My earliest childhood memories regarding food was number one....it was good for you. The better you ate the better child you were, now we worry about our kids smoking or getting involved with drugs, then the only advice was "clean your plate". Even when we visited newborn babies, the mother was asked, "does he eat good?" If the answer was "Yes!" then everyone nodded and smiled, apparently a picky eater was the sign of a future trouble maker.
I was a picky eater and yet I have managed to remain out of jail. Kids were threatened with "You are going to sit there until all your vegetables are gone." Well, usually the vegetable were gone ok, fortunately the mother never stipulated gone WHERE, lucky was the kid that had an indoor dog. Thank God I didn't live in a household where you were told that what you didn't eat for supper you would get for breakfast. I guess some parents believed that cold, congealed, aged food was better for you than no food at all. I am glad that although my mother believed in proper nutrition, she also believed in refrigeration, therefore I was spared last night's supper for breakfast. Besides she had a whole new agenda for breakfast. Back in the '40's and '50's (and I'm sure before that but I have no personal experience before that era.) A great deal of your good health depended upon being "regular", therefore doses of the dreaded COD LIVER OIL! Yes, for the uninitiated, it IS as nasty as it sounds. We were given a glass of orange juice after the spoonful of cod liver oil to "kill the taste". HA! the taste of cod liver oil is unstoppable, it laughs at orange juice. And then breakfast consisted of shredded wheat, 4 oz glass of orange juice and 1/2 grapefruit or STEWED PRUNES! Yet another dish designed for the "regular" kid. The grown-ups got a cup of Postum.
Stop back tomorrow for lunch!