tuna casserole;
recipe available on request;
wine makes the difference.
Periodically
I am guilted into defending my reliance on the internet and, specifically
Facebook, for everything from contemporary news to ongoing friendship. Today,
the internet provided me with random amusement. It’s Saturday, I was cooking,
and I couldn’t quite apply myself to writing. So I surfed the msn.com news
clips and came across a couple that both bemused me and aroused some indignation.
It's
fashionable these days to decry the food of the fifties, mocking the disgusting
things nobody eats today—or do they? This list was titled, “Disgusting things
that nobody but Boomers eat.” I’m not even a Boomer—just a tad too old. But the
list included some of my favorite things: meatloaf (I made one the other day,
and Jordan said it was the best she’d ever had and please keep it in the menu rotation;
and as anyone with an ounce of sense knows, there are few things better than a
meatloaf sandwich with mayo); mayonnaise salads (I assume they meant tuna
salad, egg salad, ham salad, chicken salad—all things I could eat three times a
day for days and never tired of them—I have a DIL though who won’t touch them.
She remembers church suppers on the ground and fear of food poisoning. Each to
their own.);
Chain
restaurants (okay, I agree with some exceptions); paper napkins (I read on
another list millennials don’t use them—they use a towel or their shirt—slovenly.
When I was a kid, we had linen napkins. Paper are a great boon, but everyone
needs a napkin in their lap if they’re civilized); Velveeta (okay, agreed, but
it makes great queso and there are some casseroles that really need it. I did
find that Trader Joe’s carries club cheese which would be a better choice for
such dishes); ketchup (I don’t know—where would the world be without ketchup on
fries or hamburgers? I remember Jacob demanding it for his chicken fingers—so glad
we outgrew that phase); tuna casserole (I can make the best tuna casserole
ever, and it’s one of my favorites. Why, a friend even came from Dallas just to
eat it—are you listening, Gary?); curly parsley (do we really care if it’s curly
or flat leaf?); Jell-O salads (well, yeah if you put everything but the kitchen
sink in them, but there were a couple I liked, jellied gazpacho for instance,
or jellied consommé with lemon, or cherry/port wine jelly with cherries. Let’s
not throw out the baby with the bath water.) Things I agreed are better done
away with: most Jell-O salads, margarine, and artificial sweeteners.
Then I
came across another list of things that are disappearing because millennials
scorn them: paper napkins (they really are in disrepute), business suits (makes
sense—women’s fashions change all the time, but men seem stuck in the same
outfits.); board games (yay for that—I’ve played Monopoly a hundred times too
many); lottery tickets (okay—I never ever won, and I remember someone who said
you might as well drive down the highway throwing dollar bills out the window);
stilettos (amen!); fabric softeners ( we must be going back to stiff sheets and
rough towels);
Razors
(modest face hair is okay, but some men really overdo it—hate those long,
frizzy beards which must trap so much food—yuck!); print books (oh, that cuts
me to the quick, but then I read mostly digital and I know audiobooks are
popular—I can’t concentrate on them); fast food, processed food (yay!); landlines
(got rid of mine several years ago because all I got was solicitation calls);
beef (really? All things in moderation, please); cereal—the sugary, fruity kind
okay, but there are still a few good ones like corn flakes which was on another
boomer bad food list); wine with corks (no problem, as long as there is wine);
cruises, theme parks, golf courses (mixed feeling about this—never liked any of
them, but I am the grandmother of a pretty dedicated and talented golfer).
I’m
sure there are items on these lists that you adore and others you dislike that
didn’t make the list. We each have our own “lists,” and these are but starting
points. But these small items and their disappearance makes a huge change in
our daily lives. And if that’s true, think how the big things change our lives—gun
control, abortion, immigration, all the hot-button issues of today’s world. It’s
sort of mind-boggling.
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