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Eating out then and now

GilWilson1
I remember as a kid growing up in the DC area on our Birthday we were allowed to choose a restaurant, I always picked Tag's Italian and would eat buttered garlic bread till it was coming out of my ears. My parents always apologized about the pile of crumbs between my legs LOL.

Anyway we essentially ate out three times a year, once for my birthday and the other two times for my siblings. My parents went out a few more times alone but not often. Every now and then a special treat would be Pizza picked up by Dad, or they would buy sandwich meats and fixings and we could make a sub sandwich of our own choosing. My sister would always get Olive loaf and Dad got Liverwurst, their choices were sacred I wouldn't touch either.

I am amazed today that not only do the younger folks eat out almost daily but they even have Taco Bell or Wendy's delivered by Grub hub or Uber eats! Who would have ever thought grocery delivery, Blue Apron and other meal prep services would become so common place?

I assume in the future homes will be built without kitchens.
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Comments

18 comments

Date Votes
  • babun
    "" I assume in the future homes will be built without kitchens.""

    Yeap!!!

    Here's your real estate listing of the future:

    FOR SALE: 6 room house= 4 sleeping platforms =1 bathing area =3 computer desks =
    4 USB outlets in each room =T-1 internet wired =walking distance to 5 food courts.
    $389,000 Bitcoin only.
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  • jimdeere
    Mr. Wilson, i started the first grade in Alexandria, Va. in 1960. Can?t remember the name of the school.
    I remember eating at an Italian place and broke a tooth on the hard crust bread.
    We practiced ducking our heads under our desks at school, like that was going to help anything.
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  • bpost
    In 1964 Guido's Pizza opened in Ravenna OH. We were treated to take home pizza about twice a month. I still get uncooked Guido's pizza's to take home when I fly up to see my mom and brothers. There was also a Burger Chef, long gone now, that had 15 cent hamburgers on Tuesday nights. We ate there about once a month. My parents were astonished at the number of 15 cent burgers their four sons could consume in one setting. Ah, the good old days of my youth are very fond memories.
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  • SW0320
    Those are my memories also, we only ate out maybe if we were lucky once a month and that was usually take out chinese and on a birthday. I always wanted IHOP for birthday meal, love pancakes with real maple syrup.

    As I got older used to love to go to Abdows Big boy with the car hops and Ponderosa steak house.
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  • Rocky Raab
    Across the highway from my high school was the Crossroads Restaurant, which offered All You Can Eat fried chicken on Sundays. They'd deliver your first helping heaped on a trash can-sized platter, and would come by to see how soon you wanted another one! We went there perhaps twice a year. I had my tonsils out when I was about eight, and could not swallow a single thing for almost a week. My parents took me there on the next Sunday, and I ate practically the whole thing myself. To this day, I can remember the sight, smell, and wonderful crispiness of that chicken.

    When I started driving, a local McD's offered a burger, fries, and drink for 88 cents. Their advertising said a dollar would get you a meal - and change. There was only one size of burger, and the only option was with cheese for two cents more. Your dime of change would get you one of their throat-melting fried apple turnovers.

    But to put things in perspective, most common wage was $1.65 an hour.
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  • bpost
    SW0320 wrote:
    Those are my memories also, we only ate out maybe if we were lucky once a month and that was usually take out chinese and on a birthday. I always wanted IHOP for birthday meal, love pancakes with real maple syrup.

    As I got older used to love to go to Abdows Big boy with the car hops and Ponderosa steak house.
    LOL that brings back a memory of my parents taking us to a Chinese Restaurant. We thought it was a super high class place to eat (today it would just be one of a million Chinese restaurants). Anyway, my brother 3 years younger than me sat down and put the OMG real cloth napkins on his lap as we were taught. We were looking at the menu's and you heard a loud sound of a nose being blown. Yup, it was my brother using the cloth napkin to really empty his snot locker. The absolutely mortified look on my mothers face is burned into my memory. Of course, we other three boys and dad were laughing our fool heads off until mom gave us "the look".
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  • Smitty500mag
    My grandpa owned a restaurant when I was a kid back in the 50s and 60s so I ate out just about every day.
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  • Rocky Raab
    No, you didn't. If you own the restaurant, you're eating IN.
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  • Smitty500mag
    Rocky Raab wrote:
    No, you didn't. If you own the restaurant, you're eating IN.

    Well I didn't own it so I ate out just about every day.
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  • wpageabc
    As a kid we never ate out. Too much...
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  • remingtonoaks
    The only time I ate out when I was a kid was when we were on vacation.
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  • pulsarnc
    Back in the 60s farmers did not eat out very often . Too many mouths to feed and too little money Remember mom packing picnic lunch when we rarely traveled on the weekends I think the first restaurant meal I can remember was a trip to sell tobacco with my father , somewhere in South Carolina
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  • yoshmyster
    I'd eat out more if there were places worth going that were open on my schedule.
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  • asop
    As a kid my family always had a Sunday dinner (noon or so) at a German owned chicken restaurant with everything served "family style". Really great food. Now we go to a local small family owned for our Sunday dinner. Sometimes have to wait but well worth it. All home made food. 1/2 chicken, potato, veggie, soup and dessert for $9.00 :o
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  • mogley98
    I grew up in Spotsylvania VA we had no damn restaurants! LOL Well you could go into Fredricksburg I am not sure if it is still there but my favorite was a BBQ place called Altmans, the owner would have the meat on a spit and pick it off with a long fork and make shredded BBQ sandwiches MMMM
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  • Hessian
    I'd just finished up work for the day (plumber) my partner and I stopped in an Indonesian Restaurant. We'd heard good things about their Shrimp and fish. The manager catches us coming in the front door, all in a panic and grabs my elbow and herds us into the bathroom. The floor was half an inch under water and the toilet was plugged. I augered out the toilet, we reset the bowl wax, I found a mop and cleaned up some. We go in and sit down in the restaurant, the manager comes over and asks us for the bill. I said no charge, we aren't the plumbers you called we just came here to eat. Thus guys head turned red as a tomato. I ate free there for years, I always insisted I wanted to pay, they'd have no part of it. My favorite date spot, they treated me like a king, impressed the ladies.:)
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  • Squid
    Amazon is in, Uber eats, Grub Hub, Door Dash, Post Mates, Sun Basket, Home Chef, Blue Apron, you could go on and on no doubt a changing in the demographics of eating.
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  • jimdeere
    Many years ago, in the town I used to live in, there was an older couple who ate at the local restaurant three times a day. They figured it was cheaper than buying groceries and cooking at home. They had figured in cost of food, gas to the grocery store, electricity, food spoilage, etc.
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