The Corner Drawer

November 2022 

It’s nearing Thanksgiving, so I am planning my menu and making my lists. Of course, I cannot do this without thinking about my mom too. Not that she ever made a list, none I can recall, but she certainly was all about food. Thanksgiving or otherwise.  Which is why I think of her around the holidays. Today I am pondering food and childhood, including, for some reason, the unique snacks we were given and exposed to as kids.  

It was in the late 1960’s and 1970’s. The art of snacking was really coming of age, as was I.  My mother certainly embraced it.  She liked to bake, but she also loved convenience.  And store-bought snacks were becoming ever more so. Our house was full of them.  There were always Windmill cookies and Dutch wafers on the counter in the kitchen. She knew when it was time to buy more wafers when only the pink strawberry ones were left.  But it wasn’t just cookies.

She tried to give us healthy stuff too. Our kitchen counter was a repository of “grab and go” snacks.  It was usually celery filled with peanut butter or cream cheese, Polish roses, or a bowl full of onions with cucumbers in vinegar.  Even deviled eggs would often be featured. Always on the counter-top and non-refrigerated. For inordinate amounts of time!  Food borne illness be damned. It’s probably why we never got sick; we were constantly being inoculated.

My parents liked to have their friends over on Friday or Saturday nights.  My younger brother and I loved this.  We could watch TV shows we were usually not allowed to watch and stay up later than normal.  We also became spies, trying to listen in on adult conversations.  Watching them play cards and trying to decipher their humor, which I still think was in some kind of parental code. Thinking back, the talk and humor was very innocent for men that had been to war in some far-off country and women who had lived through the Great Depression.   

Of course, my mom loved to get the snacks out when she had guests.  She would have rusks, which were like cold, hard, pieces of toast that she had buttered and put on a plate for people to grab and go. They were more like big croutons than anything else. She always had Potato chips and some dip she had concocted herself.  Forever complaining after the party about someone who ate more dip than chips. 

Bowls of crunchy cheese balls or chewy circus peanuts were available. Bugles were a mainstay. Invariably there was Peanut brittle she had made, that got passed around in a bowl. I love it now, but it seemed as hard as a rock to a kid, yet somehow still appealing to adults.  There was always a candy dish of assorted things, wrapped or not wrapped, which no one ate. Not even to be polite. Everyone smoked, so anything that sat out too long tasted like bacon or smoked fish.

Of course, there were bowls of olives and pickles. Invariably Ritz crackers and a can of spray cheese would always find their way to the table.  Maybe a cheeseball.  Remember those?  And oh, let’s not forget my dad’s all-time favorite, pork rinds. Always served with tabasco sauce. If he was feeling creative and ambitious, and the crowd was right, he would make a cracker dip out of something called “Potted Meat”.  It looked gross and smelled awful, but there was never any left after the night was done.

But it wasn’t always about the adults at our house.  There was continually food designed just for kids.  Probably to keep us occupied more than providing nutritious food.  Nutrition was defined as calories back then, versus the quality, nutrient dense foods now.  Back then, we could just take a Flintstone vitamin to make up for any nutritional shortcomings. But probably, what our parents thought of as a fine, nutritious food was Breakfast cereal.

We had a cupboard full of cereals. Ones that no longer exist like Quisp, Quake and Sugar Smacks. Of course, Cap’n Crunch and Cocoa Pebbles were favorites.  And yes, we had Frosted Flakes, which by the way, we put additional sugar on.  There was always a canister of oatmeal my dad ate alongside a box of Coco-Wheats, which was a weekend treat for us kids. All served with full fat milk of course.  Which makes it so much better.

Finally, there was a secret location, the most important and thought-provoking snacking place in my childhood home.  Known fondly as “The corner drawer” to my group of friends. 50+ years later they all still call it that.  For some reason these guys’ parents were forward thinkers and their kids weren’t allowed sweets at home. At least it seemed that way. My mom’s corner drawer was a treasure chest of sweet treats.  Ding dongs, Little Debbie’s, Nutty bars, Ho Ho’s, Suzy-Q’s, Fruit pies and Swiss Rolls.  A goldmine for teenage snackers.  I could have cared less, because for me, sweets were always readily available, I didn’t crave them. But my mom took great pride in keeping that drawer stocked for “her boys”.  A fond memory indeed.

Yes, the 60s and 70’s were a decade of culinary innovation, with many foods becoming iconic.  Some still exist, while many have vanished with time.  Most that still do survive are a shadow of their former selves.  Cheapened for profitability or to try to make them healthier. Think Pop-Tarts for example. Groundbreaking and indulgent back then, but quite awful now.  Still, I often crave a TV dinner and a glass of Tang or Kool-Aid.  But right now, I better get back to Thanksgiving planning. While I’m feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. Just like a Twinkie.