Manning345 Loc: Richmond, Virginia

Wonderful reminiscences! At our table it was: "Clean your plate!" and a frown on Dad's face. You never wanted to see a frown on Dad's face, and when you saw him clinch his jaw you were in for it.

4430 Loc: Little Egypt ** Southern Illinory

I can relate to every poster here and I was 14 before I ever ate in a restaurant believe it or not

snowbear37 Loc: MA.

pafret Loc: Northeast

In the late sixties and early seventies we had a gigantic (450 yards long, 200 yards wide) one building concatenation of stall stores selling everything imaginable, in Montgomeryville Pa. It became known locally as the Monkeyville Mart. Most of the stall stores came and went with such rapidity that shopping there was always an adventure. There was always some new gadget, or the latest fad item and simply wonderful things, some created, by the artist sellers, and some others peddled by fast buck hucksters.

It seemed that most of these mini stores opened to sell wh**ever "fell off the truck" and then vanished. The whole ambience reminded me of a Circus Midway, in the freak show area. These "shopping" visits became a form of weekly entertainment for all of us, better than a drive in movie.

One of the fixed elements was the Amish Butcher Store, owned and staffed by the young men and women of the Amish community at Lancaster and its surrounds. Their meats were all organic before anyone knew what organic was; they were produced on their own farms which were operated by mule and horse power, without the use of any engines or petroleum products, not even fertilizers. The meats were butchered by them and trimmed to perfection. Sausages of all kinds, Scrapple, Poultry, perfect Pork Chops, Roasts and Steak were all available and sold to you by what seemed like a platoon of Amish Clones, distinguished only by male or female dress.

The best part of this store was the smorgasbord style cafeteria associated with it. For a fixed price you could select from the traditional seven sours and seven sweets of Amish cooking. There were dried-apple pies and pastries of all kinds, salads and meats to delight all palates.

But -- as you entered the service line there was a huge sign.

----------Take what you want, Eat all you take
Do not come back for more if you don't finish your plate

What a damper for my kids, if they had picked something new and decided they didn't like it, they had to choke it down anyway or forgo the obvious goodies waiting for them on the serving line. There were always several Amish, who were working in the dining area "redding up", but in reality they were monitoring food consumption. My kids became adept at taking minuscule portions of anything new along with tried and true favorites so they could get to all the dessert courses.

Mike Easterday

I remember these

Abel

We got fat, dumb, and happy, and the C*******ts came around singing their lullaby of "Let me entertain you" and we went to sleep like Rip Van Winkle. We are just now beginning to wake up. Hope it's not too late.

Owl32 Loc: ARK

it is never to late to change what you eat and how you v**e. Make sure it is grass fed and a natural habitat nothing man made or artificial keep protein with watery vegetables only no steak and potatoes instead make steak/hamburger and brocholi and chicken and squash/salad ect just keep the carbs away from the protein, I know we like them togather, but thats what makes us FAT.

Ricktloml

That is one of the most astounding things. Very few families eat food prepared at home. And knowing how to cook now is considered unusual. The sad part is...if you do cook, it's hard to find some place to "eat out" at that is anything close to as good as you get at home.

no propaganda please Loc: moon orbiting the third rock from the sun

That's why we don't eat out very often. We are both good cooks and like to cook,and always make extra in case someone nearby drops by and is hungry

Comment Loc: California

Hey Jack: U forgot Buffalo Wings----Ya know, those things Buffalo use to fly.

Ricktloml

My daughter is a great cook, and when she and her husband want a "date night", they've stopped the restaurant part and always eat before they go out. And it's got to the point where they can hardly go to a movie either. They now go out in the afternoon and look for antiques, or visit with adult friends. Or a lot of times I keep the grandkids, my daughter cooks and they have their date night at home with friends.

4430 Loc: Little Egypt ** Southern Illinory

If I knew where you live and what time meals would be served I think I could arrange be hungry and drop in

jSmitty45 Loc: Fl born, lived in Texas 30 yrs, now Louisiana

So miss those days. Loved to lay in the grass, and try to see what you could make out of the clouds. We had a pretty nice swimming hole in Largo, Fl behind our house, and we all would go jump in and cool off in the afternoons, if we didn't go to Indian Rocks beach. No back talking to anyone, or you got the belt. If you could talk my dad out of unbuckling his belt, you were ok, if he unbuckled it, you got a spanking. My two older brothers were so rotten, they could never talk him out of it. Loved sing a young child in the 50's. Unfortunately, it is so rotten today, kids don't respect anyone anymore. They don't know what it is to really have fun. Just play on the phone, or computer. We were made to go outside, until lunch, then back outside until supper, then outside until dark.

peg w

My mother's spaghetti sauce, a can of tomatoes a clove of garlic salt and pepper. It was awful. Meat cooked to a inch of it's life, with only pepper for seasoning. Macaroni and cheese food. How did we survive? Iam so glad we have a wide range of flavors today. Indian food Japanese and Chineese was non-existent, too. So much better today.

no propaganda please Loc: moon orbiting the third rock from the sun

high in the West Virginia mountains a long way from anything,but so peaceful and quiet only deer and bears and coyotes. Private shooting range , and next door to a goat and chicken farm. Breakfast is at 5:30 am, lunch at 12:30 and dinner is at 5 PM