Small Talk: "I'll Take Non-Show Chat For $400, Alex."

[Prevailing Wind]

I think everybody was afraid of Somers to ever correct her unless it was a joke.

[zoey1996]

Not Jeopardy! related at all - unless the Category is Women Authors (or however it is that they phrose it).  I watched American Masters on PBS tonight.  It was about Laura Ingalls Wilder, Rose Wilder Lane, the "Little House" books, etc. I was aware that Rose had been an editor, and that the connection between Laura and her daughter about the books had been kept quiet for years. How we perceive things changes over the years - views on what were then called Indians, for example, are so very different now.  And Pa Ingalls as described/portrayed in the books is a different person in real life. He has some of the same traits, but for example, he was not a successful farmer.  Anyway, I thought the documentary was interesting and well done, and wondered what others may have thought. I couldn't find another place to discuss this, so I posted this here, among friends I hope!

I'm currently reading a Dickens biography, and see some parallels too.  Laura worked as a young teen in a bad situation, while Dickens had worked at a boot black factory at a young age, also bad situation.

[Browncoat]

6 hours ago, zoey1996 said:

Not Jeopardy! related at all - unless the Category is Women Authors (or however it is that they phrose it).  I watched American Masters on PBS tonight.  It was about Laura Ingalls Wilder, Rose Wilder Lane, the "Little House" books, etc. I was aware that Rose had been an editor, and that the connection between Laura and her daughter about the books had been kept quiet for years. How we perceive things changes over the years - views on what were then called Indians, for example, are so very different now.  And Pa Ingalls as described/portrayed in the books is a different person in real life. He has some of the same traits, but for example, he was not a successful farmer.  Anyway, I thought the documentary was interesting and well done, and wondered what others may have thought. I couldn't find another place to discuss this, so I posted this here, among friends I hope!

I'm currently reading a Dickens biography, and see some parallels too.  Laura worked as a young teen in a bad situation, while Dickens had worked at a boot black factory at a young age, also bad situation.

There’s a discussion in the Books thread.

[zoey1996]

2 hours ago, Browncoat said:

There’s a discussion in the Books thread.

Thank you!

[zoey1996]

Happy New Year, 2021!

[Trey]

Happy New Year, everyone!

[saber5055]

Gah, you mean it's another year starting today? What the heck. Not sure I can take another one. But thanks for the good wishes above! (signed) Debbie Downer

[saber5055]

Because I've been so dull and cranky lately, I thought I would try to make up for it, at least partly, by a new set of Sunday Funnies. They've been gone for a while. Not that anyone missed them. Not sure if that's the first joke or not.

I don’t usually brag about helping people, but when I saw an old lady drop her groceries yesterday, I yelled out, “Lift with your knees! Back straight!” I felt better afterward.

I got my wife a fridge for her birthday. I can’t wait to see her face light up when she opens it.

A recent study has found that women who carry a little extra weight live longer than the men who bring it up.

I might not be that smart, funny, athletic, or talented, or good looking ... I forgot where I was going with this.

This quarantining stuff is tough. I was so bored yesterday, I called Jake from State Farm just to talk. He asked me what I was wearing.

I’m selling my pet python on eBay. “Is it big?” Yes, really big. “How many feet?” None, dummy, it’s a snake.

A truck loaded with thesauruses overturned on the interstate yesterday. Witnesses were stunned, startled, aghast, taken aback, dumbfounded.

A man walked into a dentist office and said, “Doctor, you have to help me, I think I’m a moth.” The dentist said, “You don’t need a dentist, you need to see a psychiatrist.” The man said, “I know, but your light was on.”

For all you northern Illinois readers: Where in Chicagoland do all the dentists live? Flossmoor.

I’m so confused. I got my COVID test results, they came back 83. On the plus side, my IQ test came back positive!

Keeping tropical fish at home can be truly calming on the brain. They say it’s because of the indoorfins.

What’s faster than a calculator? That would be a calcusooner.

What’s the difference between capitalism and socialism? In a capitalist society, man exploits man. In a socialist society, it’s the other way around.

[Driad]

Since a recent contestant mentioned peacocks ...

One of my ancestors was a servant for a man who had peacocks on his estate. She disliked the peacocks because of the noise they made. When a peacock died, her boss got the fancy tail feathers, but she mixed the small colorful feathers with chicken feathers to stuff pillows. A bit of revenge, maybe.

Peacocks (at least some I met) love chocolate and will pester you until you give them some. At least it won't rot their teeth.

[zoey1996]

One of my days out in England, July-August 2019, was to Brownsea Island.  We stopped for refreshments, and there were peacocks who came right up to us and other families there.  Quite beautiful.  Brownsea Island is also home to red squirrels.  We saw only one, but my family has seen more at other times. 

[ABay]

I've had 2 peacock encounters, although the first one was aural only. I was waiting at a bus stop outside a hotel in ruralish England and heard this horrible sound from, I thought, a nearby field. It turned out to be peacock at an estate down the road. The second one was brilliant technicolor. Another bus stop...well, comfort station for tourist buses...somewhere around Thermopylae. I walked around the outside of the building to stretch my legs and there were 2 peacocks and 2 peahens in an enclosure. Random! One of the peacocks flared his tail for me so I got a great photo.

[Mindthinkr]

I’ve only had one peacock encounter. I was judging a horse show and one came into the ring. It must not have liked me being in there because it kept chasing me. The spectators and riders thought it was funny, but I wasn’t amused. It was big. One third my size and I didn’t want to get pecked. I have a video tape of it from someone who thought it was hysterical. 

[Toothbrush]

Jeopardy House Float

[Mindthinkr]

I went to a Dr Suess exhibit and saw many of his sculptures made from the images of his made up creatures. He was very imaginative. He also collected hats. Especially military ones. On the bottom left you can see the original Cat in the Hat topper. You were not allowed to take photos, but my friend snuck this one in. Sorry about the poor quality. 
 

 

[zoey1996]

Don't know if anyone else here still watches "The Conners," but on last night's episode, Jackie was trying to get on Jeopardy! and at the end, got a text inviting her to interview/audition/whatever they called it.

[saber5055]

Hi everyone. I took a chance coming into this thread since I've only seen "friendly" names have posted here. So was relieved to see the chat is fun, and on top of that, about peacocks. I missed the day a player talked about them in his/her interview, but I do know a bit about those birds.

My aunt and uncle raised Hereford cattle on a farm in the Arkansas Ouachita Mountains, and I spent every summer there from pre-teen through college. They would always borrow a horse for me to ride, and I helped my uncle put up firewood (house heated only with wood stove/fireplaces), plus was in charge of gathering eggs/feeding and watering chickens (water hauled from a bucket on a chain dropped down into a well, just like in the western movies).

Anyway, after a spell, my uncle bought a pair of peacocks which roamed around the barn. At night they would roost up in the trees, and I mean UP in the trees, they didn't fool around with those low branches. They sounded just like jungle birds when they would call, which they did at dusk. I'm guessing a lot of those old movies used peacock calls for sounds during scary jungle/monster movies. The birds were not aggressive and pretty much minded their own business, but hung out by themselves and did not associate with the "lower" turkeys and muscovy ducks. If one decided to put on a show, which I would try to get the guy to do on occasion, he would spread out his BIG impressive fan, then to really put a scare into me, he could angle those big tail feathers, all sporting an "eye," over his back toward me, and rattle them, which made a very impressive sound, like a bunch of plastic or dice in a tin can. That would scare the bejeezus out of any attacking critter, for sure.

My uncle had a side business selling fertile peacock eggs (by then he had more than the original pair) for $50 each. That was quite a nice income back then, and he had a waiting list. All one needed was a broody hen to stick the egg under, and voilá, some days later the hen would hatch out a peacock chick.

I have more stories, about chickens and eggs, ducks and snakes, with a couple terrapins thrown in. But enough for now, my first venture out of the Contest thread. Scary!

[Trey]

On 2/3/2021 at 3:28 PM, icemiser69 said:

MeTV has a Looney Tunes Jeopardy quiz.   I know it doesn't belong in this forum, but I don't know where to stick it.  I hope it doesn't get deleted.   I would have put it in the proper place if I had known the location.

Thanks for posting this.  I got 14/15, missed #11

[Browncoat]

I got 15/15.  I apparently spent way too much time watching Looney Toons on Saturday mornings when I was a kid!

[saber5055]

On 2/3/2021 at 2:28 PM, icemiser69 said:

MeTV has a Looney Tunes Jeopardy quiz.  

An easy peasy 15/15 for me, a regular Saturday-morning cartoon kid.

Side note: Bill Leff, who hosts the new ME tv cartoon series, was a 25-year radio host, last on WGN Chicago. He had a fabulously fun overnight show, then got switched to afternoons with Wendy Snyder, so I didn't hear him so much then as I'm an overnight listener. Then he got fired, along with three other of my favorite hosts, all of whom talked about nothing more serious than pop culture, and WGN hired far-right extremists as hosts to replace them. I now listen to music overnight.

Bill is a serious toy collector, and was featured on the show Collector's Call, hosted by Lisa Whelchel (from Facts of Life). Anyway, I was very happy to see him become host of the cartoon show, even if it's on too early for me to watch. Those cartoons were the best, and where I learned about opera and other "high-brow" things as a kid.

Edited February 6, 2021 by saber5055

[zoey1996]

10 hours ago, saber5055 said:

I have more stories, about chickens and eggs, ducks and snakes, with a couple terrapins thrown in. But enough for now, my first venture out of the Contest thread. Scary!

Welcome! I have some chicken experience. I grew up on a farm in Kansas.  We had electricity, a furnace in the house, running water from a well with an electric pump, and a party line. We lived on a dirt/gravel road about 5 miles from town.  Dad had crops like wheat, milo, corn, alfalfa, and soybeans, and also had at various times milk cows and beef cattle, hogs, and chickens.  When I was 5,  one of my chores was gathering the eggs. The chickens would peck at me, and sometimes I’d carry a stick to try to keep them away.  One year, we had guinea hens. They turned out to be kind of stupid; they always roosted in the trees, and they all froze to death because they wouldn’t go in the chicken house.

Edited February 7, 2021 by zoey1996

[Driad]

Maybe my grandparents' farm was a bit warmer than yours. They always had some guineas in with the chickens, because if a fox or other predator came by, the guineas would raise an alarm more loudly (and/or more quickly) than the chickens would.

There were often snakes around the barn, black snakes that were largish but not venomous. Many of the neighbors killed any snake they saw, but my grandparents knew the snakes were there to eat rodents, so they were welcome.

[Browncoat]

8 hours ago, zoey1996 said:

 One year, we had guinea hens. They turned out to be kind of stupid; they always roosted in the trees, and they all froze to death because they wouldn’t go in the chicken house.

That's stupid behavior for North America, but it's very smart behavior for Africa, where they're native birds.  Keeps them safe from predators.

[Clanstarling]

18 hours ago, Browncoat said:

I got 15/15.  I apparently spent way too much time watching Looney Toons on Saturday mornings when I was a kid!

I got 12/15 - but they gave me a trophy anyway.

When we lived in California there used to be a Warner Bros store in the mall. It was the favorite place for both Mr. Starling and the chicks. They bought really cool, quality shirts. And there was a play area (I think a pretend rocket) for the kids. It was a great store to go to with kids. Unfortunately, it went away. I think it was a victim of mega corporations buying slightly smaller mega corporations, but I forget.

[Prevailing Wind]

Our WB store in Atlanta was right across from the Disney Store. I preferred the WB store.

I missed one on the quiz - the "Genius" business card. I had narrowed it down to two & as Alex would've said, "You picked the wrong one."

[saber5055]

13 minutes ago, Prevailing Wind said:

I missed one on the quiz - the "Genius" business card. I had narrowed it down to two & as Alex would've said, "You picked the wrong one."

If you followed Ken Jennings on Twitter, you would have known that answer.

My aunt and uncle also had guineas, they are the best alarm system in the world, as @Driad said. They would sound an alarm for people coming to the house, not just varmints. Their little painted clown/mime faces take some getting used to, tiny heads, big bodies. And their regular walking around sound, they say "bow-krawh." If you are French, I guess that's beau-krawh.

For eggs, we gathered chicken, duck and guinea eggs, duck being the largest, guinea on the small side. We never got to eat any peacock eggs. Heh.

Black snakes were fond of raiding the nests and eating the eggs. I remember my uncle trapping one, you could count the eggs inside of it, swallowed whole. So he used his pocket knife and got the eggs back. I took a photo of him holding the snake. He was some 6 ft. 3 and he had to hold the snake's head way up on his outstretched arm for the snake's tail to just touch the ground. It was approaching 8-ft. long.

Doing farm chores taught me to look inside the feed barrel before sticking my hand in to get grain. One mouse running up your arm will make an impression on you.

They never lost any birds to cold, although I'm not sure where the guineas slept, if they went back to the barn or not. They did have some ducks that lost partial feet, victims of being on the pond when the water froze. The ducks would waddle from the barn, through the yard, to the top of the hill where the house sat, then fly/sail down the hill to the pond below for the day. Before dusk, they would waddle back up the hill and to the barn for bedtime. Very cute, wagging their tails and honking as they waddled by.

When I was raising/milking dairy goats and raising sheep, I also had a large flock of chickens, layers, and sold eggs. I would buy straight-run chicks and grow them to laying size. After starting with the conventional leghorns, I got more fancy hens that laid brown and then the green and blue eggs. I sold eggs to my co-workers at the ad agency. No one would buy the green/blue eggs because those dudes though green/blue eggs were rotten. I learned that they would pay twice as much for the brown eggs, even though those are the same as blue, green and white eggs. As Bugs would say, "What a bunch of Maroons."

Side note: Maroons was the name of my high school's team. Ha ha ha! I'm serious.

Side note two: When hens start laying eggs, the eggs will be small and weird shapes. I found some I called square eggs. They'd be lopsided and other freaky shapes. I would never eat those, but would save them as oddities. After a while they would dry out and if shaken, would rattle like little gourds. I am easily entertained.

[Prevailing Wind]

I remember having an egg like that. It was an Easter egg that I particularly liked the decor on (can't remember what it was) but years later, it rattled.

[saber5055]

20 hours ago, saber5055 said:

If you followed Ken Jennings on Twitter, you would have known that answer.

A reply to his Feb. 3 post about Wile and other Looney Toons characters teaching the Internet.

Edited February 8, 2021 by saber5055

[Mindthinkr]

I spent too much time in the barn. I only got 11/15 on the Looney Jeopardy Quiz. 
 

I also blame Twitter. I follow Ken Jennings , but the bird has its own algorithm and sometimes hides posts for no apparent reason. 

[saber5055]

29 minutes ago, Mindthinkr said:

I spent too much time in the barn.

Lucky you. I spent my youth watching cartoons and saving my milk money for a horse. I finally had enough to buy one when I was 15, much to my mother's dismay. But by then, Bugs, Popeye and others were embedded in my memory bank.

[Mindthinkr]

49 minutes ago, saber5055 said:

Lucky you. I spent my youth watching cartoons and saving my milk money for a horse. I finally had enough to buy one when I was 15, much to my mother's dismay. But by then, Bugs, Popeye and others were embedded in my memory bank.

No no no. I had to water, hay, feed and clean 20 stalls in order to earn a free ride at the end of the day. Also sweep the courtyard. Like you I encountered a rat in a bucket once feeding 😂 That’s how I got so good. I began on all the worst horses. The hacks that nobody else wanted to ride or they had issues (rearing, bucking and heading back to the barn types). 

[zoey1996]

22 hours ago, saber5055 said:

Side note: Maroons was the name of my high school's team. Ha ha ha! I'm serious.

Delphos Kansas Maroons!  But when our school was consolidated in 1966, we lost our high school and had to go to Minneapolis Kansas. USD 239. They were, and are, the Lions.

Another egg story. As Mom grew more forgetful in her 80s, after Dad died, she’d forget what was in her fridge and bought more eggs, but she never threw out the old ones. Once when my brother visited, he cleaned out her fridge; I don’t remember how many cartons of eggs she had, but it was a lot. He said some of the eggs were dried up inside.

[saber5055]

54 minutes ago, Mindthinkr said:

No no no. I had to water, hay, feed and clean 20 stalls in order to earn a free ride at the end of the day. Also sweep the courtyard. Like you I encountered a rat in a bucket once feeding 😂 That’s how I got so good. I began on all the worst horses. The hacks that nobody else wanted to ride or they had issues (rearing, bucking and heading back to the barn types). 

You just described my dream job as a kid. After I got my first horse, I worked cleaning stalls in a 35-horse hunter/jumper stable, this after working 8 hours in my federal government job. In exchange, my horse got free board and I got free lessons, although it always seemed lessons were held when I wasn't there, so I seldom got any of those. I also managed the barn on weekends, when everyone was at shows. Horses make noises like burglars/monsters/serial killers late at night in a dark barn.

21 minutes ago, zoey1996 said:

Delphos Kansas Maroons!

Moline (Illinois) Maroons! They still are the Maroons. No mascot, just "Maroon and white, fight, fight, fight." The toughest area team was the Rock Island Rocks. Not sure how they came up with their team name.

Obviously, eggs were important to your mom, @zoey1996, so I don't begrudge her buying them all the time. I'm guessing that gave her some comfort. But yeah, it takes a while for one to develop a rattle.

Edited February 8, 2021 by saber5055

[Prevailing Wind]

Re:Moms with forgotten stuff in the fridge.  I once pulled out a fruit from the refrigerator and asked Mom what it was. Knowing she wasn't much for "exotic" food, I was eager to hear what she'd say.  "OH, that's a weirdly shaped lemon."  "No, Mother, it's a small papaya."  "NO!"  I cut it open and we each ate half a tiny papaya.  It was tasty. Even Mom liked it. I decided she wouldn't have bought something like that - it must have come in the "Meals on Wheels" lunches she was getting.

[saber5055]

I hope your mom was a papaya fan after that encounter with her first one, PW.

I know this belongs in the Media thread, but I'm not going in there so am posting it here. I only got nerve enough to come here the other day. Anyway, Alex's suits are being donated for a good cause. Wouldn't it be cool to own one of his ties?

Alex's suits given to Doe Fund.

Edited February 9, 2021 by saber5055

[SoMuchTV]

1 hour ago, saber5055 said:

I hope your mom was a papaya fan after that encounter with her first one, PW.

I know this belongs in the Media thread, but I'm not going in there so am posting it here. I only got nerve enough to come here the other day. Anyway, Alex's suits are being donated for a good cause. Wouldn't it be cool to own one of his ties?

Alex's suits given to Doe Fund.

I saw that on another forum - "Fourteen suits, 58 dress shirts, 300 neckties and various other items of clothing that once belonged to Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek"

300 Neckties? That's a high necktie to suit ratio!  And I guess I"m too dense to realize when someone's being insulting/inappropriate but do you want to share why you don't want go to the media thread?

[Mindthinkr]

3 hours ago, Prevailing Wind said:

Re:Moms with forgotten stuff in the fridge. 

I told all my college roommates the rule when they went to my parents home. If you don’t see me eat it, politely decline. If I’m not eating it, it will probably make you sick 😂

This is why I took over cooking for the family when I was 11. My Mom could only do one meal well. Breakfast. 

[saber5055]

17 hours ago, Mindthinkr said:

This is why I took over cooking for the family when I was 11. My Mom could only do one meal well. Breakfast. 

Out of the ashes, the phoenix rises. I'm guessing that's why you are a stellar cook/chef today. As for breakfast, while my mom was a good cook, breakfast was typically orange juice and a bowl of cereal. Sundays were special though, pancakes after church, and on very special Sundays, the most delicious Swedish pancakes made in a big cast-iron skillet, one at a time. Have never been able to duplicate.

@SoMuchTV, my reason for leaving all Jeopardy threads except the FJ Contest is in my last post in the Season 37 thread. While I miss my friends there, I do not miss the haters.

[Clanstarling]

3 hours ago, saber5055 said:

Out of the ashes, the phoenix rises. I'm guessing that's why you are a stellar cook/chef today. As for breakfast, while my mom was a good cook, breakfast was typically orange juice and a bowl of cereal. Sundays were special though, pancakes after church, and on very special Sundays, the most delicious Swedish pancakes made in a big cast-iron skillet, one at a time. Have never been able to duplicate.

@SoMuchTV, my reason for leaving all Jeopardy threads except the FJ Contest is in my last post in the Season 37 thread. While I miss my friends there, I do not miss the haters.

That reminds me of my mom's Austrian pancakes. They were thin, kind of like crepes, but thicker than them. Of course, when she "taught" me how to make them, and I'd ask how much flour or (water?), she'd say "enough" - so it's no wonder I never managed to duplicate them!

[Trey]

1 hour ago, Clanstarling said:

and I'd ask how much flour or (water?), she'd say "enough"

That is a family joke here.  When my son asks how much something I say "enough", tempered with "but not too much".  So, now he answers my questions about non-cooking topics with those two answers.

[Prevailing Wind]

4 hours ago, Clanstarling said:

That reminds me of my mom's Austrian pancakes. They were thin, kind of like crepes, but thicker than them. Of course, when she "taught" me how to make them, and I'd ask how much flour or (water?), she'd say "enough" - so it's no wonder I never managed to duplicate them!

Try these: https://www.food.com/recipe/hungarian-palacsinta-crepes-140810

 

[secnarf]

A few months ago I had some leftover buttermilk from cupcakes, and decided to make pancakes for the first time from scratch. My mom only ever made them from a box mix and I had only ever bought frozen, so I had never had them from scratch before.

Just using the recipe on the buttermilk carton, it was a life changing experience. I then made them for my whole family also and everyone is entirely hooked. They were so fluffy and delicious!!!

[Clanstarling]

12 hours ago, Prevailing Wind said:

Try these: https://www.food.com/recipe/hungarian-palacsinta-crepes-140810

 

Thank you! That is indeed what she called them, but I couldn't remember how it was spelled.

[Prevailing Wind]

My Nana, Romanian, made them a lot.  I finally learned how & then was diagnosed with diabetes, so...  (Bummer)

[zoey1996]

On 2/10/2021 at 12:14 PM, saber5055 said:

As for breakfast, while my mom was a good cook, breakfast was typically orange juice and a bowl of cereal. Sundays were special though, pancakes after church, and on very special Sundays, the most delicious Swedish pancakes made in a big cast-iron skillet, one at a time.

You got orange juice? We had Tang!  After church on Sundays, we sometimes went  to my grandma's house.  Her fried chicken was a treat! Or at home, we'd have roast beef with veggies like carrots, celery, onion and potatoes cooked in with the roast.  Sometimes we had fried chicken at home too.

My dad was an elder in our (Presbyterian) church, where we had communion twice a year.  Mom would have cut up white bread into cubes, and we had grape juice, no wine.  There were always a lot of bread cubes left over, so we'd have fried chicken and gravy, and the gravy over bread cubes instead of mashed potatoes!

Lindsborg Kansas was a little over an hour from us, and I remember having Swedish pancakes with lingonberry syrup at a restaurant there. Very good indeed!

[saber5055]

1 hour ago, zoey1996 said:

You got orange juice? We had Tang! 

We got Tang as a special treat sometimes, instead of orange juice, because the astronauts drank it! So your mom was a modern-times mom, buying that for lucky you! Our (Episcopal) church had communion every week, or every other week, can't remember (!) but we all got the real deal wafers and wine. But the gravy-over-the-bread-cubes thing reminds me of my mom's favorite treat, left-oveer gravy on a piece of bread. It's actually quite delicious.

Sunday dinner was also special. Sometimes a pot roast cooked with carrots and potatoes in one of those electric skillets with a lid. So delicious, and somehow it made its own gravy. Which now, I realize, my mom made. Heh. I've never been able to duplicate it. i even bought one of those electric skillets and still, failure.

On 2/10/2021 at 9:21 PM, secnarf said:

A few months ago I had some leftover buttermilk from cupcakes, and decided to make pancakes for the first time from scratch. My mom only ever made them from a box mix and I had only ever bought frozen, so I had never had them from scratch before.

Just using the recipe on the buttermilk carton, it was a life changing experience. I then made them for my whole family also and everyone is entirely hooked. They were so fluffy and delicious!!!

Wow. Interesting. I've been wondering about frozen pancakes, how they are. I buy the frozen waffles and they are decent I guess. I've been thinking about making pancakes, I have a box of pancake mix. Now I'm thinking I need to try to make "the real thing." Because my box pancakes, I make/eat one and I'm pretty much done. Which, I guess, is a good thing weight (mine) wise. Thanks for the tip! I should know that real is always better.

[Clanstarling]

2 hours ago, zoey1996 said:

You got orange juice? We had Tang!  After church on Sundays, we sometimes went  to my grandma's house.  Her fried chicken was a treat! Or at home, we'd have roast beef with veggies like carrots, celery, onion and potatoes cooked in with the roast.  Sometimes we had fried chicken at home too.

My dad was an elder in our (Presbyterian) church, where we had communion twice a year.  Mom would have cut up white bread into cubes, and we had grape juice, no wine.  There were always a lot of bread cubes left over, so we'd have fried chicken and gravy, and the gravy over bread cubes instead of mashed potatoes!

Lindsborg Kansas was a little over an hour from us, and I remember having Swedish pancakes with lingonberry syrup at a restaurant there. Very good indeed!

My mom would make these massive German dumplings out of bread crumbs, eggs, and bacon (and probably more stuff). They were delicious, even if they were cannon balls and sat on your stomach like them. My Tante (her sister) was a brilliant cook, and was sorely dissappointed when I wouldn't eat three of them. I'd already caved and eaten two. I told her I'd explode if I ate another one - and felt that it was pretty literally true.

One of my favorite memories are Mom's stew. She'd put all the week's leftovers in a goulash type base. Then she'd add a little heat (not sure what she used, maybe cayenne pepper) We rated them according to how many biscuits we needed to eat to manage - one biscuit, no big deal. There were sometimes three biscuit stews though. Whew!

We didn't drink juice or Tang for breakfast as I recall. I started drinking very diluted milk with coffee from a fairly young age. Raised by a southerner and a European, it was their mother's milk, so to speak.

Edited February 12, 2021 by Clanstarling

[Browncoat]

I despise Tang.  I don't remember having it at home, but it was a staple at Vacation Bible School in the summer.  That and those nasty Graham crackers.  Each is bad enough on its own, but the combination was disgusting to me.

[Driad]

Tang came in grapefruit flavor for a while. It was less sickly sweet than the orange flavor, and I liked it better. Not as well as real juice though.

[saber5055]

RIP Brayden Smith. So much heartbreak and sadness today.

Edited February 12, 2021 by saber5055

[Prevailing Wind]

Mom bought Tang once just to see what it was like. We lived in Florida, so orange juice was cheap enough. But we drank an inordinate of Cheeri-Aid, which was A&P's brand of Kool-Aid.  She was a fairly uninspired cook, but I loved her Chicken & Rice made in the pressure cooker.  But she was an excellent baker.  The only thing she couldn't bake was chocolate chip cookies. Her yeast cakes/rolls were heavenly, especially fresh out of the oven. My father was famous for saying, "Better eat it now before it goes stale..." as if any baked in our house had a chance to get stale.

There used to be a drive-through dairy store called "Farm Stores" and they sold a gallon of vanilla ice cream for 99¢. It was such good ice cream. Dad was hard of hearing and missed a lot was said, but if you whispered, "Let's have some ice cream..." he'd jump up and say, "I'll get the bowls, you get the spoons..."  THAT he could hear. LOL.