| Show j II Ij I I s By IRIS When we came out of a grocery store last week after leaving what seemed like most of our money behind I complained complained complained com com- about it My husband found an item in a newspaper and showed it to me with a remark that some people dont don't know when they're well off MAYBE THEY DONT DON'T The article mentioned that in 1870 food took 58 per cent of all the consumer earned In 1965 it took per cent And besides we have the convenience foods available in ways never dreamed of by the consumer of even a few years ago We also have foods from all over the world In season and out And most of these foods are available to the average family and not classified as luxury foods at all We didn't have luxury foods when I was growing up either We had one meat we bought from the store store hamburger hamburger and a few staples like sugar salt and baking powder Just about everything else we raised ourselves or bought locally BUT THOUGH WE RAISED most of our own food in those days we ate well What was prepared from scratch may not have been much of a convenience from the cooks cook's point of view but the small consumers were happy I remember doughnuts for example made of raised dough and fried in deep fat Im I'm sure sur they landed in tender little stomachs with witha a solid plop but we didn't care We Wo ate homemade bread fresh from the oven too with large blobs of freshly churned butter sinking into it or when we could sneak it off the pan thick lathers of cream covered with sugar Ive I've never seen food like that in packages Once in awhile one of ot the more well to families in town would show off by having corn flakes for breakfast but mostly everyone got by with a wheat product called germade germ germ- ade We had to cook this on the back of the wood-burning wood range for hours which didn't make it very convenient Most of the families in town bought their ger germade made prepackaged prepackaged prepackaged pre pack aged or at any rate in a sack from the flour mill but since our father was the flour miller we got our germade in whatever container Dad had on hand when he remembered we were out We could buy oatmeal from the store but but like corn flakes flakes it it had to be paid for at the moment of purchase purchase purchase pur pur- chase it was no more tasty or nourishing than the germade which co could ld be gotten by barter and it took just as long to cook Quick oatmeal was far in the future PACKAGED GUM WAS ANOTHER item available a in the store and once in awhile we were able to blow a whole nickel for Spearmint but mostly we got our gum the hard way way off off the tree There was wa hardly a kid in town who didn't know where there was at least one tree loaded with the clear hardened sap so good for chewing It was rarely more than thana a three hour excursion going picking and returning to get geta a good chew There was nothing very convenient about our gum-chewing gum in those days but we were in no hurry We had all the ti time me there was Come to think of it maybe that describes food preparation I back In those days Convenience wasn't necessary because the cooks had all the time there was and they used it hV vu n v V m |
