Gregory Morrow wrote:
> The first teevee dinner would today cost (adjusted for inflation per
> the inflation calculator below) $6.52...pretty rich vittles!
>
> [ http://www.westegg.com/inflation/ ]
>
>
> http://www.tvacres.com/food_menus.htm
>
> "TV Dinners - The first commercially successful TV dinner was
> introduced by L.A. Swanson Food Company in 1953. For the cost of
> $1.00, the 12 ounce TV dinner included sliced turkey, gravy, buttered
> peas, whipped sweet potatoes, and cranberry sauce. The carton's front
> cover displayed a picture of a TV set.

This is very funny! Mom told me late last year she bought some Swanson's TV
dinners for her and Dad. She got the Salisbury Steak & Gravy and Dad had
the Fried Chicken. Each came with a meager portion of some fercocktah
(thanks for the term, Sheldon!) dehydrated rehydrated mashed potatoes.
Dad's meal had corn while Mom's had peas. Neither one came with a dessert -
remember back in the day when TV dinners came with a little bit of cobbler
or baked apples or something like that? She said the meals were just
*awful*. Of course, I suspect she nuked them. Can't see much improvement
if she had baked them, though.

As a kid I can recall being absolutely thrilled when we got to eat our first
TV dinners. In *front* of the TV, on TV trays! (I remember those funny
gold toned folding stands and the metal trays with starbursts on them- snap
on, snap off.) IIRC Mom and Dad were going out so this was a quick easy way
to feed us kids and get us to shut up for a time. Wish I could remember
what was on television at the time; I know it was well after the Beatles
debuted on Ed Sullivan, but we may well have been watching Sullivan (we have
a "really big shew") at the time.

Thanks for the fun memory, Greg!

Jill