Our Family Chicken Dinner 1940s and 1950s Style Kent Ohio


In the 1940s and 1950s there were certainly no packages of chicken breast tenders in the grocery store so that all family members could have this tender part of the bird. We were a family of 5 until my sister was born in the early 1950s. Money was tight and if we were having chicken for our dinner it was only one small chicken that would be divided 5 or 6 ways. The chickens were not the large breasted chickens that have been genetically engineered for today.

Mom and Dad kept chickens at our home on Wolcott Ave. for a while but the whole chickens were mostly purchased at the grocery store. My mother would always boil the chicken first so that she would have broth for making soup. It would be disjointed after boiling. Sometimes she rolled the parts in a bit of flour and browned them in a pan. Most of the time they were just boiled and served with the skin on.

I seldom got a breast. The drumstick or thigh were usually still available by the time the platter got to my end of the table. Dad always got a breast and the gizzard. Sometimes if I asked really nicely he would give me a small piece of the gizzard but the neck, heart and liver were the usual choices if they were still available.

Large piles of mashed potatoes and a boiled vegetable would be served along with a glass of milk. Some canned fruit in a bowl would complete the meal. If it were a Sunday there might be fresh carrot and celery sticks. The vegetables were fresh from our home garden in the Summer and things that were canned and stored in the fruit cellar in the Winter.

The chickens were more flavorful back then!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Standing Rock in Kent Ohio

Image
Standing Rock is in the Cuyahoga River in Kent behind the Standing Rock Cemetery. When I was a child on Wolcott Avenue in Kent we would go in small groups riding our bikes or walking through the cemetery to see the large rock. We lived only a few blocks from the cemetery so it was a short trip. We never worried about going through the cemetery alone.  A bypass for the Cuyahoga River now flows around the dam on Main Street in Kent to speed up the river to improve the water quality. The level of the river has been cut down drastically because of the bypass. Ripples of water now flow over rocks where the river once was deep. It was deep enough years ago so that you could not see the rocks on the bottom.  Back then the water rose up under the jutting ledge near the top of the large stone. It would sometimes be higher when there was heavy precipitation and flooding. There were sometimes white spray painted graffiti and other marks on the rock. It made me wonder how people got out thro
Read more

A Fast & Unexpected Ride Home ~ Another life Adventure

Image
Mr. Fixit had recently made some repairs to the old 1971 camper van. We took a 40 mile round trip last week and there were no evident problems. Last evening we headed toward the Pennsylvania line on what would be a 100 mile round trip. Forty miles into the trip the van gave out a couple of coughs as the engine missed. OH OH! Those sounds stopped for a while as we continued on our way. Then suddenly the van was lurching as the engine missed and backfired loudly as it blew out the muffler. We were so glad to see that were were near an off ramp as we were on a busy interstate. We made it almost to the top of the ramp before the vehicle ceased running.  Mr. Fixit always carries extra parts and tools so thinking that it might be an easy fix he pulled the cap off the engine which is inside of the van in the front and went to work. After a few new parts and tries it was decided that we would call the hook. AAA put us on their priority list as we were in a precarious place.  Semis that
Read more

Did This Product Work for Me? ~ A Super Clean Review

Image
Often we buy products by how they look on the shelf or how we like the advertisements. This product was recommended to me by someone who has had to clean tough dirt. We burn wood in a wood burning stove in our living room. When the stove is opened to add wood there are puffs of smoke that come out of the front. This smoky dirt travels up to the ceiling and the surrounding wall areas. This type of soil can be very difficult to clean. A friend told me to go to the Walmart automotive department and get some Super Clean. Rubber gloves should be used while using this strong degreaser and cleaner even in the diluted forms for light cleaning. I was happy that this product actually worked. We have hard water and this cleaner cleans up the hard water stains along with dirt and grease that other cleaners have not worked on. I used it in a diluted form in the kitchen today and it did a great job on the textured surface on the refrigerator. It leaves a nice clean looking shine on chrome. It
Read more