"Honey, grab your coat while I start the Packard! We're headin' to the A&P for some Birds Eye so you can make THIS for dinner!"
"Yes, dear, but not on Friday. The bacon, you understand."
Did ads like this really make our grandparents say . . .
- Thread starter joeekaitis
- Start date
Help Support :
"Honey, grab your coat while I start the Packard! We're headin' to the A&P for some Birds Eye so you can make THIS for dinner!"
"Yes, dear, but not on Friday. The bacon, you understand."
Good question -
I can give an answer based on personal experience which might suggest that 'yes, yes they did'.
My first adult purchases in Germany were my own washing machine. A 2800rpm centrifuge. A tumbler dryer.
Gasp! My hatred of the environment was clear.
My second purchase was a large, roomy deep freeze. Let me explain.
Until very, very recently, it was impossible to buy fresh anything in Germany after Friday afternoon until Monday morning. Oh, sure, if you ran like a madman, you might find a few wilted vegetables at the local market - but fresh food shut doWwn just at the time of the week when one most needed it. Worse, shopping on a Friday afternoon (stores closed at 6:30 at the very latest) or Saturday morning was a nightmare.
Having freezer capacity for frozen vegetables and fruits was a godsend. Ditto pantry space for UHT Milk and a really big refrigerator for eggs and cheese and all the other stuff.
No shopping after noon on Saturday until Monday morning. No nothing fresh.
This was not all that different to America for a stay-at-home housewife in a one car family, living on a budget far away from a market.
So, yeah - I bet the reception was pretty close to the advertisements.
I can give an answer based on personal experience which might suggest that 'yes, yes they did'.
My first adult purchases in Germany were my own washing machine. A 2800rpm centrifuge. A tumbler dryer.
Gasp! My hatred of the environment was clear.
My second purchase was a large, roomy deep freeze. Let me explain.
Until very, very recently, it was impossible to buy fresh anything in Germany after Friday afternoon until Monday morning. Oh, sure, if you ran like a madman, you might find a few wilted vegetables at the local market - but fresh food shut doWwn just at the time of the week when one most needed it. Worse, shopping on a Friday afternoon (stores closed at 6:30 at the very latest) or Saturday morning was a nightmare.
Having freezer capacity for frozen vegetables and fruits was a godsend. Ditto pantry space for UHT Milk and a really big refrigerator for eggs and cheese and all the other stuff.
No shopping after noon on Saturday until Monday morning. No nothing fresh.
This was not all that different to America for a stay-at-home housewife in a one car family, living on a budget far away from a market.
So, yeah - I bet the reception was pretty close to the advertisements.
The convenience of frozen foods: yes
But that picture of the finished entrée . . . Even my wife, a fish-lover of the first order, said she wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot fork, with or without the bacon.
But that picture of the finished entrée . . . Even my wife, a fish-lover of the first order, said she wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot fork, with or without the bacon.
This ad is a perfect example of why so many people of my generation and my parents generation didn't like fish. Back then most people just didn't have a clue of how to prepare it well, or have access to good fresh fish and seafood. Hence, fish on Friday's seemed like a penance for most Catholics.
My Mom made Salmon Patties with canned salmon on the Fridays that she didn't declare that we had "special dispensation" due to her anemia. The salmon patties were not bad with ketchup, or the cheese sauce she prepared to pour over them.
Eddie
My Mom made Salmon Patties with canned salmon on the Fridays that she didn't declare that we had "special dispensation" due to her anemia. The salmon patties were not bad with ketchup, or the cheese sauce she prepared to pour over them.
Eddie
There is no doubt in my mind about this: Alice Waters deserves to be canonized.
Ward: Wally take the Desoto down to the Gulf station. Here's a dollar, fill the tank and bring back the change.
Wally: Aw gee dad, can't a fella even get a cold drink. Ya know the Desoto doesn't have conditioned air.
June: Ward, Wally's right, it's much to warm to send him all of 6 blocks down to the Gulf station and not even allow him a cold drink.
Beaver: Yeah dad, Gilbert's parents did that to him when he had to fill up the Hudson and boy, he came back all dried up.
Ward: Well against my better thrift judgment, I suppose this time Wally you can have a cold drink.
Wally: Gee thanks dad. Come on Beav, you can help check the oil this time.
Beaver: I dunno Wally, the last time I checked the oil I left the oil rod on the driveway.
Wally: Don't be a dope beav, we'll have the station attendant do it this time.
Beaver: Gee Wally, that'd be great. This way I can listen to Pat Boone while we get serviced.
Wally: Sure Beav, and you can open the cold drink while I pay the attendant.
June: Now boys, no messing around, I want you and the Desoto back here before dinner.
Ward: Alright now, enough of this levity. Wally make sure you get hi test this time.
Beaver: Yeah Wally, you don't want the Desoto doing the shake rattle and roll do you?
Wally: Naw, that's Bill Haley's thing.
June: Who's Bill Haley? Does he go to your school?
Wally: Naw mom, he's this old guy who sings and plays the electric guitar.
June: Well Wally how OLD is HE?
Wally: Gosh mom, he's like 25 or 26 or something like that.
Ward: Well, now, I guess that puts us over the hill
June: Oh Ward!
Wally: Aw gee dad, can't a fella even get a cold drink. Ya know the Desoto doesn't have conditioned air.
June: Ward, Wally's right, it's much to warm to send him all of 6 blocks down to the Gulf station and not even allow him a cold drink.
Beaver: Yeah dad, Gilbert's parents did that to him when he had to fill up the Hudson and boy, he came back all dried up.
Ward: Well against my better thrift judgment, I suppose this time Wally you can have a cold drink.
Wally: Gee thanks dad. Come on Beav, you can help check the oil this time.
Beaver: I dunno Wally, the last time I checked the oil I left the oil rod on the driveway.
Wally: Don't be a dope beav, we'll have the station attendant do it this time.
Beaver: Gee Wally, that'd be great. This way I can listen to Pat Boone while we get serviced.
Wally: Sure Beav, and you can open the cold drink while I pay the attendant.
June: Now boys, no messing around, I want you and the Desoto back here before dinner.
Ward: Alright now, enough of this levity. Wally make sure you get hi test this time.
Beaver: Yeah Wally, you don't want the Desoto doing the shake rattle and roll do you?
Wally: Naw, that's Bill Haley's thing.
June: Who's Bill Haley? Does he go to your school?
Wally: Naw mom, he's this old guy who sings and plays the electric guitar.
June: Well Wally how OLD is HE?
Wally: Gosh mom, he's like 25 or 26 or something like that.
Ward: Well, now, I guess that puts us over the hill
June: Oh Ward!
twintubdexter
Well-known member
<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;">Apparently Birds Eye was a forward-thinking company. That dish pictured looks like raw fish, a 1950's version of sushi...yick!</span>
Yuck, no way I would eat that crap. Absolutely despised the no meat Friday as a kid. When the Pope said Catholics do not have to have fish on Friday, I said I am never eating seafood again. Sort of a sacrilege living in this place. I hate all seafood. After getting very sick on a bad lobster when I was 9, that was it. PB&J for me on Friday until salvation came for me finally, LOL
Notice in the advert copy
Especially "no matter where you live".
Fresh seafood obviously was and still is cheaper if you live near waters where the stuff is caught and or ships bring it in.
Cod in particular comes from the waters of North Atlantic. So if you lived in Boise, Idaho somewhere chances are it cost more, if you could get it at all.
Advert seems to be from the 1940's. This predates the major US highway system, so goods largely moved by either train or sometimes truck. No matter it would still be expensive shipping fresh fish from say Boston to Boise, and even then you're talking about by the time it arrived fish that was maybe off the boat a day, travelled one or to more... Hardly "fresh fish". *LOL*
Frozen foods then were marketed both on convenience and ability to get foods normally not found in local areas, and or out of season. So you could have corn on the cob even in winter, and even if you lived in New York City.
The other thing Birdseye did was recognized that a small (but growing) number of women did work outside of the home in both pre-WWII and after. Thus wanted (or needed) a fast way to get a mean on table, but also wanted to feel that they had an active part in cooking the thing.
http://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?57708
Especially "no matter where you live".
Fresh seafood obviously was and still is cheaper if you live near waters where the stuff is caught and or ships bring it in.
Cod in particular comes from the waters of North Atlantic. So if you lived in Boise, Idaho somewhere chances are it cost more, if you could get it at all.
Advert seems to be from the 1940's. This predates the major US highway system, so goods largely moved by either train or sometimes truck. No matter it would still be expensive shipping fresh fish from say Boston to Boise, and even then you're talking about by the time it arrived fish that was maybe off the boat a day, travelled one or to more... Hardly "fresh fish". *LOL*
Frozen foods then were marketed both on convenience and ability to get foods normally not found in local areas, and or out of season. So you could have corn on the cob even in winter, and even if you lived in New York City.
The other thing Birdseye did was recognized that a small (but growing) number of women did work outside of the home in both pre-WWII and after. Thus wanted (or needed) a fast way to get a mean on table, but also wanted to feel that they had an active part in cooking the thing.
http://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?57708
My aunt knew how to cook fish
The best fish I ever remember eating was the stuffed red snapper that my Aunt Doris baked. This was in the summer of 1959 when we visited them at their new home in Jackson, MS. I was about 4 years old, so it must have been great if I still remember it.
She also made great boiled gulf shrimp.
The best fish I ever remember eating was the stuffed red snapper that my Aunt Doris baked. This was in the summer of 1959 when we visited them at their new home in Jackson, MS. I was about 4 years old, so it must have been great if I still remember it.
She also made great boiled gulf shrimp.
Hi Test
I happened to notice this past week that premium was 55 cents a gallon more than regular. I remember when it was 3 cents more.
I happened to notice this past week that premium was 55 cents a gallon more than regular. I remember when it was 3 cents more.
