Do you remember when

My boyfriend and I never purchase store bought popped corn or microwave pop-corn ever. We pop it on the stove like you mentioned. Sure it is a little work, but tastes way better than any ready made. I remember when the piece candy was one cent, and now you can get them for 8 for one dollar. Oh my this seems way too expensive, as I remember in the 70's where I could get them 25 for a quarter. I suppose at the rate we are going some day the piece candy will be like a dollar each.

We have Jiffy Pop popcorn when we go camping. I also remember making hot cocoa from scratch as the kids would say. Now it seems that life is too hectic to have those things. I would like to see some of these things come back too. Do you have a recipe for cocoa made like that?

Yes I was born in the early 50's too and remember those things. Still don't use the microwave, except to store stuff. Makes a great bread box! so when ever my kids are home, they have to empty it to use it for anything! Actully my kids can remember this because when they were growing up this was the way I made chocolate for them. Are you kidding! It was CHEAPER to make the hot cocoa this way for 5 kids then to buy all them packages! Especially when they just had to have 2 cups!I also think your rightMUCH healthier!

Ok I was born in 1961 but I do remember, every Night my Grandmother would make a Hot Chocolate in the Winter before I go to bed and one in the Morning before I went to School, in the Summer she used to give me a Glass of Milk before Bed and I used to get Children Coffee in the morning, which was for Children and contained no Caffeine or anything like that I remember my Grandmother used to have fresh baked crusty Rolls delivered every morning and I used to have them for Breakfast with her Home made Jam which was yummy I used to get quite a few Sweets for a few Pennies, there is lots more at times I still wish it was like that as Children would appreciate more then what they do now

Good discussion, GG, good memories. How about a bottle of coca-cola for a nickel. This is something i never liked but how about the little parafin bottles filled w/whatever, lol & then u chewed the parafin. I hated those things, homemade everything, the very best u can get.

I used to get penny bubble gum and nickle candies. My grandmother made home made cereal with heals of bread, hot milk and honey. I was born in 1951. I showed my daughter a picture of President Eisenhower, when we were in a restaurant that had old pictures in it, and she didn't know who he was. My grandma used to make everything from scratch. Bread, soup, roasted chicken, lemon merigue, and yes, hot chocolate. We could get a hamburger for 35cents, rootbeer was about that too and you got a jug of it and money back when you brought back the jug. I recall the first time my step brother got some Jiffy Pop popcorn. It was such an adventure to watch it expand. Those were the days. I am so glad I was born when I was. I feel bummed that I am getting older but glad I went through the fifties, enjoyed the hippies of the 60's. Discos in the 70's and being skinny through the 80's. Fun. Fun. FUn. Thanks. This was a fun topic, one of my favorites.

I was born in the early 80s. I still have my record player, and I love it!!!

Indeed I do remember those times. I also remember putting Marshmallow Fluff in my hot chocolate and having to use a spoon to get the last of it from the bottom of the cup, too. How about hot cereal called Ralston which you put a big pat of butter in the middle of, covered over with the cereal and put brown sugar on top and by the time you got down to the butter it had melted and run all over the rest of the cereal? How about coming home from school and smelling bread baking before you got to the head of the driveway? How about going and picking berries with a big coffee can with 2 slits in it so you could run your belt through it so you could pick berries with both hands free? How about being the first family to have the whole family water skiing on the first weekend after the ice had melted off the lake, and also being the last one to be doing it because the ice finally came back on the lake? How about taking the car down the gravel road when there was enough snow on it to tie the tow ropes to the bumper hitch and ski behind it? I think I want some hot chocolate now. Anybody got anything else that they remember?

I do remember those things, being as we are about the same age I do use instant (sugar free) hot chocolate, but I generally add some milk or other extras, like I've been using mint coffee creamer in it and, of course, marshmallows are out because most have corn starch on them

I have not drunk cocoa for a long time now though cocoa pods is our country main agricultural export. It is never a favorite drink with our local people. I prefer black coffee. I do miss the old ways of brewing coffee that was found in most traditional chinese coffee shops. The aroma of freshly brewed coffee can be smelled a mile away. They used to boil the ground coffee beans until the strong aroma exudes. Can no longer find these coffee shops now as they have all been replaced by starbucks or coffee Bean.

I was born in 1983 so really most of this stuff I am not to familiar with. I've never had home made hot cocoa. My kids love drinking hot cocoa on a cold day. My mother used to buy these popcorn kernals in these tins that you would heat on the stove and shake. They still make them but we just buy the popcorn that you open the packet and put it in the microwave and push popcorn and then within probably 2 minutes we have a nice bag of buttery popcorn to eat. When I was about 9 the store downtown sold tons of penny candy. I went there for years until they went out of business. I wish that place was still open my kids would have loved to go there and get some candy.

I remember when breakfast was something that Mom cooked, not microwaved. She would make us steaming hot bowls of Cream of Wheat with brown sugar on top, waffles she made in the waffle iron--and on special occasions she'd put a scoop of ice cream on top to make a "man on a raft"! Toasted cheese sandwiches with tomato soup for lunch and always a nice, hot supper that she spent at least an hour making. Speaking of old ways, did your mother ever use old Quaker Oatmeal boxes (the round kind) with part of it cut out as a cradle for one of your dolls? We saved our cardboard milk cartons (I missed the milk bottles by a few years) to start fires in our fireplace. Standing over the floor register on winter mornings felt great! And I do remember Mom making hot cocoa in a RevereWare saucepan on the stove with cocoa, sugar and milk. Big marshmallows that were creamy and delicious! Both sets of grandparents had coal furnaces which we all took turns adding coal to when it was freezing outside. I remember getting up at night to go down into that spooky cellar and shoveling some coal into the furnace. I do NOT regret the loss of the old wringer washers and clothes lines but nearly everything else, I miss!

Oh yes, and that is still really good, it doesn't cost much and it brings people togeteher. I love popping popcorn on the stove, making hot cocoa with powder and sugar and peppermint. If you live down south no one forgets those things.

WOW, what timing! Since the CHF I've been riding the nostalgia trolley a lot.. Yes, I remember the cocoa..Hershey's in a can and you pried the lid up with a spoon handle or, when we had it, Bosco's chocolate syrup with the plastic clown head lid. It was great over ice cream!..And TANG orange drink powder!..A malted milk powder that I adored (but can't recall the name of)..Homemade Christmas cookies that needed no preservatives cuz they never lasted that long..Milk so fresh it was still warm and butter the color and taste nature intended..Barber Pole peppermint sticks.. Thanx for the interlude..ENJOY!

Not to hard to remember that since I still make cocoa from scratch, though I admit to using the microwave to heat the milk. I have hot porridge for breakfast as well made from scratch of course. Its far better than the instant sort that seems to be related to wallpaper paste It takes longer of course, but when I was working, that just meant that I allowed extra time for getting breakfast ready and while the oatmeal is cooking I also go off to do other things like feeding the cats

that would surely be a good day to try some time. im afraid im to spoiled. i served my time with all those harder longer times to do things. i grew up in the 50;s also. born in '47. so, i raised kids with mostly doing all these things, not to mention being dirt poor when i raised them. i do miss the penny candy. i remember when we found a penny, we could go by at least 2 candies with it and share. the prices i guess is all i miss. also, things did seem to taste better then. lol.

Yes I remenber all of that and the tv dinners which were really good when ever my parents went out put them into the oven and heat them up and they were good. cd

I surely do remember those things. At least, I think I do. I am certain some of the stuff I remember did not happen the way I remember it. Some of it probably did not happen at all. We made popcorn in a skillet on the stove (remember to put a lid on the skillet!). We also made macaroni and cheese in the oven. It did not come out of a box. Technology is great in a lot of ways but I remember what tomatoes used to taste like. The ones I get in the store these days taste like the box they came in.

This is such a lovely topic, GG, thanks for bringing this up. I grew up in the 80's but I'm becoming more appreciative of the "good old days" before I was born. I mean, less problems socially, globally, and more healthier ways of living, for sure. I'm sorry to rant like this, but I'm really sick and tired of this rat race generation, and I want to lay back and enjoy life, and see what Mother Nature has given us. I am appreciative for our health care, since technology's become so advanced, but still, it really shouldn't have taken over our lives on a day-to-day basis. I'm personally looking for older recipes from the elder generation, so please send me a friend request with recipes. (I'm not much into marketing) Looking forward to following this discussion some more!

It's the same idea of "There's no place like home." Well I think, especially now a days where people are open to a lot of "instants" in life, they tend to drift away from the simple things and methods of doing things. Sometimes, this looses the value and true core of the best things in life. Yes, sticking with the old fashioned way at times is still worth it.