"jmcquown" wrote:
> tomba wrote:
> > My parents would always tell me that candy was bad for me, but my
> > father said that Clark bars were healthy. He was raised in the
> > Pittsburgh PA area where Clark bars were made. Of course as a kid how
> > could I argue with his logic. Clark bars were just as good if not
> > better than Hersey bars. Anyone else have a food "fable" provided by
> > your parents?
>
>
> There's always the baked potato story. �But in Dad's case it was true. �He
> actually did carry a hot baked potato to school in his mittened hands and
> then ate it cold for lunch. �We're talking the GREAT American Depression.
> 1930's. �He did not, however, walk uphill both ways to school in 3 feet of
> snow

In NYC ('40s-'50s) we bought steaming hot potatoes during winter from
the sweet potato man's cart (a push cart with a wood fired oven),
humongus sweet potatoes a penny a piece... very effective pocket
warmers... lots of street venders sold hot food that made great pocket
warmers; roasted chestnuts, roasted peanuts, penny k'nishes were a
favorite... back then hot just out of the oven bagels were a penny....
in the mid '50s a slice of pizza from a large pie was a dime (entire
18" pie was 75 cents),too much for kids but Sicilian slices (huge
thick doughy squares, not much topping) were a nickel. A gigantic
serving of fresh made thick cut fries in a brown paper bag cost a
nickle at the deli. Everywhere sold large servings of thick hot home
made soups in paper containers with a wooden spoon for pennies. As
kids we rarely had enough pennies so we'd pool what we had and shared,
servings were larger than two kids could finish anyway... there was
always some little kid hanging around who had no pennies drooling for
our left overs. We'd get pennies collecting deposit bottles and
collecting old newpapers, a penny a hundred pounds at the junkie (in
those days a junkie was really the guy who owned the junkyard, and
there really were junkyard dogs). Girls hardly ever had pennies, but
if we shared with them they'd let us guys feel them up... of course
seven year olds don't have much to feel, didn't much matter, seven
year old boys didn't know where to feel... a lot of forty year old
guys still don't know. LOL