Breakfast I always was the one to pray before eating and prayed the prayers I was taught. God Bless this Food.
Amen. Later I learned. God is Great! We ate lots of Cream of Wheat and Oatmeal cooked every morning. Mother put sugar and milk on it. Sometimes we would be treated with raisins cooked with it. After the Oatmeal box was empty we were allowed to have it to play with. I made a drum with mine many times.
We had home baked bread every week. It could be toasted on a toaster which had two sides and you could plug it into the wall, but if you didn't watch it closely it would burn and then we had to scrap the charcoal off. When mother made toast for all of us she did it in the broiler oven. We often scraped the charcoal off of it then as she had too many other things to do at the same time and seldom watched it close enough.. Del remembers Nabisco Shredded Wheat in a box the size of today's saltine crackers. (I remember this too!) There was a picture of Niagara Falls which always graced the front of the box. The card board dividers between the biscuits had pictures that kids would color. Rice Krispies, Kellogg's Corn Flakes and 40% Bran Flakes were the only other cereals we remember eating. Corn Flakes were the least expensive so we were awarded with those most often. The others were very special treats. Judy says, "Cold cereal was always a very special treat at her house". We had milk that was
delivered to our door a few times every week. We washed
the bottles and returned them to receive another bottle
of milk. Eau Claire, Wisconsin Dairy
IreProch was a special egg pancake my grandma Johnson passes on to my mother. It was made with bits of bacon in a fry pan and a mixture of milk and eggs with a bit of flour poured over the top. We spread butter and sugar on it or jelly. Hard boiled eggs were one of my favorites. Mother liked her eggs soft boiled, but that was not my favorite as I felt they were slimy and like "snot". If mother cooked them her way [soft] we were allowed to put our toast into the egg and soak up the loose stuff. That made it more palatable. At least we didn't have to hold back a gag. I loved poached eggs in milk on toast. Del loves it too, now. In High School Home Economics I chose to make poached eggs for my breakfast entree. I soon found I could only find a recipe with the eggs made in water. I was given permission to use milk instead, and surprised to find the other girls thought that sounded terrible! That is the only way I knew it to be served until then. |
Lunch Lunches were usually soap and sandwiches. Grilled cheese was popular but only about once a week, if that often. Baloney was my favorite. We would get a ring of baloney and grind it in the food grinder with pickles and mix all of it with Miracle Whip. Plain Baloney slices were a treat if we ever got one of those. Mustard and Miracle Whip
or Catsup sandwiches were good too. Mother made lots of vegetable soup and macaroni soup. We got a chicken once in a while for Sunday, and she saved all the broth and bones and made soup from that. It was so good. Then we would have dumplings in our soup or noodles which mother made. I remember after the war was over we could buy Lipton Soup If we were sick we could have Chicken Noodle Soup. I loved that the
best. Creamed peas on toast was one of my favorite meals. My brother Jon still talks about stewed tomatoes. Mother made these from those she had canned and stored in the cellar. She always put a bit of sugar, Worcestershire sauce, onions and toasted bread cubes into the tomatoes which were chopped up into smaller pieces. My family didn't drink coffee but had iced tea in the summer time. We children were not allowed to have even that until we were much older! Creamed asparagus on toast was another. We picked that wild on our property and that was lots of fun. We grew lettuce and radishes and often had those for salad both at lunch and supper meals. Cole slaw was a regular salad too. Coffee was not in our house as it was rationed and very expensive in those days. Neither was soda or alcohol a commodity we heard much about. We had pancakes and French toast These were special treats. "Ire Proch" was a special egg pancake my grandma Johnson passes on to my mother. It was made with bits of bacon in a fry pan and a mixture of milk and eggs with a bit of flour poured over the top. We spread butter and sugar on it or jelly. It was a special dish for Lunch or supper, too. Cocoa was a treat for any meal. It was made with cocoa and sugar, salt and water boiled and then Milk added. If we didn't have cocoa we always had milk. Sometimes it was dried milk reconstituted. I couldn't stand the smell of that one. Mommy and Daddy didn't drink coffee in those days. It was rationed during the war as was sugar and many other items. Mother used stamps and money to purchase items that were difficult to purchase.
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Treats... or snacks as we call them today. I didn't have many of these. Sometimes we might have a cookie or a tart. Tarts were made from the pie crust which wasn't used for the pie. Cookies were always baked and almost never store bought. Animal cookies is the only exception to that and on special occasions I might get a small box of circus animal cookies. It was just my size with a handle on top and looked like a circus cage with pictures of animals inside the cage. Crackerjacks were a very special treat. Inside the box was always a toy and that was the best part. These boxes were very small compared to what you see today, but they were 5¢ and we could have the whole box. I didn't have candy until I was five years old. I didn't know what it was. Easter Time brought a basket with Hard boiled eggs and I found more eggs hidden by the Easter Bunny, and added them to my basket. When my brothers came along they each got a basket too and we had to divided the eggs three ways. Jelly beans were found in our baskets too. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were special! We ate them always with milk. At Christmas mother made Knox Gelatin candy with food coloring of red and green. She made taffy and fudge. I learned to make fudge, and we could do that on Sunday's during the rest of the year. I boiled it on top of the hot stove and boiled it until it would form a round drop in cold water. Then it was time to beat it. I would beat it many strokes by hand. We didn't have a beater or mixer. The big spoon and strong arms did the trick. It was beat until thick and then poured into a greased pie tin or small cake pan. Cut it and Eat it! I remember having it as a Sunday night treat with popcorn and apples while we listened to the Talent Scouts and other Radio Programs. Del talks about his mother always making taffy. She would put a hook on one end of the living room and and other on the opposite end in the dining area. She would work and work the taffy pulling it and pulling it until it got very shiny. Then she would cut it into smaller pieces and wrap each piece in waxed paper. |
Supper Sundays we had dinner at noon. We called our evening meal
"supper". We always sat together at the table. Here we ate and talked about our day after prayers. We were encouraged to describe our day through family conversation. We ate lots of vegetables and potatoes but very little meat. Fried Chicken on Sunday was a treat. I remember some pot roasts. Left overs were ground in the grinder with onions and pickles and put together with Miracle Whip or a homemade dressing. We loved that when we had it for Lunch. Baked beans cooked all day was one of my favorites. It was loaded with molasses and brown sugar and vinegar and catsup. I thought that was the only way to eat baked beans. Spaghetti and Macaroni and cheese were popular menu items. Chili Soup with very little if any meat was a regular menu item. We had a variety of potatoes, scalloped, riced, mashed, twice baked (my favorite) French fries were not a part of our diet. Rarely did mother prepare those. They were a lot of work and quite greasy. |
Picnics and Family Gatherings Every Sunday we would eat with my Grandma and Grandpa. We spent part of the day with grandma and grandpa Johnson downtown. All the family members would come there too and Grandma was the best cook of all. Everybody raved about her cooking. The other time was spent with my other grandparents. Grandma and Grandpa Haag. That grandma didn't cook as much and mother did most of the cooking or helped Gma. I loved picnics. We didn't have many of those. There were many choices and I could eat what I wanted as long as I had one thing from every category. (Salad, vegetable, meat, bread, drink) We didn't have anything but milk during war years. At least that is all mother would let us drink. When I was about 9 years old and we went on Family or church picnics I felt treated big time! There was always pop in ice tubs which I could have. Bottle were 6 ounces and we had a choice of orange, cherry, root beer, coke and grape. Sometimes we could have 2. Always lots of desserts.
And sometimes we could have more than one. Most of the
time we had home made ice cream. And we always got more than one serving if we wanted; and I wanted! |
Sunday Night Suppers These were special and fun for us because
they were never a full meal! Usually, we had our big meal at noon on Sunday's because daddy was home. Home baked biscuits. Sometimes we had a poached egg in milk on toast. That was special. |
This made a
perfect drum. It was really fun when all three of us kids had a drum
at the same time.
The top of the milk was shaped like a cup with a
smaller opening to the remainder of the bottle. The
bottles were quart size only. 
We had a spoon to pour off
the cream which Mother used to make whipped cream or to
put into her cooking. Then we would shake the bottle to
mix the rest of the milk with whatever cream was left.
Campbell's alphabet soup was my favorite. I
loved figuring out my Name with those noodles. I could
spell Jon and Gene's name too. Tomato soup from the can
became a more frequent lunch item.
Sometimes mother would
buy crackers that we could put them in soup or just eat
like bread. A special treat would be homemade jelly or
jam. Mother made jam in the summer when the wild berries were ripe.
It was
more expensive.
