Favorite childhood Foods, Stroll down memory lane.

Boomer Food ^

[TheGrimReaper]

The Monkees was in color???
Damn!

[VRWCmember]

Sorry, The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly was about as close as I could find.

[TheGrimReaper]

[andysandmikesmom]

Growing up in the fifties was great...wax moustaches, wax lips, wax bottles, with the sweet syrup, watermelon slices, Necco Candy, 7up bar, Chunky Bar, Chuckles, penny ice cream cones(wafer cone, marshmallow and sugar fake ice cream), nickel popsicles, fudgesicles and creamsicles for 7 cents, ice cream cones, ice cream sandwiches, frozen bananas, and ice cream bars, all for a dime....

We used to go to a place in Chicago, called Prince Castle...mom and dad would take us there about once every two weeks...we always all got the same thing...two hamburgers, an order of fries, and a chocolate shake...one time by accident they gave us 3 burgers apiece, but only charged us for 2 apiece...mom and dad never told the counter person..we just gobbled up those goodies, thinking we were so tricky...

Later on, after Prince Castle, folded ,we went to White Castle, for those scrumptous little burgers...

TV was always black and white...I remember as a kid, going past someones house, the people who lived in the basement had the newest thing, a color television...me and my brother and cousins, used to crouch down and look through the basement window to get a look at that colored TV...

Remember those old black and white TVs, if something went wrong with the Tv, your dad took off the back of the set, and looked to see which tubes were burned out...took them to the local drugstore, and put them in a tube tester...if the tube was no good, you just buy a new one, stick it in the set, and voila, your set worked again...no need for paying a TV repairman, or like today, just throwing out the set, and buying a new one...

Our first Tv, was bought from 'Mad Man Muntz', as my dad called him, and that set lasted probably 15 ys....

Remember the gum ball machines, and the prize gumball...I would always take my pennies, and put it in the gumball slot, and always wished to received a charm or gift, rather than a gumball, and the big prize, was the yellow gumball with the red circle around it...if you got that one, you turned it into the corner store guy,who knew your name, and knew your parents....he then gave you a candy bar, in return for the prize gumball...you thought it was your lucky day, when you got that prized gumball...

[Still Thinking]

Sears had a candy counter?? I've been going there since the 60's and I don't remember one.

[Still Thinking]

A B&W set was all we owned until 1970. Complete with all those cool vacuum tubes!!

Remember it took like 30 seconds for the picture tube to warm up and the picture to come on, before the days of "Instant On"?? Now the EPA is trying to get rid of that immense 5 watt warming circuit. They must be nostalgic, too.

[oregon conservative]

I'm old too. I remember black and white television, what was color? My dad finally bought a color set in 1973. Watching Gunsmoke in color, what a treat! LOL Remembering pixi sticks, black cow suckers, sugar daddys, nickel candy bars of all kinds, someone else mentioned 7-up bars, those were really good. I remember milk at school was a penny for regular or chocolate. Remembering a show would be announced like, Bonanza, in color. Those were the days!!!!!

[TheGrimReaper]

Thanks for the memories.
God, I miss the 50's.

[TheGrimReaper]

The EPA.... geeze, what a useless collection of bureacratic buffoons.
Almost as useless as those asinine 1.2 gallon toilets they have foisted off on us.

[MaggieMay]

Yes, the Sears in Chicago and Seattle always had a counter with nuts, candies, and assorted chocolate's, sold by the pound. Since that was where my parents shopped for everything from appliances to school clothes, I loved the candy counter. I also enjoyed Woolworth's lunchon counter/soda fountain.

[goodieD]

banana Shake-A-Puddin', poached eggs on Hollywood toast, coffee with lots of CoffeeMate, Hillbilly Bread (drank with Mountain Dew when it came in the bottles with the hillbillies on the front), hot Dr. Pepper, Clark bars and Space Sticks.

[goodieD]

almost forgot jello 1-2-3 and some kind of pudding with a hard chocolate top. I also used to eat saccharine tablets by the handful.

[weegee]

I've seen the Adams gums in stores on occasion. This website mentions that they are periodically rereleased to the market:

Black Jack Chewing Gum (fan page)

I don't know how well a box of gum "keeps" sitting on the shelf.

[Still Thinking]

I've seen them, too, and I make sure to buy them whenever they come around, but it's only the BlackJack/Beemans/Clove flavors. I've not seen the sour fruit flavors, which I actually liked even better.

[andysandmikesmom]

Glad to provide those memories...yes, indeed, for those of us who remember the 50s they seem so idyllic and innocent...

When looking backwards, things always seem better than they really were...and I am sure that goes for this as well...still, I know, I loved my childhood during the 50s, and do believe that it was the best era in which to be a child....

I miss the 50s as well...

[andysandmikesmom]

Ah, when you mention the Woolworths Luncheon counter and Soda fountain, that brought back such memories...

I grew up in Chicago...every single weekend, rain or shine, sunny or snowy, me and my girlfriends, would walk a mile up to Logan Square shopping center, with our saved allowances...

We would window shop, buy some cheap make up, take our pictures in the 25cent machine, where you got 4 shots in a minute, and then we sat down at the Woolworths Luncheon counter and had a hamburger, fries and a coke...

Then for our on the way home walk, we would buy a bag of hot Spanish Peanuts(29cents/lb), or if we were feeling rich that day, we might get a bag of hot Cashews....

We thought that was a wondeful way to spend the day...

[auggy]

Hey, Grim! I am from Henderson, KY. I remember the Red Barn. Wasn't it on Fredricka? I just had a double cheeseburger at Rally's for .99 cents. It filled me up too. I use to drink Double Cola's and Zero Candy Bars. My favorite was P-nut Butter and Baloney sandwiches. In fact , I still eat them.

[TheGrimReaper]

Hi, auggy
Yes, that was it....right there on Frederica @ Parrish Avenue. And then, there's Moonlight BBQ!
You ever go to the horse races in Henderson?
It's been 35+ years, but I used to go with my grandparents on the weekends.
Simple times, but good ones.
I still eat Zero bars.

[Charles Henrickson]

I was born in '53, born and raised on the north side of the city of Chicago--by Devon Avenue, between Western and California (the 6400 block of Maplewood Avenue).

I remember well the lunch counter/soda fountains at Woolworth's and Walgreen's, both near Devon & Western. (BTW, here in St, Louis, "soda" = "pop" or "soda pop," but when I hear "soda," I always think of something with ice cream in it.)

I remember, too, the nut & candy counter at Sears-Roebuck's, the one at Lawrence & Damen. Loved the salted cashews and the pistachios (the kind that made your fingers all red).

Prince Castle! I thought I was the only one who remembered that! Better burgers than White Castle. Also, there was a similar place called Cock Robin.

Remember Lockwood Castle, on Devon out by Central? A soda-creations place, all kinds of huge ice cream sodas, club BLTs, etc.

Then, of course, if you're talking Chicago, you're talkin' hot dogs, pizza, and Italian beef. For hot dogs and Polish sausages, I remember the original Fluky's, on Western, on the other side of Pratt from where it is now. Steamed poppy-seed buns, grilled onions, hot peppers, big pickle slice--that's the ticket. There was also a good place for dogs and Polish on Devon, almost to Kedzie (near Thillens Stadium). By my house, Ruby's (Devon & Rockwell) for dogs, burgers, and rib-eye steak sandwiches.

Lots of Jewish delis near my house, too. Devon between Western and California (that was my "turf") was mostly Jewish businesses in those days. There were still some Swedes (like us) living in the neighborhood, but our stores were more on Clark Street, between Foster and Bryn Mawr--Andersonville. Grandpa Henrickson used to take us there to Villa Sweden for Sunday dinner.

[Charles Henrickson]

Lots of Saturdays, we'd take the El downtown to go shopping, go to the doctor or dentist, etc. We'd get off at Washington Ave., where you could exit directly into the basement of Carson Pirie Scott. They had a cafeteria-style restaurant down there called the Tartan Tray, and the big treat was to get a rib-eye steak sandwich, which cost some outrageous amount like a dollar-seventy-nine. Also downtown there was a Wimpy's hamburger restaurant near Wabash. Remember Marshall Field's frango mints chocolate candy? Pretty fancy. We also used to eat a lot at the restaurant in the Pittsfield Building, by Wabash (at Washington?), where our doctor and dentist had offices.