They are having a 60's day

in the house of a friend of mine in Upover.  Instead of living in 2024 they have gone back to the 1960's - just for the day.

As I was about to have a much delayed meal when I read A...'s post about this I asked what they were having to eat. Up to that there had been "hot chocolate" (cooked in a saucepan on the stove and not in the microwave) and "toast and jam". Sounds pretty good if you are a child.

I went off and thought about this. What did we eat? The answer to that was that we had cereal for breakfast. Most of the time we had those large compressed wheat flake biscuits. Mum did not approve of cornflakes or any form of sugary cereal. I was allowed to have two of those biscuits with milk, a slice of toast with "Vegemite" (the Downunder version of Marmite) and more milk to drink. The milk could be hot in winter. It was cold in summer.

I had the same breakfast for years. My siblings had the same breakfast. We only had porridge in the school holidays (because it took time to make) or when we stayed with my paternal grandparents. Grandpa made the porridge. We were allowed, as a great concession, to have milk on our porridge. Grandpa ate it Scots style - with salt. I still eat porridge with milk and no sugar. It seems wrong to have sugar.

Our school lunches were mixed but only because we then lived next to the school and went home and helped ourselves to what Mum had left out for us. We could turn the bread (made by Mum) into toast if we wanted to do that. In winter we could heat soup (left in a saucepan and don't dare forget to wash it afterwards) and in summer we often had cheese or left over Sunday roast meat in a sandwich with a tomato. My siblings would rush in and often rush off with their "sandwich" in their hand. I was usually left to clear up the mess. There was almost never any variation on these things. I don't remember we thought of it as "boring". It was food. We were hungry. We ate it.

At night it would almost always be "meat and veg". We ate a lot of "mince" with potato and pumpkin or carrot and peas or beans. That was quick to make - and cheap. If we had a second course it would almost always be some sort of stewed fruit which Mum had bottled over the summer. We ate that with custard or "creamed rice". Once in a very long while Mum might make a "steamed sponge pudding" and put a little bit of jam on it before adding more custard.

 Even though both my parents were working full time we were still short of money. Teachers were not well paid and, in the early sixties, the Senior Cat was finishing his degree. There were fees and books for that as well. Looking back on that I suppose we were very well fed in the circumstances.

Now I think of all the things we have that we had not even heard of like pizza, risotto, "stir fry" and lasagne. We didn't know what broccoli or aubergine or courgettes/zucchini were at all. 

Once in a very long while we would have the thrill of fish and chips at home. It was a messy business and only ever occurred in the school holidays if someone had given us fish.  The only other way we had fish and chips was as a holiday treat with my paternal grandfather. He would give my grandmother a "rest" from feeding all of us and take me and my brother to the fish and chip shop at the start of the jetty. There he would be invited to inspect the fish he had ordered (and they knew he knew his fish) and it would be cooked in golden batter along with chips. It would be wrapped first in "butcher paper" and then in newspaper.  We would eat it straight out of that with our fingers. 

Modern "take-away" is not a patch on what those old fashioned fish and chips were - and not nearly as exciting.  There was something to be said for the food of the sixties after all.