The Gun Counter

Going through a care package sent to me by my mother, I got two boxes of TastyKakes, one big plastic jar of utz sourdough specials pretzels, and a bottle of Keller's Bran Mustard.

I had forgotten about being a kid visiting my mom's family in Pennsylvania, getting an Anderson's soft pretzel and a cup of mustard to dip it into. Now, though since I have started the habit again, albeit with hard pretzels, I am remembereing other things from my early childhood in New Jersey. Little things, like going to a parlor called Regatta's pizza on Friday nights, and having plenty of quarters to play PacMan or Tron, or Galaga. I also remember a roadside Ice Cream stand (edited to add: named Friendly's) my family used to stop at on our way to Ocean City, where of course we'd always get pounds of Salt Water Taffy.

So, does this happen to any of y'all. Y'know you have something you haven't had in years and memories come rushing back to you?

Last edited for glaring errors in Grammar

Chocolate Zingers, sausage biscuit sandwich from the Bluegrass Fair, puffy cheetos, zero candy bars. Yeah, when I rediscover the things I hadn't eaten since, like, age 5 or 6, the memories come rushing back. Smell and taste are powerful memory boosters.

One of my favorite childhood memories ... there was/is an ice cream parlor on the southwest side of Chicago called "Rainbow Cones." They served one item only. You guessed it. Seven flavors/colors stacked flat on a tall, rolled, pointed cone, all the colors of the rainbow.

On weekends, people would be lined up out the door. To keep things orderly, a single file brass railing set-up led from the door to the counter.

When I was a kid in the 50s they had no inside seating. There were a few picnic tables at the edge of the parking lot, but most folks ate in their cars.

If they're still around, I'm going to make a pilgrimage this summer.

When the weather got cold, the owners shuttered the place, and didn't reopen till the weather warmed. They were only open for 6 or 7 months a year.

CByrneIV wrote:Wise potato chips, and ah-so sauce always remind me of my mother. She lived on pepsi, cigarrettes, and wise potato chips. She barely ate anything else. When she cooked anything, it almost invariably was baked in a shallow pan in its own grease, and slathered with Ah-so sauce.

It's amazing how something can be dry, greasy, salty, sickly sweet, and yet bland, all at the same time.

Man, remember those huge 5 or 10 pound tins of Wise chips and gallon jars of pickles? Now that was fun to have

My mother's fried chicken, tater salad, baked beans and cole slaw for Sunday dinner, with sweet tea in the summer. Her beans n' cornbread, comfort food, yum. Fried fish after going fishing.

A burger from the drive thru window at Red's Giant Hamburg, on old Route 66 in Springfield, MO. Red claimed to have invented the drive thru window, about 1947, IIRC. The burgers always tasted better if they came through the window. The root beer was free if ya bought a burger. Red cut his own skinny crinkle cut fries too. Red's even has a page on wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red's_Giant_Hamburgs

Coney Day coneys from A&W, with a cold, frosty mug o' root beer. The coneys were 15 cents on Coney Day.

My mom used to save her bacon grease - poured into an aluminum container specifically made for it and the top piece had strainer holes punched into it to filter out the little pieces of broken off bacon. She'd use that grease to cook up her fried chicken. DAMN that was good!!

If she was cooking up a lot of chicken (nobody worried about food safety back in those days, chicken sat out on the counter for days until it was all eaten), she'd break out the pressure cooker and it would cook in a fraction of the time and was always juicy and tasty!!!

Now I need to go get something to eat!!

308Mike wrote:My mom used to save her bacon grease - poured into an aluminum container specifically made for it and the top piece had strainer holes punched into it to filter out the little pieces of broken off bacon. She'd use that grease to cook up her fried chicken. DAMN that was good!!

If she was cooking up a lot of chicken (nobody worried about food safety back in those days, chicken sat out on the counter for days until it was all eaten), she'd break out the pressure cooker and it would cook in a fraction of the time and was always juicy and tasty!!!

Now I need to go get something to eat!!

Oh sweet God. Are you sure your knee isn't the only thing that needs to be worked on?

There are things that I'd trade minutes off of my life span for, besides absolutely exterminating any threats (including islamic) to the grandkids at whatever cost. For example, standing in the sweet spot between the coffee grinder and dill pickle barrel at a squeaky wooden floored A&P in central nowhere PA (about 15 miles south of Altoona).

Heck a whiff of burnt diesel on a cold day takes me back to tank driver's ed at Ft Knox in February '75. And a sniff of a coal fire in winter sends me to Graf or Hoho...

And the wife-unit would make my life an absolute living hell if there was the prospect of acquiring a bag of Utz's Crab Chips...

CByrneIV wrote:

Bob K wrote: Oh, and they closed and shuttered the place in the winter ... they only opened for 6 or 7 months a year.

Yeah there used to be a lot fo places like that in New England. No-one had air conditioning, and it was the only place to get cool. The business would be absolutely insanely booming from memorial day to labor day; then they'd close the rest of the year.

Most of those places are out of business now. People have air conditioning, and chains are much more convenient now.

That'd be back when 7-11 was actually open from 7 to 11... When I was a kid we'd go to a dairy store next to a GA airport in Rochester, NY in the summer to watch airplanes and eat ice cream til it got dark... (Meizenzahls, if you're curious...wonder if they're still there...) The Goodyear blimp was based there during a PGA event at Oak Hill CC back in '72 or 3, iirc. Helped hang onto the ropes when it came in after I finished my ice cream. Much more informal then.

Frankingun wrote:

308Mike wrote:My mom used to save her bacon grease - poured into an aluminum container specifically made for it and the top piece had strainer holes punched into it to filter out the little pieces of broken off bacon. She'd use that grease to cook up her fried chicken. DAMN that was good!!

If she was cooking up a lot of chicken (nobody worried about food safety back in those days, chicken sat out on the counter for days until it was all eaten), she'd break out the pressure cooker and it would cook in a fraction of the time and was always juicy and tasty!!!

Now I need to go get something to eat!!

Oh sweet God. Are you sure your knee isn't the only thing that needs to be worked on?

My HDL levels are through the roof, and now-a-days I cringe at what we used to eat and tolerate food-safety-wise, but we didn't know any better - we were kids and the food was good!

My mom still gets pissed at the food I throw out from her refrigerator. You'd think she grew up in the depression. She thinks I waste food 'cause I toss it if it has mold on it, rather than cut off the mold and still use it. *SOME* stuff I don't have a problem with doing that, like certain block cheeses, but permeable food like meat, veggies, and other things - NOPE! Trash time!

I don have one thing to be grateful for in the way my mom raised us in an unhealthy (by today's standards) environment, I have one STRONG immune system!! It's rare that I get since even ONCE a year, most times I go 2-3 years without getting sick. I feel like I'm coming down with something, I go to bed early, get a bunch of sleep and kick its butt; I feel fine the next day - raring to go!!!

My ex-wife says I could eat things that would make a billy-goat puke.