Think back to...

[garnetsilver]

You have to help me shake him down for it. I’m desperate lol.

I was kidding; I'd be glad to share it with you, Lynne!

 

[TexDanm]

Part of the "secret" of movie popcorn is Coconut oil. It lasts longer and is lesss expensive because of that when you are making popcorn in mass. It probably would be a little expensive for home use unless you just made a BUNCH of it and bagged it up for later use. I also like real butter melted to put on it and good sea salt instead of iodized table salt.

 

[garnetsilver]

I don't even buy table salt anymore. Sea salt is all I use for everything,

 

[TexDanm]

You are middle class or finer if all of your cutlery have matching patterns.

I was pre-stainless steel and we ate with real silver silverware that was a wedding gift when my parents got married. I have inherited three sets of old school silverware but we use a set of Onida Stainless. Polishing the silverware was my job when I was a kid. I don't even break out the silver for the holidays anymore. We were lower-middle-class as far as our disposable income. My Mom couldn't work because she had to take care of my retarded little brother. He was profoundly retarded and was arrested at about the stage where a normal kid would be at 18 to 24 months. A BIG toddler that never talked or grew up. He cost a lot of money to take care of so we were pretty tight for money most of the time.

That said we lacked for nothing that was really needed and though we stayed close to home we did go out to eat once a month and went to see the Grandmothers once a month. Our house was THE meeting place for all the women on the street. Thursday was hair day and I would try to get up and GONE before they started. I hated the way that stuff they used to do perms smelled!!!

In the afternoon after supper, Mama made coffee and they took it out in the front yard. The neighbors would come and visit until it got close to dark. Houses that don't have AC are hot after all the cooking and need time after supper to cool off some.

Back then women didn't work outside of the home much. If a woman took a job it meant that the husband wasn't able to adequately support them. (Not really but that was the way people looked at it back then.) Different times different attitudes. Families were bigger back then too. We had one family that ended up having 17 kids. They eventually bought the house next door to them and turned it into the bunkhouse. They were good Catholics and happily took as many babies as the Lord offered to them. Good people, good kids, and they all grew up to be good responsible adults. He worked in a refinery all day and then owned and operated a bar at night. She ran the house like a sergeant and everyone including the Hubby had jobs and the older kids were in charge of some of the younger kids. Eating there was a lot like eating at Luby's!!

The world has changed so much!!! Things that we didn't make much note of then would be shocking now and a LOT of things now would probably have given my Mama the vapors!!!

 

[Ragnar0711]

Mac's Restaurant, Somerspoint, NJ. Awesome food! Use to work there a few years as a pantry chef.
known for it's known for it's huge neon lobster on the roof
Best restaurant I ever worked at or ate at.

 

[TexDanm]

Small towns are the last places that still have the old-time family-owned small restaurants. Big chain restaurants make their money on volume and when you have a town with only 500 people there just isn't the volume that they need to operate successfully.

The current "nice" restaurant in town is Daisy's Diner. They serve seafood, fried foods, and burgers but they also have a nice salad bar. It is very much a family-owned and operated sort of place. It is a little more expensive than a big box restaurant but it is well worth it and they are getting a reputation and drawing people from 40 or 50 miles away to them for their high quality and pleasant atmosphere. (People that live in rural Texas look at 50 miles about the same as city people look at going across town to go to a nice restaurant.) It is a 50 mile round trip to go to a big store or to see a Doctor or to the pharmacy.

They grind their own meat for the burgers and it is fresh never frozen and better than home cooking for most people. They have to die for Chicken fried steak and chicken strips served with white gravy and fresh vegetables of your choice. we usually get the yellow squash smothers with onions. Or mashed potatoes that you can put the gravy on. The gravy is REAL gravy made with the grease from the frying steak and chicken strips and I would like to just get a huge bowl of it to eat like a soup! their salad bar is even super fresh cut and not the bagged commercial stuff that you get in most places. It may not have as many choices but everything on it was cut up there and the bacon to put on the salad was fried that morning for the breakfast run and the leftovers were saved for the salad bar that evening.

I think that because this place is in a small town and a lot of us try to eat there at least once a week it is a very friendly atmosphere. I tip about 40% and they remember us and when we sit down the waitress or waiter brings a glass of tea when they come to take our order. We support our local businesses. If you don't you will have to go at least 30 miles to go anyplace else.

I like good food and appreciate good service and am more than willing to pay for both. In a small town, you either provide that or you don't last long. This is the third life for this place. for decades it was Granny's place but granny retired. The next mane was good food but when Hurricane Rita shut them down for three weeks. They lost their people and ended up throwing most of their stuff out that didn't keep with no power. They just never had the money to get back on their feet after that and Daisey took over. So far so good. Daisey is a lot like Granny in her insistence on quality.

 

[TexDanm]

When I was little I loved to go to Luby's Cafeteria. There I could have whatever I wanted and ONLY what I wanted. The used to make a trout almandine that was just so good and they made real mashed potatoes (Not from a powder or flakes) and a cream gravy that was almost at thick as the mashed potatoes. I guess that it was a treat for my Mama because she didn't have to make any of it. This was a me and Mama sort of thing. I don't think my Dad was too fond of it. Cafeterias seem to have sort of died out here. Luby's became a seafood place. Still has the same name or did until it closed last year but became a sit-down seafood restaurant.

 

[Nik]

I don’t know if anyone remembers Show Biz Pizza....but man I miss that place LOL. That was 35 years ago I would say. My grandparents who are now 87 use to take me there when I was little. It was as magical to me as going to Toys R Us lol. Covid hasn’t changed my opportunities much since I’m a driver. We can get our hands on just about anything. Very lucky but a guy has to have a lot of will power. The only place I absolutely cannot pass up is Panera. That is my favorite place to eat.

 

[WitchAndShaman]

When I was little I loved to go to Luby's Cafeteria. There I could have whatever I wanted and ONLY what I wanted. The used to make a trout almandine that was just so good and they made real mashed potatoes (Not from a powder or flakes) and a cream gravy that was almost at thick as the mashed potatoes. I guess that it was a treat for my Mama because she didn't have to make any of it. This was a me and Mama sort of thing. I don't think my Dad was too fond of it. Cafeterias seem to have sort of died out here. Luby's became a seafood place. Still has the same name or did until it closed last year but became a sit-down seafood restaurant.

TD - I lllooovvvveeeeddddd cafeterias when they were around. Couple chains in California and Florida that I loved. One was a very local fav in So Cal. They had the BEST and unique Mac-and-Chz With essentially no chz inside but a heavy chz crust!

 

[WitchAndShaman]

Small towns are the last places that still have the old-time family-owned small restaurants. Big chain restaurants make their money on volume and when you have a town with only 500 people there just isn't the volume that they need to operate successfully.

The current "nice" restaurant in town is Daisy's Diner. They serve seafood, fried foods, and burgers but they also have a nice salad bar. It is very much a family-owned and operated sort of place. It is a little more expensive than a big box restaurant but it is well worth it and they are getting a reputation and drawing people from 40 or 50 miles away to them for their high quality and pleasant atmosphere. (People that live in rural Texas look at 50 miles about the same as city people look at going across town to go to a nice restaurant.) It is a 50 mile round trip to go to a big store or to see a Doctor or to the pharmacy.

They grind their own meat for the burgers and it is fresh never frozen and better than home cooking for most people. They have to die for Chicken fried steak and chicken strips served with white gravy and fresh vegetables of your choice. we usually get the yellow squash smothers with onions. Or mashed potatoes that you can put the gravy on. The gravy is REAL gravy made with the grease from the frying steak and chicken strips and I would like to just get a huge bowl of it to eat like a soup! their salad bar is even super fresh cut and not the bagged commercial stuff that you get in most places. It may not have as many choices but everything on it was cut up there and the bacon to put on the salad was fried that morning for the breakfast run and the leftovers were saved for the salad bar that evening.

I think that because this place is in a small town and a lot of us try to eat there at least once a week it is a very friendly atmosphere. I tip about 40% and they remember us and when we sit down the waitress or waiter brings a glass of tea when they come to take our order. We support our local businesses. If you don't you will have to go at least 30 miles to go anyplace else.

I like good food and appreciate good service and am more than willing to pay for both. In a small town, you either provide that or you don't last long. This is the third life for this place. for decades it was Granny's place but granny retired. The next mane was good food but when Hurricane Rita shut them down for three weeks. They lost their people and ended up throwing most of their stuff out that didn't keep with no power. They just never had the money to get back on their feet after that and Daisey took over. So far so good. Daisey is a lot like Granny in her insistence on quality.

TD - I drove 24 miles one way today to get take out today because I couldn’t stand it - I missed my fav Asian restaumy too much.