What Food Equals Childhood to You?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pot roast with carrots and potatoes
Swedish meatballs
Meatloaf
Cream of something soup baked on chicken breasts
Casseroles-tuna, shepherd’s pie, Johnny marzetti
Dessert casseroles too-eclair cake, banana split pie
Jello with fruit cocktail
Butter on everything
Fried bologna and cheese sandwiches
Frozen canned limeade mixed with water
Slim Jim’s
Tang

We actually did eat a fair amount of fruits and vegetables along with all the processed junk.

Mmm yes, my mom's pot roast is substantially different than the one I make (hers involved ketchup) and it's definitely childhood.

[Anonymous]

Scrapple

[Anonymous]

Fried bologna
Canned peas
Homemade orange juice popsicles
Frozen orange juice from a can

[Anonymous]

Immigrant family here so we mostly ate homecooked meals, but all I can remember are:

Capri suns
Airheads
Pizza

And the special nights when we got to heat up TV dinners and eat in front of the TV. Don’t tell my parents! Lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Scrapple

Are you from PA?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hawaiian Punch in a big can you had to punch triangles into with a bottle opener. Also V8 in a big can.
“Western” salad dressing that had bull horns on the label and it was basically French.
Salad with blue cheese in it on holidays.
Hickory Farms gift boxes of summer sausage, cheese, and sweet hot mustard on Christmas.
Hostess pies in blackberry, lemon, peach and chocolate (I think you can only get them an apple and cherry now).

Yes!! I loved the blueberry ones. I think Krispy Kreme made them too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Scrapple

Are you from PA?

I’m from DC. My friend and I grew up eating scrapple. DP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gosh, it’s amazing how processed people’s childhood diets were. Almost everyone except the Eastern European person lists multiple UPFs.

A very 2025 comment.

Well, yes, I fully admit it. It wasn't an indictment of any one poster's list, just an acknowledgement that things have changed a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gosh, it’s amazing how processed people’s childhood diets were. Almost everyone except the Eastern European person lists multiple UPFs.

Well, I listed the stuff that I enjoyed. Here’s my other list:

Roast beef tied up with string, cooked with carrots and potatoes
Tongue. Like a whole giant smoked (?) cow tongue
Turnips
Rutabagas
Meatloaf
Salisbury steak
Brussels sprouts cooked with chestnuts
Fresh caught fish (as in, I knew who caught it. And gutted it. And scaled it. Heads still attached.)
Raw oysters (source of one of my minor public traumas)
Homemade corned beef hash
Creamed onions
Gravy
Things covered in gravy.
Milk
Milk with molasses because I was a scrawny kid
Liver and onions
Liverwurst
Liver pudding (the stuff of my nightmares)
Fish roe — often served with scrambled eggs
Poached eggs
Cottage cheese

Everything except the smoked tongue, the corned beef for the hash, and the liverworst (haha) was all minimally processed and made from scratch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tang, the drink of astronauts.

We never drank Tang on its own, but I have fond memories of my mom's "Russian tea" (instant tea, Tang, lemonade mix and spices)

Intriguing. I can smell that instant tea in its jar! What spices did she add?

Same! Dp

Definitely cinnamon and cloves. I'm not sure if there was anything else

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gosh, it’s amazing how processed people’s childhood diets were. Almost everyone except the Eastern European person lists multiple UPFs.

Well, I listed the stuff that I enjoyed. Here’s my other list:

Roast beef tied up with string, cooked with carrots and potatoes
Tongue. Like a whole giant smoked (?) cow tongue
Turnips
Rutabagas
Meatloaf
Salisbury steak
Brussels sprouts cooked with chestnuts
Fresh caught fish (as in, I knew who caught it. And gutted it. And scaled it. Heads still attached.)
Raw oysters (source of one of my minor public traumas)
Homemade corned beef hash
Creamed onions
Gravy
Things covered in gravy.
Milk
Milk with molasses because I was a scrawny kid
Liver and onions
Liverwurst
Liver pudding (the stuff of my nightmares)
Fish roe — often served with scrambled eggs
Poached eggs
Cottage cheese

Everything except the smoked tongue, the corned beef for the hash, and the liverworst (haha) was all minimally processed and made from scratch.

I loved these. I have only had them at my grandmother's on Thanksgiving in the 80s. Haven't had them since. And even then, I think only a few of us liked them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tang, the drink of astronauts.

We never drank Tang on its own, but I have fond memories of my mom's "Russian tea" (instant tea, Tang, lemonade mix and spices)

Intriguing. I can smell that instant tea in its jar! What spices did she add?

Same! Dp

Definitely cinnamon and cloves. I'm not sure if there was anything else

Gosh. I have vague memories of spices being in instant iced tea like this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My parents cookies healthy meals and didn’t buy processed food so a huge childhood treat were tv dinners. Such a special night when we had a babysitter and the tinfoil tray, from the oven, with fried chicken, a scoop of mashed potatoes and corn. I loved them.

THE APPLE PIE!!!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hawaiian Punch in a big can you had to punch triangles into with a bottle opener. Also V8 in a big can.
“Western” salad dressing that had bull horns on the label and it was basically French.
Salad with blue cheese in it on holidays.
Hickory Farms gift boxes of summer sausage, cheese, and sweet hot mustard on Christmas.
Hostess pies in blackberry, lemon, peach and chocolate (I think you can only get them an apple and cherry now).

It was such a privilege to be the one to punch the triangles in. I can still remember that feeling of the metal curling in.

Remember the name of that "bottle opener"?

Hint - Religious Unlocker

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tapioca
Kasha with butter
Cocktail onions
Smoked clams
Buttered popcorn
Hawaiian Punch
Gifford’s ice cream
Breaded veal cutlets
Dad’s oatmeal cookies
Campbell’s soups
Ritz crackers
Sable tails
Half sour pickles
Hostess HoHos
Snowballs

Ha! Hawaiian Punch! I'd totally forgotten about it. In fifth grade I used to drink a cup of this and a half a piece of butteres sourdough toast (those pieces were bigger than normal bread) every morning. I remember being very happy.