the street from the local school (this was in Grandma's neighborhood.)

I miss that, and the ice cream truck.

Ah, childhood.