Home Alone with Tuna
I grew up in the 50s and 60s. It seemed like every weekend my parents got all dressed up and went to some event. I don’t know remember where they went – parties, business dinners, friend’s houses. In the 50s and 60s parents didn’t worry so much about leaving their kids with babysitters, especially on Friday night. The adults smoked, drank, played cards, I don’t know. There was just a clear separation between kid events and adult events.
When they left my sister Cathy and I at home there was usually a babysitter – Miss Lulu, whose names sounds like she might be fun but she wasn’t or Miss Donnelly, who we definitely didn’t like and Miss Batchelder (who we called Batch). We loved Batch because she brought us candy. And played games with us. Where did they find this stable of spinster women? No idea. Mom always fed us before the babysitter came. And we ate the same food for this early no-parents dinner every single time and looked forward to it and
to this day it is still some kind of weird comfort food for Cathy and me. We had a baked potato and canned tuna. Cathy says we also had shoepeg corn out of a can but I don’t remember that. Or else I didn’t eat it. Pretty plain jane potatoes - butter, salt and pepper maybe a little squeeze of lemon on the tuna. That’s it. I was an obnoxiously picky eater but I’d happily eat this. At least they are whole foods, right?.
So I’m curious. What did your parents leave for you to eat when they went out? Did you look forward to it or not? Or did your parents never go out (and are they still married?)? Was it canned, frozen, take-out? Do you have kids and leave them similar food when you go out? Spill the beans.
Tags: baked potato, canned tuna, date night, home alone, parents
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Chef Boyardee’s Beefaroni and toast. Yum!
Comment by Tia — April 23, 2009 @ 5:54 pm
My parents went out and left us with T.V. dinners and a new comic book every time!
I loved the Archies. They are not together anymore.
Comment by Leslie Wright — April 23, 2009 @ 7:01 pm
We had TV Dinners! I remember thinking they were great at the time, but looking back I can’t believe my mother served them to us as she had a minor in nutrition!! I shouldn’t really talk as my mainstay for when hubby and I go out is pizza, though I usually serve it with a salad.
Comment by Sue K — April 23, 2009 @ 7:02 pm
Kentucky Fried Chicken, EXTRA CRISPY!!!!
With all the fixin’s …… YUM!
Comment by Dena — April 23, 2009 @ 8:17 pm
My parents left us with tv dinners. I loved how each food had their own section. Not so sure if I looked forward to it.
Comment by Christine — April 23, 2009 @ 9:27 pm
Jeno’s Pizza Rolls. This was a very special treat reserved only for dinners without Mom and Dad. Probably because those things are so disgusting that my parents didn’t want to touch them!
But for some reason, my brother and I loved them.
Comment by Carrie — April 24, 2009 @ 8:36 am
Love you Carrie.
Just for fun I looked up the ingredients for Jeno’s Pizza Rolls. Here’s the link.
http://www.generalmills.com/corporate/brands/product_image.aspx?catID=31213&itemID=1335
Comment by admin — April 24, 2009 @ 8:59 am
I was under the impression that children should be avoiding tuna these days. If there is a clean source you know about, please share!
Comment by carol — April 24, 2009 @ 9:33 am
Carol - I didn’t say tuna was something you SHOULD serve children. Just that it was what I was given to eat by my parents in the 50s and 60s. I don’t think we knew about mercury then. Maybe that is why I can be mad as a hatter sometimes.
That said YES there are clean sources. Fishermen who fish for younger, smaller tuna have assured me that there are no mercury worries. I have seen lab reports from Joe O’Malley who produces St. Jude tuna http://www.tunatuna.com/. I think the Tuna Guys (pictured in the blog) make a very good product. It is expensive though.
Comment by admin — April 24, 2009 @ 9:48 am
We got baked fish sticks and ketchup. Probably the most processed foods my mother ever let enter her house. But goodness, my sister and I could eat our body weight in those things. Not sure why we thought they were so great, other than the fact that they came in a box and we got to consume vast amounts of ketchup. We used to beg our parents to go out to parties so we could have a babysitter and fish sticks. Those were the days…
Comment by Brooke — April 24, 2009 @ 9:01 pm
Good, old Swanson’s tv dinners, complete with green and orange tv trays! What is Salisbury steak, anyway? I remember gagging on those mixed veggies so I could be allowed to scarf down the apple pie-ish goo.
Maybe it all seemed to taste better because you had to use the OVEN and wait, and wait, and wait.
Comment by Wendy — April 26, 2009 @ 8:44 am
Nothing. They left the seven of us nothing.
Comment by Ann Spiers — April 27, 2009 @ 8:50 am
Oh man. Thanks for that pizza roll ingredient link! Nice to know that my parents were basically feeding us a science project of some sort.
This *was* over 35 years ago, though. The days of vegetables cooked to a mushy texture so that you couldn’t really tell what it started out as… ick.
Comment by Carrie — April 30, 2009 @ 8:50 pm
Saturday nights out, my parents picked up dinner for us from Homer’s Drive In, an old-fashioned diner just down the street from our house. Hamburgers and french fries were a treat and we didn’t mind staying in with the babysitter.
Comment by Paige — June 2, 2009 @ 12:35 pm