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Special treats when you were a kid?

post #1 of 28
4/3/11 at 3:49pm
Thread Starter 
I was watching Evil Under the Sun (Peter Ustinov as Hercules Poirot), and he ordered a drink that reminded me of a treat I used to get at my grandparents that I never got a home that I LOVED as a kid.

It was vanilla ice cream with crème de menthe as a topping. I've been craving it ever since, and mint chocolate chip just didn't do it!

And at the farm (my mom's parents), they used to keep a candy jar with chocolate chips in them. After dinner (if you finished it all), you could have your age plus one chocolate chip. I have no idea why it was so special, but I remember always being so happy to count them out.

I guess sweets were generally a treat. My dad's a Type 1 diabetic, and we never had candy or cookies at home, except on birthdays or holidays. So I guess those treats at the grandparents were "extra" special, because they weren't on a holiday or birthday.

Anything you remember as being special?
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post #2 of 28
4/3/11 at 4:14pm
One place we used to eat at had build your own ice cream, My mom would have been smart enough to supervise but my dad/dads side never cared. Cousin and I would dissapear for loooong time and eat right out of the canisters...HEY I was to young to know. Later on I realized the waiters probably just felt bad as the adults would binge drink and drive home.

Mom had party night fridays. Think every other week we took turns picking out the main candy and soda brother never took part in it as he was on the go kid all the time but sister and I did it. step by step and family matters were the main shows back then
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post #3 of 28
4/3/11 at 4:29pm
Ice cream was a big treat when I was little. Candy, cookies, chips. Junk food was rare.
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post #4 of 28
4/3/11 at 4:32pm
Homemade Brownies my mom made and still makes. Oh and Divinity my grandmother (RIP) made.
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post #5 of 28
4/3/11 at 5:48pm
Homemade black walnut ice cream. I didn't realize that black walnuts weren't common place until I left home. I grew up on a farm in Kansas and all the farms in the area had black walnut trees on their property.
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post #6 of 28
4/3/11 at 6:05pm
There was an ice cream parlor halfway between my grandmother's house and our home. They had soft serve chocolate ice cream that they piled so high it was hard to keep in the cone. Alas, they are no longer in business and a fast food restaurant stands where the ice cream parlor once resided.
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post #7 of 28
4/3/11 at 7:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by LDG View Post
It was vanilla ice cream with crème de menthe as a topping. I've been craving it ever since, and mint chocolate chip just didn't do it!
They gave you alcohol?!

My favourite treat from when I was a kid were homemade popcicles. My Mom made the greatest popcicles. I've tried making them, but they just don't come out the same. I know she used juice or tang or koolaid-type stuff with jello. But when I make them they come out frozen but too gelatenous. Her's came out like actual popcicles.

Oh, and her fudge! Especially chocolate fudge. I have never been able to make real fudge and have it setup like it is supposed to. Melting chocolate and adding nuts or something and having it reset is just not the same as actual cooked fudge on the stove.
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post #8 of 28
4/3/11 at 7:44pm
You might find this really weird, but......

Mom never allowed us to drink soda of any kind, but she was addicted to Diet Rite. She'd ask the kids to get her a bottle of it and pour it in a tall glass with ice. Once she was done, the kid that fixed her drink got to drink the last splash of soda from the bottom of the bottle. It was warm, but we didn't care.

We were pretty poor back then......
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post #9 of 28
4/3/11 at 7:44pm
Oh gosh, now you've done it! My mom used to make plain old chocolate brownies, cut marshmallows in half with scissors and place them on the warm brownies, put them back in the oven to melt and lightly brown up, then ice them with chocolate icing. Mmmmmmmmm
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post #10 of 28
4/3/11 at 9:18pm
I was a neglected kid and roamed the neighborhood when I was a very little, and often I'd visit one of our neighbors, a kind elderly lady named Mrs. Borchers, and she'd feed me homemade bread and salty dill pickles which she had grown and canned (we had nothing like that at home). Sometimes she'd send me home with a sprig of dill from her garden and I'd sniff it all day since it smelled like pickles. On my birthday she gave me a jar of her pickles! I got my first kitty from her before I was three, Kitty-Cat was my constant childhood companion and she'd let me put her in doll clothes and push her in a buggy in the 100-degree heat, she sure was a sweetie and she was very protective of me and me of her. That was a long time ago, but I still wish I could thank Mrs. Borchers (she died years ago) for taking me in when I needed a friend and keeping me safe in her home.
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post #11 of 28
4/3/11 at 9:23pm
A bottle of cold Pepsi with a pack of peanuts poured in was my special treat as a child. Yummmmmmie!
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post #12 of 28
4/4/11 at 12:07am
When we were stationed at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in the mid-1960s, we lived just a couple of blocks from Cache Road Square, a tiny strip center with a grocery store. Sometimes on warm evenings after dinner, while Mom was doing the dishes, my father would walk my little brother and me up to the grocery in the twilight to pick up some A&W root beer, vanilla ice cream, and marshmallow fluff. Then we'd stroll back home and Papa would make root beer floats for all of us!

Nobody ate the marshmallow fluff but Papa... but we always accepted some on top of our floats just so we could finger-sculpt it into fluff-castles.
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post #13 of 28
4/4/11 at 5:43am
Unfortunately I always had TOO many treats of all kinds as a child. It was basically Mom's way of keeping me pacified and quiet. Of course this lead to me being incredibly overweight as child and then into adulthood until I learned to eat properly and changed all of that.
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post #14 of 28
4/4/11 at 5:48am
Junk food was rare. We were too poor for Dad to buy much of it. On Thanksgiving Day, which was also Homecoming at church, my aunt would make a coconut cake which was the talk of the neighborhood. She has been dead probably ten years, but folks still talk about that cake.
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post #15 of 28
4/4/11 at 5:49am
Root beer floats, too. In our case it was a big family affair as it was usually after Sunday evening church. (My grandpa was the preacher.) We'd stop at the local A&W drive-in for a gallon of root beer, pick up a gallon of ice cream and meet at our house with my grandparents and aunts and uncles joining us.

I also remember going to the A&W for a root beer in an ice cold glass mug.
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post #16 of 28
4/4/11 at 6:49am
Bomb pops from the traveling ice cream truck. I loved to hear that jingle that was played.

They don't come around much anymore.
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post #17 of 28
4/4/11 at 6:53am
Grandma always had that rock candy!!!!!!!!!!! I am surprised I never broke a tooth on the stuff. She also had a jar of butterscotch candies. Mom would also go to the hostess store often. She would bring home those SuzyQ's. Another childhood favorite. NOW I want a Suzy Q!!!!!!!!!!!
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post #18 of 28
4/5/11 at 5:02pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Natalie_ca View Post
They gave you alcohol?!
Yeah, about a tablespoon of 15% - 20% alcohol. They didn't share the Sherry.

You know, I've never had a rootbeer float? I think I'll have to correct that!
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post #19 of 28
4/5/11 at 5:47pm
I was allergic to animal proteins as a kid, so while all the other kids got ice cream cones, I got cool whip cones with sprinkles, which I always thought was pretty special.
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post #20 of 28
4/5/11 at 5:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by LDG View Post

And at the farm (my mom's parents), they used to keep a candy jar with chocolate chips in them. After dinner (if you finished it all), you could have your age plus one chocolate chip. I have no idea why it was so special, but I remember always being so happy to count them out.
What an awesome story!

It's funny that you mention it. All of my grandparents have been gone for years but I remember one Christmas when I was in my tween years, when one of my cousins (I've 13) decided to help our grandparents decorate their house for Christmas. As part of our big decorating day, we got to help my grandfather make his famous peanut brittle. Now that they're gone, I wish I'd done it every year I had with them. It was so special. Still, even though we only did it once, I'll treasure it more than any gift they ever gave me.
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post #21 of 28
4/5/11 at 6:23pm
Homemade waffles, homemade chicken nugget type things but they were ten times better than any restaurant, homemade pies, french fries, fried okra, and ice cream made at home, and plenty of store bought junky foods. There was this one taco place that I pretty much ate about every day and loved their hot sauce from a young age. I have fond food memories of my childhood.
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post #22 of 28
4/6/11 at 1:50am
Quote:
Originally Posted by gemlady View Post
...I also remember going to the A&W for a root beer in an ice cold glass mug.
Yes! One of my uncles in Ohio actually owned an A&W at one time. Free floats when we visited every summer... what more could a kid ask?


Quote:
Originally Posted by LDG View Post
...You know, I've never had a rootbeer float? I think I'll have to correct that!
Laurie, to get properly initiated, you have to make your first float yourself: after you put the ice cream in the glass, put the glass and the bottle of root beer in the freezer for five minutes. That makes them so cold that when you pour in the root beer, it forms a thin glaze of frozen root beer over the ice cream. Now that's float greatness!
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post #23 of 28
4/6/11 at 5:04am
As much as I'd like to say that we never had a lot of junk food, that wasn't the case. There were always snack foods in the cabinets. Pepsi in the fridge. Mom baked cakes and cupcakes often. Thankfully I was never overweight when I was young, probably because I was always outside on my bike.

When I was in high school, my breakfast was a 16-ounce high-octane Pepsi. Made my mother furious.
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post #24 of 28
4/6/11 at 7:08am
Thread Starter 
I'm probably a junk food junkie (or used to be LOL) because I felt I was so deprived as a kid. We got Cheetos, Fritos, and Chips (with dip!) on New Year's.
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post #25 of 28
4/6/11 at 3:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by LDG View Post
You know, I've never had a rootbeer float? I think I'll have to correct that!
Laurie - you MUST make yourself a root beer float! Use A&W if you can find it.

I just read 2 of you had root beer floats made with A&W root beer. Those were the best!!

I guess the other treat we had was when we were on family vacations. We always drove to interesting places around the country and camped the entire way. Most meals were cooked on the camp stove. But about once a year, we'd pass by an A&W and we'd all beg for dad to stop. I can still recite the standard order from every family member (all 7 of us). Their root beer was the best and if dad was really feeling generous, he might allow root beer floats.
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post #26 of 28
4/6/11 at 4:42pm
Thread Starter 
We did the camping around the country thing too! We never stopped at restaurants, but as far as I was concerned, the camp cooked food WAS a treat! And breakfast every other day was cereal - which WAS special, because mom would buy those individual box packs? And they had things like Trix and Lucky Charms - "sugary" cereals we never had at home.
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post #27 of 28
4/6/11 at 4:44pm
Thread Starter 
...and A&W it will be. I have to pick up antibiotics on Friday, so I'll probably grab root bear and vanilla ice cream then. I'll obviously report back!

And thanks for the tip Carol!
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post #28 of 28
4/6/11 at 5:05pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by LDG View Post
Yeah, about a tablespoon of 15% - 20% alcohol. They didn't share the Sherry.

You know, I've never had a rootbeer float? I think I'll have to correct that!
I've never liked floats. I do however love rootbeer! I remember back when A&W had their Drive-Ins and you would pull up in your car, place your order and a girl on roller skates would deliver your order on a tray to your car. We would go once a month and have root beer in an ice cold frosty mug and then take home a jug of root beer. And usually the glasses that came with our meal
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