LaChoy Makes Chinese Food Swing American!

Hubs and I sat over dinner this evening conversing about what everyday foodstuffs were in our childhood homes while growing up. We spoke about the ritual of weekly grocery shopping, certain favorite brands, kitchen staples, household treats, and overall abundance (or lack thereof). Great talks like this sometimes spur me to blog, so here goes...

My family's 1970s food storage cabinets, very likely built in the 1920s, were farmhouse style and painted a shade of avocado green, popular for the times. Lined in flowery contact paper, autumnal in color and cut expertly to fit by my mother, there were three spacious wooden shelves within each tall closet-like repository along one side of our kitchen. Although the top shelf was totally unreachable by me as a small kid, even when pulling up a chair and stealthily standing tiptoe on our white sparkly Formica counters, I felt certain that lofty ledge held hidden and forbidden treats (such as Mom's Toffifay candies) but there was really no need to risk breaking my neck nor getting caught climbing about like a scullery marsupial, because the rest of our kitchen held plenty of eats which were fair game for me and anyone else who was around.

We grocery shopped as a family whenever possible, and if Dad wasn't available, I happily accompanied Mom on the weekly trip. From age two 'til five, I was allowed to get a Little Golden Book every time we shopped at the Albany Public Market in Rensselaer, NY. Economically, I'm sure this was a quite a luxurious frill, but mom knew I adored books and encouraged me to learn new stories and words. I had quite a home-based library of my own (and resultant vocabulary) as a little squirt. My baby books state that my most favorite thing to do was read; and knowing Mom was buying me a new book every time I went, I'm sure my second most favorite thing to do was grocery shop.

At the store, Mom would push the cart with one hand while holding onto a handwritten list and tan pocket-sized grocery adder with the other. People wrote personal checks or paid cash for groceries in the 1970s, no one handed over a credit card; and that being the case, sticking to a budget was absolutely critical. Eventually, around age seven, I was given the grocery adder responsibility as we rolled along the aisles. It was thrilling to me!

When we checked out, it took a bit of time. There were no scanners back then, everything got punched into the register; individually keyed, digit by digit, dollar by dollar. Once home, we'd lug the brown paper bags up the back steps and into the house from our driveway and take turns putting things away. All of it is etched in my mind; and even though I haven't lived in that house for 34 years, I'm positive I could put those groceries away tonight just as efficiently as I did all those years ago. Closing my eyes, I see my surroundings clear as day.

In the far left cupboard, we had breakfast cereal, Quaker Oats, Bisquick, and instant Cream of Wheat. My parents ate the Wheaties and I ate whatever cereal I'd been allowed to select for the week. I can almost taste the strawberry sweetness of Crazy Cow and the spongy marshmallows in fruit flavored Kaboom. My absolute favorite, however, was Waffelos with the guitar strumming horse and artificial maple syrup flavor, which I now regard as dietetically rather gross, but damn...my mouth waters looking at that picture all the same. Breakfast was widely varied when I was little because my mother made something for me every morning but by the time I was 12, I had a paper route and cereal and coffee were all there was time for.

The second, or middle, cupboard held things like coffee, baking supplies, Ovaltine, Lipton Iced Tea mix, a dozen or so packets of Kool Aid powder, canned Juicy Juice (which had to be opened with the triangular end of a puncture style opener), and both Chun King and La Choy Chinese food. La Choy makes Chinese food swing American! (Retro commercial below, enjoy!)

The third (far right) cupboard held oil, vinegar, peanut butter, and other canned goods like fruit, vegetables and soup. All preserved soup in the 1970s required the addition of a can of water. We'd open the can with a twisty handled metal can opener, scrape out the contents, add a can of water and stir, stir, stir on the stove until hot. Campbell's alphabet soup provided fun for about fifteen minutes each time it was served. Soup's on, now spell something, and no swear words!

That cupboard also held Underwood ham spread (with the little red devil on the wrapper), tuna fish, and multiple glass bottles of Orville Redenbacher popcorn kernels. When we bought Orville for the first time around 1977, my father, a popcorn aficionado, prepared and tasted it and it became an absolute staple in our home; we never bought any other popcorn brand, or really any other snack, for that matter.

We had a breadbox in which we stored Freihoffer wheat bread and assorted crackers. It was metal and took up a fair amount of counter space. Most people I knew had a breadbox back then. I could definitely use one today.

Our refrigerator and freezer held what I'd deem "regular" everyday items like leftovers, eggs, Dannon yogurts, Blue Bonnet margarine, whole milk, condiments, jelly, sour cream, blue cheese salad dressing, pickled beets, dill spears, fruit, vegetables, wheat germ, mom's Faygo soda (redpop, root beer, frosh and chocolate flavors all in sturdy glass bottles), frozen meat and fish, ice cream, otter pops, TV dinners, pot pies, and port wine/nut covered cheese balls and spumoni at Christmas time. It also always held a gallon jug of Carlo Rossi Rhine wine. My Uncle sold Sweetheart plastic products to restaurants and we could buy samples for very little cost so everyday company was routinely offered a clear disposable party cup full of Rhine upon arrival at our home.

We had no chips, no cookies (with the exception of Christmastime), and no snacks other than the occasional bag of sunflower seeds (in the shells) and the popcorn which was made on Monday nights and weekends to enjoy while watching televised sports. Other than my Moo Moo and my Aunt Rene, both of whom had a wicked desire for sweets, no one I knew had store bought snacks in the house on a regular basis; and no desserts, either. Desserts were for guests and God forbid you cut into that Entenmann's crumb cake on the high shelf if someone were expected. That fare sat untouched, sometimes for a week, in anticipation of visitors. Girl Scout cookies were a once a year treat, and only three boxes were ever purchased. When they were gone, you had to wait twelve months for a reappearance. 

I look at photos from those years and we were all pretty slim. Food was fuel and it was not stockpiled. I don't believe BJs or other warehouse grocery marts existed. If we ran out of something, we did without until we bought it on grocery day or if it were needed in a recipe, Mom sent me on foot to the neighborhood market to buy it. Meals were carefully planned. I didn't have a submarine sandwich or restaurant prepared Chinese food until I had my own job as a teenager. We ate when it was time and didn't eat when it wasn't.

We celebrated with dinner at the Red Coach grill on birthdays; we took my Dad's boss to Mama Riso's when he came to town, and occasionally we dined at Friendly's, Howard Johnson's and Sambos, which were three of my Dad's accounts so it was good to bring the family there now and again. 

I think of how often I snack and how regularly hubs and I eat at restaurants now. I'm not surprised I could lose a few pounds. All of our food rules about gluten, sugar, organic eating, and carbs intrigue me at first and then frustrate me altogether. I would like to go back to that 1970s kitchen for a few months and see if simpler, less fussy, and overall simplification would do me some good. I'm sure it would.

Later, during the 1980s, my Dad and I began living in our home without my Mom and our grocery shopping took a bit of a radical turn. More on that and some long lost 1980s food provisions next time!

PS Can you think of any 1970s food - perhaps a brand which you always had at your house?
Please share in the comments!
And...I'd be remiss if I didn't thank you for reading. I truly, madly, deeply appreciate it.

#1970s #1980s #lachoy #waffelos #carlorossi #rhinewine #mushroomtumbler