Times Past – Musings of a Retiring Person

When I see children tucking into Sushi, Curry, Pizza, Yiros or Spring Rolls it makes me realize how much broader their eating experiences are than my own childhood ones. Our family didn’t have a rich cultural diversity and our meals reflected that. Any spaghetti we had came out of a tin and bore no resemblance to the delicious Italian recipe I’d enjoy now.

Breakfast would have consisted of Weetbix or Cornflakes in Summer and possibly Semolina in winter, definitely not muesli with yoghurt. We also made toast in a toaster where you had to stand and watch it all the time, the toast didn’t pop up, you had to open the door to check it and to take the slice out.

We ate breakfast, lunch and tea, I think it was considered posh to have “dinner” in the evening. Staple night time meals were Mince with mashed potatoes and peas, forequarter chops and sausages or stew. Mum used a Pressure cooker to cook stew and I hated being asked to drop the valve over the jet of steam when she was busy out in the garden. Sometimes we’d have “English Fillet”, I’ve no idea what kind of fish it was but it was orange and it was cooked in milk and served with white Sauce and parsley. We’d have boiled potatoes with that. Savaloys were a filling meal served with vegetables and Tomato Sauce.

When our old Auntie Myrtle was living with us she took over the cooking and we had to eat things like Liver and Bacon, crumbed Brains, Tripe and Kidneys.

Sunday lunch was usually a roast of Forequarter Lamb or rolled Brisket with plenty of roast vegetables and Gravox. Although we kept chooks we didn’t ever kill them for dinner but in the 1960s a Chicken Shop opened within a mile or so of our place and occasionally we’d get a Roast Chicken for Sunday lunch or a special occasion. Unlike now when we have as much chicken as we want at a single meal it was really not much more than a delicious taste of it when I was young. Vegetables would be whatever was in season and always fresh; cauliflower, spinach, peas, green beans, silver beet, swedes, parsnips, turnips, potatoes, carrots or pumpkin.

During the week we’d have salad with the left over roast meat. The salad was made up of tomatoes, Iceberg Lettuce, Apple Cucumbers and onion. No French or Italian dressings just mayonnaise or a splash of vinegar. There would also have been Beetroot but not on my plate!

Sunday night meals were easy and quick like canned mushrooms on toast, Baked Beans, spaghetti or Scrambled Eggs.

Desserts were usually some kind of stewed fruit from our trees or canned served with custard. Our fridge couldn’t keep icecream so that was a special treat. Other desserts were Jelly, Junket, creamed rice or sometimes Blancmange A favourite dessert of Auntie Myrtle’s was Bread and Butter Pudding.

“Take Away” meant Fish and Chips if we were very lucky when we went down to the beach. Rice was a dessert dish and my first meal with savoury rice would have been when I was about 18 and had my first “exotic” Chinese meal.

Yum, Sweet and Sour Chicken with Fried Rice

Theme for this month’s “Times Past”

Royal Adelaide Show

When we were kids I think this rated just below Christmas for excitement. We always went to The Show which was held in the September school holidays. I remember being there when it was hot but it was only Spring. Mum always arranged for my older brothers to meet up with us at the Penfolds wine bottle. The bottle was enormous and the “wine” flowed continuously.

Mum liked to check out the flower displays which we found boring. I don’t remember Dad being with us, but we did always check out the animals and I can’t imagine Mum ever choosing to do that.

We were allowed to get a Showbag and the 4Square ones kept us happy for days afterwards as we played shops with the little boxes of Rice Bubbles etc. They always had a comic in them and apart from any we managed to get at the church fair those were the only comics we ever had.

Our family was never one for sideshows, we went on the big Merry-Go-Round but I was a teenager before I tried out the Dodgem Cars, Mad Mouse and Ghost Train. Each year there was some kind of gimmick toy and I loved the slide whistles that meant you could imitate a “Wolf Whistle”. One year fluffy, brightly coloured chickens were on sale and going home on the tram I saw kids with them and was jealous. Now I cringe at the thought that most of the poor things probably died.

The log chopping and tree felling was always good to watch. I remember going to the Show by myself when I was about 13 and spent all day sitting in a grandstand watching the ring events. My favourite was the Tent Pegging. One at a time a team of horse riders had to gallop towards a series of small wooden targets which they tried to collect on their lance and carry to the finish line. The team with the most “carries” won the event.

The only time we saw Fairy Floss was at the Show and it was a treat, that and Toffee Apples.

I’m not sure when fireworks became a feature of The Show certainly I don’t remember them as a child, they were only available for Guy Fawkes night, 5^th of November. Even if they were on I’m sure by night time Mum would have been worn to a frazzle so we would have been back home and probably in bed!