Barbara Binland is the pen name of a senior, Julie Grenness, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. She is a poet, writer, and part-time English and Maths tutor, with over 40 years of experience. Her many books are available on Amazon and Kindle.
Do you have food flashbacks, yearning for childhood favourites? Or are you glad you never have to eat foods such as crumbed brains, baked egg custard with stewed home-grown rhubarb again? Apparently, when young, I was a legendary, suburban projectile vomiter. Did this meal set me right off!
Ah, a food flashback, of chops or sausages, accompanied by three vegetables. One of these was, of course, mashed potatoes, often made with both full cream milk and butter, then topped with another pat of butter.
Totally slimming! Years later, I cooked this meal for two young Oz lads. They had been brought up on chicken nuggets and frozen pizza. They had never even seen a lamb chop! I must say, I did get them hooked on creamy mashed potatoes… They returned home from their little visit, quite enamoured.
Or do you recall being lined up at Primary School, forced to drink unflavoured full cream milk by the glass bottle, adorned with a foil lid? The crates of milk bottles sat there in the playground, with no refrigeration, no attending to anyone’s allergies. Lactose intolerance was unknown. My sisters and I were plump, but a lot of our classmates, the baby boomer kids, were thin.
Then the baby boomer children ate peanut butter or jam sandwiches for school lunch. None of these nouvelle chicken wraps, or packets of interesting goodies. Yes, peanut butter sandwiches, wrapped in greaseproof paper, placed in brown paper bag, mired in a school bag. We used to take our paper bags home to be reused by our mum.
My erstwhile husband, born in Europe, told me a tale once. On his first day in an Australian primary school, he took for lunch a sandwich of salami on rye. He was a ‘new Australian’! The gang mentality of Grade Six laughed at him so much. The next day, he appeared with a jam sandwich on white bread. That’s how he came to be ‘assimilated’!
But, wait, one final flashback. Some baby boomers can recall being given cod liver oil on a tablespoon at night, before bedtime! Ah, the good old days… Cakes tasted like cakes, and fruit grew on trees in the back yard.
Those food flashbacks… What are some of yours?
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