Household stuff you didn't grow up with

If you’re trying to wash greasy film off of plastic, use cold water, not hot.

Ammonia cuts grease really well.

White bread

A dishwasher

microwave

label maker (all the rage in the 1970s)

Fondue Pot

electric can opener

The wheel

There was never any alcohol in my mother’s house.

More marketing polls, OP?

My father built a wall of empty beer cans, which we kids thought was hilarious. He also smoked a lot.

I meant to put this all in one post, but my dad was an alcoholic. My parents: New England Puritan meets European hedonist. It was doomed.

Grindr

sorry to disappoint r5. Just a gay trying to make a harmless thread, but thanks for playing. Bring your bitter somewhere else.

I've also adopted toilet paper "over" instead of "under" even though I never ever saw that growing up. It's better.

[quote]When I was growing up, we never had a sink mat in our kitchen sink. I tried one (Good Grips) a few years ago, and now I think they're one of the great simple inventions.

You American gurls should discover washing up bowls - you won't look back.

I have a question about that. You people with those large farmhouse sinks, do you just use them to hold all the dirty dishes before putting them in the dishwasher? Does anyone ever wash dishes by hand?

What is the purpose of a sink mat? Why would you want to put things in the sink?

Do you use it say, after you rinse tub of blueberries to let all the water drain out?

Dildoes

A father

Fabric softener. I had no idea what that was.

A garbage disposal. We didn’t have one partly because they were considered expensive and extravagant, partly because of the fear they’d somehow ruin the pipes in our Victorian-era house. My mom tried all sorts of alternatives. In the 1970s, Hefty or GLAD had these little 8”x8” yellow plastic-coated stands that you could put one of their square yellow bags in leave & on the countertop. No one really enjoyed looking at coffee grounds and egg shells for days on end. The smell! (Composting was what people did back on the farm and we wanted none of that.) Somehow we learned that cereal bags were just as if not more efficient than the countertop bags.

It wasn’t until the 1990s kitchen makeover that an InSinkErator was installed. After that, look out! Everything except celery went down the disposal.

[quote]Everything except celery went down the disposal.

Avoid cucumber peels as well.

Four greatest 20th century inventions:

microwave

electric kettle

bullet blender (ninja)

parchment (baking) paper

R17 Why is the electric kettle better than one you put on the stovetop?

I too didn’t grow up with a garbage disposal. Now that I have one, I’m still not exactly sure what to do with it

Not R17, but you don't need to worry about forgetting that it is on, it does not get overly hot, it boils water more quickly

I think R17 might be me.

Magic erasers (I had to tell my mother about them a few months ago)

Dishwasher (we had one growing up, but my mother thought it caused cancer)

Microwave (we had one, but my mother thought it caused cancer)

Electric kettle (the greatest!)

Ninja blender (single serving powerful blender)

Bread machine (yes!)

Expresso machine (we didn't even have a normal coffee machine)

Slow cooker/ crock pot

[quote]I too didn’t grow up with a garbage disposal. Now that I have one, I’m still not exactly sure what to do with it

It's good for clipping your nails.

Why would you want something in the bottom of your sink?

Just something else to collect bacteria.

A toilet - we just did it in the garden.

My mother is a very good cook. But she never prepped like a chef.

I now have a big stack of Pyrex bowls that I use to prep a meal before I start cooking. I started doing this in the pandemic and wish I had started years ago. It makes cooking so much easier and stress-free.

^^Me, too. I love pre-measuring everything into little ramekins.

[quote] What is the purpose of a sink mat? Why would you want to put things in the sink?

I love mine. If you have a dish or two in there, they're sitting above the surface and doesn't get as wet if you run the water. If you're using the sink to rinse or drain something in a colander, the strainer has a margin of air below for draining. And if you knock over a glass or dish, it's less likely to break because it's a softer, suspended surface.

We never grew up with a dish drainer on the counter. Anything that didn't go in the dishwasher went on a spread out dish towel, which always got damp. Now I have a small dish drainer (Joseph Joseph) and a few dishes air-dry and are handy. Who knew!

It also protects the surface of the sink from dings and scratches

Ever lift that sink mat up and see all the gunk underneath? Slimey and hard to wash off that plastic mat.

Mom was right.

It's usually pretty clean. I just pop it in the dishwasher every few days and clean the sink as usual.

I would just like to say that the innovation of the upside down blender--that let's you easily clean the blade area without taking the entire thing apart--is a godsend.

Those old blenders, not very powerful, but heavy because of the glass, with the tiny area where the blade rotated that had to be disassembled each time (gasket, etc). were such a pain in the ass.

Why no celery or cucumber peels in the disposal?

[quote]Those old blenders, not very powerful, but heavy because of the glass, with the tiny area where the blade rotated that had to be disassembled each time (gasket, etc). were such a pain in the ass.

I have a Vitamix, which is very powerful. It never needs to be taken apart. After I use it, I just fill it with hot soapy water and run it on high for 20 seconds. And it is clean.

Unconvinced.

Rarely if ever have dishes just sitting in the sink and a paper towel under a flat of recently washed berries works fine, my colanders all have feet on them to raise them above the sing.

[quote]Why no celery or cucumber peels in the disposal?

I've never had a problem with them. But if I peel carrots, I will have to use a plunger to get the disposal working again. So they go in the trash.

What r36 said about carrots.

[quote]Does anyone ever wash dishes by hand?

Yeah, I have a lot of things like knives, wine glasses, baking sheets, some older dishes that won't go through the dishwasher safely, so hand wash several times a week. I bought a dish mat for draining of the same brand OP is shilling, but it turned out the one I made myself by crocheting with cheap cotton yarn works much better, and once dry it's easy to fold and put away.

I have enough problem with cucumber peels that I now buy the mini cucumbers that have peels that are easily edible instead. The peels will eventually go down, but they're pretty fibrous and the blades can have trouble with them.

I grew up in an old house with no shower, just a bathtub. My parents didn't grow up in houses with showers either, so they didn't find anything strange about it. Neither did I until I was old enough to be taken on trips and encountered showers in motels. I freaked out about getting water in my eyes.

A parent that was present in my upbringing. NowI have to take care of them with their needy dementia. What did I do in a previous life to deserve this?

[quote] I bought a dish mat for draining of the same brand OP is shilling, but it turned out the one I made myself by crocheting with cheap cotton yarn works much better

Honestly, that sounds nasty.

R31 For guys living alone, having a dishwasher or running it if they do have one, is rarely worth it. That's why the sink gets used.

Our family went to live in England for a year when I was a teen. It was a lovely house with an orchard in the back and an enormous rose garden in the front (we had a gardener), but no dishwasher.

On the housekeeper's days off, we had to wash/dry all the dishes after every meal. I vowed never to live without a dishwasher again. And haven't.

[quote]I think we all sort of recreate the home that our moms or whoever had

What a fat frau thing to say, OP.

Still eating your myriad feelings?

I grew up with dimmers on every light switch and also have them in my home. Surprised when visitors are surprised by that. It's so civilized.

A garbage disposal is not a garbage can. Peels should go in the garbage, not the sink.

Garbage disposals are for the small bits that inevitably find their way down the drain. The disposal grinds them up so they don't end up clogging the pipes later on. Ask any plumber.

In the nineties and 000's, I grew up without a phone, shower, computer, dishwasher, dryer, microwave, the list goes on.

Peels should go in the compost container, but yuck.

My mother washed the dishes in a dishpan in the kitchen sink. She later got a portable dishwasher.

R48, are you the Darfur Orphan?

We never had a toaster oven growing up. And neither did I until this year.

I recently bought a Ninja Foodi 13-in-1 Oven. It is amazing. It is, basically, a countertop convection oven. It preheats to 500-degrees in 60 seconds.

It air-fries really well. I did Buffalo chicken wings (something I would not normally make) and they tasted deep-fried even though I had just sprayed them with a bit of avocado oil. You can even make fresh pizza, as the bottom surface will get really hot on that setting (and the hot air above really cooks the top well.)

I've made steaks, roasted vegetables, and even dehydrated fruit.

I've only turned my real oven on a few times since I got it. I imagine it saves a lot of electricity.

[quote]She later got a portable dishwasher.

Is this so she can take it to restaurants when she eats out?

When I was about 10 my father ripped out the kitchen cabinet next to the sink and put in a brand new Sears dishwasher. Then discovered that under the counter, between the cabinet and sink there was a concrete divider. He never hired anyone to come professionally install it and it sat unattached with the instruction manual still sitting in the top drawer for THIRTY years before he sold the house and it was demolished. So we never had a dishwasher even though we had a dishwasher sitting there unused.

^ That sounds exactly like something my father would do, except he wouldn't have bought the dishwasher in the first place.

I didn't come up with a garbage disposal and so I use a sink strainer type thing to this day. My current one is pink and it has a little pink flamingo in the middle and it is my homage to John Waters I guess.

We only used the dishwasher on holidays and that makes no real sense deep down. So, I never use mine as a result. I wash everything by hand and then dry and put everything away neatly. Sometimes I have to let a pot or pan soak overnight and then I try to tend to it while my morning coffee is brewing. I change the dishtowel out once a day and wash them with my bath towels and such once a week.

Our tub was small and so I never learned the value of a "Calgon take me away" type of bath until I came to the United States. Our shower was great, though, my parents always kept a good handheld shower head in place with different settings. I'm really tall so maybe the tub was just small to me, I dunno.

I had a grandmother who was always mildly to moderately drunk and/or otherwise impaired. She tried to cook a chicken in a convention oven. It was a horrid mess because the chicken did not deserve such a fate. My parents found it to be soo very odd that they never bought a convention oven nor a microwave for years. When they finally bought a microwave, we were only allowed to warm up leftovers in it and nothing more. It's like the chicken's fate scared my parents deep down inside or something. The poor chicken was the color of a manila folder and the oddest pink and white color inside but smelled as though it were cooked through. Surreal. I'm explaining it poorly but it was just weird and yet funny. This was before Quaaludes were outlawed most places because some countries took their cue from the United States playbook with Quaaludes you know, that's a little known fact.

We shockingly always had a computer. Since about 1985 or so it was always a thing in our household. My younger brothers and I are blessed by that. I feel like someone who came up when the Model T cars were first a thing. It's like my brothers and I are fearless with anything and everything with computers and such.

Oh, and we never once in my lifetime used the oven portion of the stove. They said it didn’t work and we had a small convection oven that my mom did all the baking and cooking in and then oven was just there to hold pots and pans.

My dad was terrible at home improvement projects.

The back of the house started to collapse and he put a 15 foot long 12 inch wide board under the back wall of the house and held it up with car jacks!

Half the story is telling us which country you came from.

^meant r54

[quote]Why is the electric kettle better than one you put on the stovetop?

From my experience, they are a lot quicker to come to a boil. And I bet they use less energy to do it.

I think an electric kettle is very much an English/Canadian thing because of all the tea they drink.

Electric water kettle, so handy. I never leave a pot to soak overnight, a kettle of boiling water a a drop of dawn will release any stubborn food bits. I cycle the dishwasher everyday, modern dishwashers are energy efficient and use less water than you would think.

We never grew up with a pressure cooker. Mom was afraid it would explode.

She eventually changed her mind and bought an electric pressure cooker, but said she wasn't using it so gave it to me.

I find it really good at cooking a tough cut of beef (chuck) much quicking than slow cooking it.

I can have tender chuck roast in 40 minutes for either pot roast, stew or tacos.

I don't use it very often, but it is handy. I'll precook ribs in it and then finish them off under the boiler.

[quote] [R31] For guys living alone, having a dishwasher or running it if they do have one, is rarely worth it. That's why the sink gets used.

No.

When I was single I just bought more dishes and silverware so I could get away with running the dishwasher every few days.

[quote]For guys living alone, having a dishwasher or running it if they do have one, is rarely worth it. That's why the sink gets used.

That gets a huge NO. I just use the sink for pots, pans, and my good knives.

I fill the dishwasher with bowls for prep and utensils. When you do serious cooking (not microwaving Lean Cuisine), you find it is not difficult to fill the dishwasher with regularity.

Whole milk!

The 80s/90s diet culture targeted at moms has a lot to answer for: skim milk, Snackwells, Pam, margarine, low-fat cheese substitute, Special K instead of eggs, all trash.

Agreed R65

None of my older relatives have anything other than skim or 2% milk in their house.

It is so bizarre too, when you think about it, because the caloric difference between a splash of whole milk or cream in coffee and a splash of skim milk is pretty minimal.

(And I know I am going to get pushback from Eldergays who swear by their skim milk!)

R65 The whole "low fat" craze was really just a "more sugar" craze, which led to lots of scooters.

I live alone and have a lot of trouble filling the dishwasher. It takes days if not weeks to fill it and half the time I’m pulling things out and washing them by hand because I only have one peeler, one glass measuring cup, etc. Once I lived in an apartment with no dishwasher so I bought a gently used countertop model off Craigslist and had it hooked up directly the the water lines and drain and that was perfect for me. It held just enough plates, cups and silverware that I could run it almost every day. But a full-size dishwasher for one person? Such a hassle.

WTF do you put in your measuring cup or peeler that you can't quickly wash them off by hand R68. It's not like the carrot peels leave a sticky greasy film.

My mom cooked a lot but never had a cast iron skillet, I only recently got one and now I can't live without it. I use it 4+ times a week.

However my mom always used a Dobie scrubber for doing dishes, and it is still my favorite, better than all the other scrubby things

How do you guys clean your cast iron skillets?

Nothing r69. I said I DO wash them by hand. I put them in the dishwasher when they’re dirty (along with all my other dirty dishes) but then if I need them before I get a chance to run the dishwasher, I pull them out and hand wash them. What’s so hard to understand?

OP is unaware of the filth that grows on "sink mats." Ugh.

R74, the sink mat that OP linked has feet that elevates the mat to allow for drainage. As long as he rinses it out regularly, it shouldn't be any more a bacteria magnet than your average dish rack.

exactly r75. It's not flush to the sink. There's lot of air circulation and only 4 or 6 tiny contact points with the sink.

[quote]We never had a toaster oven growing up. And neither did I until this year.

We don't even have them in England- when I moved here I brought one with me (and my push button telephones) and had a power shower put in at great cost (they're now the norm).

[quote] How do you guys clean your cast iron skillets?

Dobie pad and a little dish soap. I use the Lodge little plastic scrap for stuck on bits if any. Never let it soak, rinse carefully, then I put it on the stove over a flame for a minute or so and wipe out the warm pan so it really dries. After maybe a quick wipe with a touch of canola oil

We didn’t have a microwave growing up, and despite my parents embracing them, I have remained a life long skeptic and prefer not to have one.

On the other hand my mother was a teacher and we had multiple sized industrial paper cutters at home, this was decades before crafting rooms. I would go to other kid’s houses and when we were doing arts and crafts I would ask to use theirs and they would look at me like I was an alien!

Butter. We always had margarine, so plastic!

[quote]How do you guys clean your cast iron skillets?

Under hot water. I have a plastic scraper to get the tough bits off. Then finish off with a steel brush. And rinse. I never use soap or detergent.

I then wipe it with a towel I use only for that purpose. And then put some avocado oil in and smear it around with a paper towel.

I never had a cast-iron skillet until last year. Now, I have three different ones. I never use my AllCad or ceramic skillets anymore.

I'm looking around and see a table fan, we never had electric fans of any sort growing up here in London and I only started having them myself more recently - summer weather's hotter and muggier than it was then, but still.

Growing up, we never had a bidet.

I never did either until I met Erna.

I have a hard time with the idea of not using soap to clean pans, that holds me back from using cast iron.

R66...I'm a milk drinker. I drink two large glasses a day, so skim or 1% milk is a calorie saver for me. In coffee, I do use whole milk though. I don't mind it...as I'm used to the taste. In fact, I think 1% is creamy tasting enough. I use my dishwasher 2 or 3 times a week. I do wash my glasses by hand, as they were getting cloudy looking....plus pots and pans. I've had the dishwasher for 19 years.

[quote] I have a hard time with the idea of not using soap to clean pans, that holds me back from using cast iron.

Lodge says not using soap is a myth

Dishwasher

Microwave

No interior doors except bathrooms. Seven bedroom Victorian house. Doors were taken off by my father during remodeling in 1963. They were put back on in 1974.

Fabric softener and dryer sheets. I still don't use them.

I’m sure there were plenty of things I didn’t grow up with, but I have never really done a detailed inventory of what that was, because my reference point as a child is very limited.

We had all our necessities and many ‘wants’ met. I don’t think about the things. I think about the atmosphere I grew up in.

Regardless of whatever atmosphere I grew up on, I’m so, so very grateful to my parents for making sure we had everything we needed and some things we wanted, too.

R87 I hope it was in time before you discovered masturbation!

My parents never had a clothes dryer! In warm weather, everything went to the clothesline in the back yard. In winter, clothes were hung in the basement next to the furnace.

And my dad worked for General Electric...we weren't poor.

R91 - I binged on House Hunters International a lot during lockdown

One thing that surprised me is that clothes dryers are considered an "American" thing in much of the world and not a necessity--people hang things outside or on indoor clothes drying racks.

Growing up, we never used shower gels and body washes, just straight up bar soap. So when I started using body washes, I didn't know until well into adulthood that you apply that stuff with poufs or loofahs.

I grew up with bar soap, still use it on stinky parts, but finish off with a shower gel.

[quote]Dobie pad and a little dish soap

NEVER use soap on a cast-iron skillet. Jesus Christ, that is sacrilege.

Everybody (except that one poster) knows that.

IIRC from marketing classes, shower gel is a relatively recent innovation (80s or 90s?) and was sold as being more hygienic than bar soap that was used by multiple family members or even husbands and wives.

A lazy susan.

I've discovered that they are indispensable for a hospitable orgy.

[quote] One thing that surprised me is that clothes dryers are considered an "American" thing in much of the world and not a necessity--people hang things outside or on indoor clothes drying racks.

Dryers really shorten the life of your clothes.

I've used soap and water on cast iron skillets. Just don't let them soak and don't scour. I wash quickly...rinse and dry thoroughly. Then I put the skillet on the stove, on a low heat....to dry further and heat up the skillet again. I'll re-season again with a vegetable oil and wipe the pan.

Aside from laptops/tablets/mobiles, I have fewer electronic things in my household than in the 1960s-70s.

I have a small kitchen with a stovetop; a countertop oven/convection oven that does double duty as a toaster; a Nespresso pod coffee maker; a small microwave; a small refrigerator-freezer, and 2/3 size dishwasher. No mixers, blenders, deep/air fryers, toasters, plastic storage bag sealers, rice cookers, fondue pots, crock pots, waffle irons, ice cream makers, electric carving knives, coffee pots, tea kettles, and appliance garages filled with once in a lifetime gadgets that my family favored.

The rest of the house, too, is pretty low-tech aside from light dimmers everywhere and HVAC tied to a mobile app. No alarm clocks of course, nor wall clocks; no stereo equipment nor music housed on shelves; no garage doors openers (no car). I don't have a clothes dryer because because they are very rarely found where I live, and neither an ironing board nor an iron.

I live rather differently to how I grew up , but technology and gadgetry, etc. don't play a bigger role, rather a lesser one.

R94 bar soap is still popular as upscale retailers sell it from more companies than you can shake a stick at.

[quote]Lodge says not using soap is a myth

They are trying to SELL skillets, so they want to disabuse fraus of the notion that cast-iron takes special care.

Yes, you *can* use soap. It won't destroy the pan. But it is not the best or preferred way to clean them with people who really cook.

Home security alarm

I like the enameled cast iron better, like Le Creuset or Staub.

R98). Do people even hang onto clothes long enough to care anymore?

[quote]Honestly, that sounds nasty.

It's a cotton mat, it gets washed in the laundry with the rest of the kitchen towels. That seems pretty obvious, but not to you, I guess.

[quote]Fabric softener. I had no idea what that was.

Don't use fabric softener on towels.

Many fabric softeners (and sheets) have wax in them and it inhibits the absorbency of towels.

If you really want to soften them, use vinegar sold for that purpose. It won't leave a vinegar smell--or affect absorbency.

Dishwasher

Double bowl sink

Ice maker in freezer

Water dispenser in fridge door

Fancy knives/knife block

Crock pot

Parchment paper for lining cookie trays

Meat thermometer

Hard boiled egg maker

No blackamoors in my parents' homes. 😥

[quote]I like the enameled cast iron better, like Le Creuset

Le Creuset is THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS more than Lodge.

And Consumer Reports only rates them three points apart (because they said white is easier to see the food on). That is $100/point.

Most people don't think it's worth the difference.

My parents never had a Degas Little Dancer sculpture in any of their homes.

I have fixed that appalling oversight in mine.

The non sticking of food...and very easy clean up/maintenance is worth it for me. ^^ You can get them on sale.

1950 Los Angeles: 1. Mr Coffee drip coffee maker. My SAHM had a percolator. After my Dad left for work in his 1956 Belair, she’d pour the coffee into a Revere Ware pot and later heat it up for lunch on the electric stove if she wanted coffee.

2. Clothes dryer. We had a retractable outside line spanning 1/2 of our backyard.

3. Gas lawnmower. About 1/3 of our acre lot was flat. It was planted with dichondra grass. My Dad mowed it occasionally with a push mower. We didn’t have underground sprinklers but it never dried up. I think LA was a lot wetter back then.

4. Real milk. We drank reconstituted Carnation Nonfat milk at home. Our neighbors had milk delivery in glass containers but my depression-era and WW2 parents preferred the powdered nonfat milk. The only real milk was at school lunch. During the fall/winter it tasted so delicious. But when the cows starting grazing grass in the Spring the milk would have a sickly sweet taste.

[quote]I cycle the dishwasher everyday, modern dishwashers are energy efficient and use less water than you would think.

Same. Even lighter loads save water than you would washing things by hand. It doesn't seem so, but that's the way it works. I didn't grow up with a dishwasher but now I can't imagine life without one.

Chris-craft boat at the lake house?

There was never canned pasta in our home, my mom would be appalled that anyone ate pasta and sauce out of a can.

She'd comment, "Who can't boil water and cook pasta?! I work yet make time to cook fresh meals."

[quote]There was never canned pasta in our home

This is like saying "There were never wharf rats crawling around the floors of our home."

It isn't the brag you think it is.

[quote]This is like saying "There were never wharf rats crawling around the floors of our home." It isn't the brag you think it is.

Not bragging at all you moron, just stating a fact. Lots of Wasps cannot cook, they open cans of crap to feed their families, they also served junk like Swanson TV dinners. That's a FACT.

Brilliant R117 "There were never wharf rats crawling around the floors of our home." needs to become a DLism

I will most certainly be making use of it.

We had a dryer, but for some reason, when the weather was nice out my mom still insisted on hanging laundry outside to dry. I hated it, because we frequently had beetles in our yard and I would go pull a shirt off the line to wear it and there would be beetles in it.

Not to mention, we were raised in a middle/upper class neighborhood. At least one of our neighbors eventually complained about it being an eyesore so she stopped doing it.

We never had a VCR or microwave in our house until 1990. No HBO or Cinemax either.

[quote]1950 Los Angeles: 1. Mr Coffee drip coffee maker.

r113, Mr. Coffee has only been around since 1970.

[quote]Mr. Coffee has been brewing great tasting coffee in the comfort of people’s homes since 1970.

LOL R121 - our Very Eldergay was saying that he DID not have a Mr. Coffee, that his mom used a percolator.

People around here are so eager to pick a fight...

Of course he didn't have a Mr. Coffee, r122. No one did. Ergo, not worth mentioning.

R123 There is a lot of posturing on this site, trying to appear more knowledgeable. (Not just this site, more like social media in general.) Instead of chiming in related to someone’s comment, you must CORRECT it so everyone can see you’ve got one up on them!

I can't say we really wanted for anything growing up, we had brand name everything & all the conveniences you could think of.

The one thing we missed out on though was stuffing at Thanksgiving. I think I was a teenager before we had it. My mother didn't like it & said it wasn't hygienic to cook it in the turkey, so we avoided it altogether.

Once we had it though, we all loved it (except my mother & grandmother), my sister & I couldn't get enough of it. Everyone thought it was weird that we went gaga over something so simple, when the rest of the Thanksgiving dinner was better quality.

Stuffing is my favorite, R126, even though we never cooked it inside the bird and just used Stouffer’s bagged. My carb loving tendencies…

I was born in 1966; I remember when microwaves and coffeemakers became a thing. So many people drank instant coffee in the 1970s.

Professional carpet cleaning services. My father used to rent one of those carpet cleaners from the grocery store and spend all day doing it himself. When I look back, I wonder why he didn’t just hire a professional service,

Dark meat. [italic] (Any silly comment you want to make is beneath you, so don't bother.) [/italic]

My mom ONLY made chicken breast and turkey breast. Never a drumstick, never a wing, never a thigh. Just-barely-too-dry chicken breasts and a giant roast turkey breast at Thanksgiving.

Dark is so tasty and great for variety. [italic] (See above note.) [/italic]

[quote] Just-barely-too-dry chicken breasts

Dinner at my house at least three days a week, along with iceberg salad with bottled dressing and some frozen dinner rolls. My poor mother who hates cooking and is terrified of food for fear of weight gain. All three of her kids grew up to love cooking and foodie culture, to her mystification.

You apparently didn't pay much attention to anything other than your neighbors, R120. Clothing, sheets and towels smell incredible when dried in fresh air. Nothing has ever duplicated it even in the wealthiest homes. Your mother obviously knew what she was doing.

R125, you must correct it so people don't remain so ignorant.

Color TV.

My parents paid for expensive trips to exotic places and private schools, but they drew the line at buying a color TV.

They thought it would encourage us to watch more.

Didn't really make any sense, as we were usually only allowed to watch an hour a day.

[quote] Household stuff you didn't grow up with

Lube - it wasn’t until I got to college that I discovered lube. My roommate used to rub one out each night before falling asleep. I couldn’t understand how his dick could take the constant friction/action without turning raw. I finally got up the courage to ask him after 2 months. He shared his bottle of astroglide with me and we both jerked off together. It felt amazing. My freshman year was never the same. We would continue to jerk off together frequently and I think that’s when we both decided that dick was king.

yeah right. 🙄.

granny percolated and we did have instant until mr. coffee came out.

we were one of the first ones with a microwave. last with many, cable, idk shit others had.

we did have the internet before we knew what it was. dad's office computer we dared to touch! but it was the internet.

R98 Except European washers usually have an extraction cycle that's much faster than an American spin-dry cycle and which is exceptionally hard on clothes. Dryers are harsh only when the temp is set very high, like at a laundromat.

R125 nailed it. The posturing you mentioned appears in nearly every single DL thread.

R133, pffffft!

People posture and correct posts irregardless of facts.

Chef Boyardee was a staple of my childhood, and now I can't believe my parents let me eat that shit.

^irregardless isn't a word

R142. It is now. Check a dictionary.

I grew up on a household that didn’t have poppers. It was a deprived childhood. The kids at school used to tease me about it.

Spaghetti O's and Chef Boyardee we had. My mom also made her homemade sauce. I remember, in the mornings being awaked by the aroma of garlic and onions sauteing (sp). It was so good! Then, she got lazier and bought jars of Ragu sauce.

We had Boyardee. i ate SpaghettiOs at a family friend's house and puked my guts out.

One more time, R121/R124:

The Los Angeles Very Eldergay currently has a Mr. Coffee. This is new to him as his mother used a percolator.

Given the number of people posting they did not have microwaves back in the 1950s and 1960s, I am not sure what set you off about his post.

Though I suspect R125 nailed it.

I grew up washing cast iron (handwashing w/Dawn soap). No, you don't want to remove every last bit of patina you've built up on that pan. But you can use soap on cast iron.

We never had remote controls for TVs. No TVs in bedrooms or kitchen. Living room only.

[quote]On the housekeeper's days off, we had to wash/dry all the dishes after every meal. I vowed never to live without a dishwasher again.

How my heart bleeds for you!

Anyone else grow up using a washing machine with that gizmo on top? Young'uns probably don't even know what a mangle is, much less how to use one.

Indoor plumbing.

Ice maker (yes, I know someone posted it already). Some people don't like it b/c it requires minor plumbing & possible leaks. But I really enjoy having my ice maker, esp. during summer.

I remember being 4-5 yrs old & seeing a commercial for Chef Boyardee Ravioli on TV & asking my mom to buy it. She said no, I wouldn't like it & she can make ravioli. I insisted she had to get the canned version, the commercial made it look so delicious.

I vividly remember, 45 yrs later, the exact second I first tasted it, & how it tasted like metallic acid & thought my mom did something wrong in the preparation to botch it.

My sister loved Chef Boyardee spaghetti (ugh, the meatballs).

I'm so happy to have had a homemaker as a mother, who's a wonderful cook!

Why would you need a garbage disposal if you can just throw all of that stuff in the green bin?

We all sound poor.

Back in the day, disposal commercials showed people putting all kinds of stuff down the sink, like pineapple skins. Then, Heloise or someone suggested putting lemons down there.

Really bad practices.

Disposals are for random bits of food that get stuck to your plate.

Winter boots. We had to walk 8 km to the little red school house with newspapers and wax paper stuffed into our hand me down leather shoes, which all had holes in the soles.

Heat at night. We slept 3 to 4 to a bed to keep warm in winter.

Dentistry. Grandpa yanked out any troublesome teeth with his blacksmithing tools.

We had a dishwasher, microwave, VHS, fireplace, central vac, bowed windows in the living room, a family cottage with a boat, but no garburator.

R142 never gets laid…

IRREGARDLESS Yes. It may not be a word that you like, or a word that you would use in a term paper, but irregardless certainly is a word. It has been in use for well over 200 years, employed by a large number of people across a wide geographic range and with a consistent meaning. That is why we, and well-nigh every other dictionary of modern English, define this word. Remember that a definition is not an endorsement of a word’s use.

R151 - we had one of the until the late 60s or early 70s. A wringer. We didn't have a dryer either. So clothes were washed in the machine and the water squeezed out of the clothes by passing them through the wringer. Then hung out on the clothes line. I'm pretty sure this was the model we had.

R151 You must have been rich with that motorized wringer. We had to crank the clothes through by hand.

(Those who never understood John Mitchell's famous jibe will benefit from your link.)

R149, we didn't have remotes or big screen TVs until well into the 1990s when I was already in college. We had a 25" Zenith console television that lasted throughout the '70s and '80s, and though sometimes the horizontal hold would go haywire, a good whack to the top of the cabinet would set it right. It did eventually give out, and we replaced it with a heavy 45" Mitsubishi rear projection tv that didn't last a decade.

Air conditioning. Western Mass. it was really only oppressively humid two or three weeks of the year. We slept with all of the windows open, especially on the first floor. Our heavy wooden front door was open with only the screened door locked. That way we could get a nice cross current of air and send the cooler ground level air to the upper floors.

The sound of childhood! That screen door constantly slamming itself shut.

We only had 3 forks. One for ma, one for pa, and one for the oldest son.

Love

We didn't have any air conditioning, either. We did have a whole-house fan, one of those massive things that lives in the attic and pulls the hot air up and out. Looking back, I don't know how we managed. The world must have been a much cooler place then.

I grew up in a prosperous town in Southern California where the houses were connected to a metropolitan sewer system. Now I live in a rural part of Western Washington where we have septic systems instead of sewers. All well and good except despite having a garbage disposal, we must compost our kitchen waste. I have grown to despise coffee grounds, although our garden soil thanks us.

R168 Where did you live? I had a professor at Cornell who had a big house in a leafy neighborhood and it had one of those gigantic whole house fans. In the evening, the house was cooled down in minutes for ambient air, and I think the entire structure was effectively cooled within by an hour or two.

I installed window fans in my Brooklyn floor through apartment. There were two fans in the back on the green back space of the brownstone block, sucking the air in. There were 2 fans on the street facing windows, pushing it out. I could pull a lot of air through there and make it through the summer except exceptional August heat waves.

They have to be box fans with the windows otherwise sealed.

Oh and r160 I bet you have boys begging to stuff your mouth with their cocks… Just to shut you up

My mom had pretty good taste in most things however only had instant for her morning coffee. It was a glorious revolution to me when I finally had fresh brewed brew in my own home.

[quote]On the housekeeper's days off, we had to wash/dry all the dishes after every meal. I vowed never to live without a dishwasher again.

As God is my witness, as God is my witness they're not going to lick me. I'm going to live through this and when it's all over, I'll never be washin' and dryin' again. No, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal, cheat or kill. As God is my witness, I'll never go without a dishwasher again.

I also didn’t grow up having real butter, we had Parkay because it was supposed to be “healthier” than butter. Orange Juice came from frozen concentrate, mixed in a plastic jug. My mom would occasionally make fresh squeezed juice on special occasions or holidays like Easter. When I was a teenager in the 80s we started getting Tropicana in cartons and it was so much better than frozen concentrate.

I remember Minute Maid low acid frozen concentrate OJ.

I’d get a pitcher add 1 can of oj concentrate 3 cans of water then I’d stir it with my hand and drink from the empty can

Our maid Beulah had a steady hand in the kitchen and never broke or stole anything. Most of her job was kitchen work. But mother made do without a houseboy. Good lord! I have Havika, my beloved Laotian houseboy. He's hopeless in the kitchen and I have no cook. But he sings beautifully in French and can press a French cuff.

Foods

A salad spinner. Best thing ever for removing excess water from greens.

Fresh pineapple.

All the pineapple I had came out of a can.

When I went to Hawaii as a teen, tasting real, fresh pineapple was a revelation. It was an entirely different fruit.

R178 my mom still has and uses her salad spinner from the 1970s. There is a string pull to spin it. That thing is indestructible. I’ve had a few crap ones but the one I like now is collapsible silicone and is easy to store.

When I was 8 yrs old I bought my mom an expensive food processor for Mother’s Day. It probably cost $250 in 1981. She never used it. She was into small kitchen appliances but not that one!

I miss my dad frying chicken in our electric skillet

They weren't sold as kitchen items but along with some of the aforementioned items, the microplane grater was a real game-changer.

Refrigerator freezers that don't need defrosting.

[quote]When I was 8 yrs old I bought my mom an expensive food processor for Mother’s Day. It probably cost $250 in 1981. She never used it. She was into small kitchen appliances but not that one!

My Cuisinart was in the back of a bottom shelf for years. I recently rediscovered it when I needed to grate carrots for a Vietnamese dish and couldn't find my box grater. The Cuisinart did a perfect job in seconds. I've used it several times since.

The thing that struck me is that it still works perfectly, with a quiet whir and no wobble. When I looked at the very sharp blades, I noticed it said, "MADE IN JAPAN." I then realized how old it was, as nothing like that is still made in Japan. They would have moved manufacturing to Korea long ago, and then China.

Attic fans are pretty damn effective!!

R110 - before I had one, I would have agreed with you. I do have a ceramic Dutch oven that I picked up for a ridiculous price at store opening. Like $30. Yes, cheap Chinese knockoff but I've had it for 10 years now and it works fine. As for a Le Creuset...I'd never had spent the money for one.

Then this year for Christmas, my oldest son and his wife gave my a 3.5L braiser. I wanted to keep it in my pantry but I needed to make some room for it. I left it on my stove. It was red and my stove is black, and it looked nice. Well, I now use it at least four times a week, often more. I never would have paid that much for a pot (at least for myself) but now I would if I needed to. And when I go, they'll get the pot back.

I didnt even know spaghetti sauce existed until I was a teen. I used to put ketchup on my pasta

r187 = Fran Fine

That pork chops were perfectly safe to eat even if they weren't fried to a hard leathery unchewable crisp.

I remember always being jealous of people that had those refrigerators that had water and ice dispensers...idk why .

R190 I can’t live without my door ice water and ice cube dispenser! I like how my refrigerator has a changeable water filter for the water and ice. Filters out crap and chlorine too.

Coffee-making equipment other than drip machines. Before that, it had been a percolator.

Well, I certainly don't have an avocado green 1969 Sears double door refrigerator designed by "Sundberg Terar" like my parents had. Nor do I have Viking Kitchen Carpet. They did.

why on earth did people believe kitchen carpet was a good idea?

This is sort of the reverse. My grandparents slept in twin beds, and when my grandmother passed away when I was very young, maybe 3 or 4, we ended up with all the twin-size bedding. My grandfather decided to upgrade to a king-size bed. My grandmother must have been a bit of a linen snob, and as such, I slept on really high-quality bed linens throughout childhood, not really knowing that they were quality. When I went away to college, my parents and I made a pilgrimage to Walmart to outfit my dorm room. Everything was bought in 2 hours.

After making my bed and not washing my crappy polyester sheets, I got into bed that night. Well, you know the horror I felt. Princess and the Pea. Didn't sleep. The next day my anguish was made known and several sets of bed linens were FedExed to me at school. I was trained early on to sleep on good bedding. Still makes me laugh my ass off.

Sex toys. Most teens have lush or fleshlights today.

Cast iron skillet or any "skillet" other than the electric skillet. My mom used this all the time, it's little sad handles and the vent top.

Manual can opener- I was terrified of the electric one and its blade.

Real butter- another margarine house

Soda of any kind other than Shastas we were allowed to have on vacation

Most condiments didn't exist in our house- no mustard, barbecue sauce, bottled salad dressing, or hot sauce. It was ketchup and homemade Catalina dressing or oil and vinegar. My mom did allow A-1 in the house. No "whipped" peanut butter - it was mix your own Laura Scudders.

No chips other than cheap Mother Goose or Laura Scudders. NO NAME BRANDS!

No fast foods other than the occasional Sunday trip to Arby's. (Gee thanks)

Kleenex.

Kemp me and someone else who only ever had orange juice made from the frozen cans. I think I thought that’s how orange juice came. Then when I had actual fresh squeezed orange juice it was a revelation. Oh, mom, what were you thinking?

Also actual waffles not downyflake frozen

Real whipped cream not that fake stuff you shoot out of an aerosal can.

Eldergays-- why didn't people like butter in the 50s? (60s?) -- was it a scarcity thing from WW2 or was margarine supposed to be healthier or better tasting?

R202 my grandma called margarine “olio”. I was like WTF is olio? My mom informed me it meant margarine!

SO YOU PEOPLE WITH THE CANNED OJ NEVER GOT A BJ OR ORANGEAID FROM THE SODDY FOUNTAIN AT THE DRUG STORE?

[quote] I was like WTF is olio?

Olio just means a combination of things, which margarine is.

I discovered this while watching Show Boat, where they introduce the segment of the show with miscellaneous acts as "The Olio."

R202, margarine used to be called oleomargarine, a fatty substance extracted from beef fat. During the Great Depression and World War II, margarine grew in popularity because it was a cheap and plentiful alternative to rationed butter. In the 1980s, trans fat margarine was marketed as a healthy alternative to butter, even though it wasn't.

Vintage oleomargarine

Somebody here does not do crossword puzzles.

R206 thx for the info.

Olio sales grew because it was advertised as being much healthier than evil butter. From the late 50's through the 70's there as a TV blitz of ads promoting margarine. Turns out trans-fats aren't good for you at all. Trans-fats are terrible. So back to butter.

[quote] Most condiments didn't exist in our house- no mustard, barbecue sauce, bottled salad dressing, or hot sauce. It was ketchup and homemade Catalina dressing or oil and vinegar. My mom did allow A-1 in the house. No "whipped" peanut butter - it was mix your own Laura Scudders.

[quote] No chips other than cheap Mother Goose or Laura Scudders. NO NAME BRANDS!

Wow, I condole you. I grew up with tons of condiments and still have tons of condiments in the door. Frito Lay products are superior to Laura Scudders. Ugh!

I hope that you now buy whatever condiments you need and buy Frito Lay products.

I have lived in my new build flat for10 years now and all of the kitchen appliances are built in, but I have never once even switched on the dishwasher. Same thing with another new build I bought and lived in for a few years in the late 80’s. Nobody ever believes me when I tell them this. A friend on mine has just had her first ever dishwasher installed and loves it.

R208, lol. Olio, Oleo, & Olla (podrida) show up so often!

Affection

R212, why don’t you use the dishwasher? I rinse my dishes off and load it but don’t run it until it’s full.

I grew up without central AC or heat in NEW ORLEANS! We had window units but not in every room and it was still hot as fuck inside in the summer.

I hate the heat so much I keep my thermostat at 60. I go to my dad’s (new) house that does have central AC and it’s 73 and I’m dying of heat stroke.

We only had a housekeeper and a gardener.

No chauffeur, butler or laundress.

Things were different back then, people didn't have the household staffs they had during the 20s or 30s.

OP, what is "Household stuff"?

I have a small dishwasher (45cm wide vs. standard 60cm) and use it almost every day for one or two people. Even without cooking a proper meal it fills with plates, glasses, coffee cups, and flatware and a 30-minute quick wash is perfect, using very little water and energy.

I had it installed in a kitchen renovation but it never worked and I was almost a year getting around to getting it fixed. Once the new (replacement) machine was working I wondered how i had ever forgotten how wonderful they are. When I was young my mother always had one but it required attaching a hose to the kitchen sink faucet. She used it with great fanfare and mistrust at two or three holidays or big family meals each year. i hate a sink piled with dishes to be washed later, or arguably worse, washing everything immediately after use.

A house. - Dee Orphan We never had any bugs because we ate them.

R215 I have always lived alone so I don’t have a huge amount of washing up. I figure that I will need a sink of soapy water anyway to wash down the worktops, cooker etc so I might as well just wash the dishes in the sink as well. I’ve just never gotten out of the habit of doing it this way. I’ve actually just this minute looked inside to see how you switch it on, I pressed the on button just to make sure that it actually works.

If you let your dishwasher sit idle for too long, the lines will freeze up from disuse & you’ll need to get a new one.