Merry Christmas and a HAPPY NEW YEAR from Food, Facts, and Fads
Hard Times, Good Times
Here’s Another Story from Another Era
The 1930’s were a dichotomy of despair and progress. Two grim events dominated the 30’s: the global depression and the rise of Hitler and nationalism in Europe. In the midst of all the upheaval another dramatic change – In 1933, Prohibition was finally repealed. Oh and throw in a disastrous Dust Storm that lasted far too long.
The nation goes gaga over vitamins in the 30s. The only over-the-counter products that outsell them are laxatives. Where is the fiber?
Cooking at home became a necessity and a pastime among middle-aged women who had been forced to let their cooks and servants go. Women’s clubs lunches, afternoon teas, Sunday suppers, potluck dinners, church socials and county fairs were all popular ways to socialize.
Hollywood provided a steady stream of fantasy with Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Clark Gable and Jean Harlow, and Shirley Temple. Cole Porter’s musicals ruled Broadway and Benny Goodman’s dance tunes played on Victrolas everywhere.
Soup Kitchens
For more than a decade known as the Great Depression, reliance on businesses had failed that they could not solve the problems of poverty including hunger. Local governments tried to help the needy, but expenditures, which averaged $8.20 per month per person did nothing to help the thousands more who required federal aid. Thus, organizations like the Red Cross and the Salvation army provided help through soup kitchens and breadlines: 13 million people –25 percent of the population—were unemployed and hungry.
Route 66
Despite the odds, America forged ahead and with the opening of Route 66, food establishments like Stuckeys flourished. In the supermarkets, scores of new products were introduced and many still exist today.
When U.S. highway 66 was completed in 1938, it became a vital 2450- mile artery between Chicago and Los Angeles, snaking its way through 8 states. It veered north then south to pass through small towns to link them with more metropolitan cities. With the route, farmers had a pipeline for shipping their food to the big cities and offer help to those trapped by the tragic Dust Bowl that filled the lives of those farmers in that area. Stukeys gets its start when William and Ethyl Stuckey open a roadside stand in Georgia to sell pecans to motorists en route to and from Florida.
Shopping carts
I suppose no one is terribly interested in the history of the shopping cart; however, it is an appliance of sorts we could not do without. So here goes: Slyvan Goldman, owner of the Standard Food Markets and Humpty Dumpty in Oklahoma City, devised a shopping cart by fabricating lawn chairs into a frame that held two hand baskets. He figured if the shoppers could carry more, they’ll buy more. But the first shopping cart is a hard sell. Men found the carts less than masculine and women don’t see the point – they’re accustomed to shopping often. Finally Goldman pays ‘shoppers to cruise stores using the carts.
Kraft Dinner
In 1937, Spam is introduced – yes it’s still here. Kraft rolls out Kraft Dinner – a boxed meal that sells for 19 cents with an advertising slogan of “A Meal for Four in Nine Minutes”. At the end of the century, 1 million boxes a day of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese are sold in the U.S. Talk about processed food?? Apparently this has pleased the palates of our younger citizens for decades.
Fritos
San Antonio candy-maker C. Elmer Doolin stops in a café for a sandwich and is served a side dish of corn chips. He pays the café owner for $100 for his converted potato ricer and the recipe for “tortillas fritas”. Fritos are born, as Doolin and his family begin producing 10 pounds per day. They eventually move their operation to Dallas. Fritos Corn Chips are introduced nationally in 1949.
At the end of the decade, WW2 was boiling in Europe with America waiting in the wings. The “Bad Times” were just beginning.
FOOD, FACTS and FADS 