Dinner or Supper?

[2jakes]

In the fourth grade during recess, we
would buy the 6 oz glass bottle cokes and
added salted peanuts.
I worked part-time in the summer with
Canada Dry Bottling Co.
During the hot summers riding in
those delivery trucks, it was common
for the bottles to pop from the heat
and shaking caused by the bumpy
roads.
Back then glass bottles came with caps
with cork inside the bottle cap.
We’d remove the cork and
attached the caps to our t-shirts.
The cork was placed inside the shirt
to hold the cap in place.
As some sort of decoration which we
thought was “cool” looking!

Comic books were ten cents. My favorites
were “Classic Illustrated”, although they
cost more.
These books along with Stag or Confidential magazines
for adults could be found at the local barber shop.

The comfortable barber chair, aroma
of the place with all the hair-tonics,
hot soap lather, the small radio broadcasting
a baseball game is now gone but not
forgotten.

 

[TimeWarpWife]

At home it was breakfast, lunch, and supper. However, my dad's parents called it breakfast, dinner, and supper.

 

[MisterCairo]

At home it was breakfast, lunch, and supper. However, my dad's parents called it breakfast, dinner, and supper.

That`s it in our house!

 

[ChiTownScion]

Ginger Ale used to be a much more varied product than it is now -- "Golden" ginger ale was a much stronger version, popular in the 1910s, with a heavier ginger flavor and leaning toward the sweet side, while "Pale Dry" was the Canada Dry/Schweppes type of product that modern folk think of when somebody mentions "ginger ale." Evidently the popularity of "pale dry" as a cocktail mixer eclipsed the idea of ginger ale as a flavorful stand-alone beverage.

In New England we grew up with Cott and Clicquot Club, which offered both varieties -- but today the Golden variety is very hard to find. The only regional company that still makes it is Polar Beverages in Massachusetts, which offers "Old Fashioned Golden" in quart bottles only. While I don't normally like heavy-sweet drinks, the strong ginger flavor counteracts the sugar and makes it quite satisfying.

We used to have a kid here who had the idea that mixing Sprite and Coke at a 50-50 ratio at the fountain made "ginger ale," but I'm inclined to disagree with this theory.

Glad that we now have ginger beer more widely available in the US. The recent popularity of Moscow Mules likely has much to do with that- but I simply forgo the vodka and copper cup.

The popular brand that claims the adjective "Jamaican" in its title is a bit pricy- but we have a local supermarket chain that offers a reasonably priced alternative in a liter size. Wit Beverage Co. of Milwaukee produces a line of craft sodas, including one that they label as, "Spicy Ginger" that has just the right kick, with no aftertaste. I even enjoy it with a scoop or two of vanilla ice cream: a twist on the old "black cow" root beer float. Since it is carbonated and not fermented, it's technically a ginger ale. But it's close enough to GB at a more affordable price.

 

[LizzieMaine]

We sell a product called "Maine Root Ginger Brew," which is extremely strong, and has terrified a number of our daintier elderly patrons who thought it was the same thing as the soothing ginger ale they take for an upset stomach. It's more a ginger beer than a ginger ale, but is even stronger than the usual ginger beers you come across. It's like trying to eat a whole raw ginger root -- some like it, but it's too aggressive for me.

 

[EngProf]

⇧ My girlfriend spent her high school years in Michigan and drank Vernors ginger ale which is still made (we have it when we visit there) and has more bite / ginger flavor than pale dry ones, but for real bite, I found the brand Blenheim popping up occasionally in NYC stores and it has a real nice bite / ginger flavor to it.

http://www.blenheimgingerale.com

I spent a few of my kid-years in exile in the North (Detroit), and we would drink Vernor's ginger ale as a multi-sensory experience. If you gulped down a slug of it, it would explode upward and burn up the inside of your nasal passages. It was so carbonated, so spicy, or so something that it would do what none of the other soft drinks would do. Kids do that sort of stuff for fun...

I wish I had some of that now if it's still made like it was back in the '50's.

 

[ChiTownScion]

We sell a product called "Maine Root Ginger Brew," which is extremely strong, and has terrified a number of our daintier elderly patrons who thought it was the same thing as the soothing ginger ale they take for an upset stomach. It's more a ginger beer than a ginger ale, but is even stronger than the usual ginger beers you come across. It's like trying to eat a whole raw ginger root -- some like it, but it's too aggressive for me.

Sounds like my kind of drink: I can abide "aggressive," but not a lingering aftertaste. If the first sip hits me like a grade school nun grabbing my nose and giving it a mild twist.. that's about right.

BTW.. does your theatre serve Moxie to the opera matinee crowd? I've yet to try it, but from what everyone says, (positive and negative) I think that I might just like it. Definitely on the to- do list for the next trip to Boston.

 

[LizzieMaine]

We do -- it's very popular here, and is in fact the Official State Beverage. The Moxie Museum is just up the road from here, and we always stop in when we go to the county fair.

The taste is sort of like root beer mixed with cough syrup -- the active ingredient is gentian root, which is also the active ingredient in angostura bitters, so unless you're prepared for it it will take you by surprise.

 

[Fading Fast]

I spent a few of my kid-years in exile in the North (Detroit), and we would drink Vernor's ginger ale as a multi-sensory experience. If you gulped down a slug of it, it would explode upward and burn up the inside of your nasal passages. It was so carbonated, so spicy, or so something that it would do what none of the other soft drinks would do. Kids do that sort of stuff for fun...

I wish I had some of that now if it's still made like it was back in the '50's.

http://www.thevernorsstore.com

But also consider this brand - we think it has more "ginger ale-ness"

http://www.blenheimgingerale.com

 

[HanauMan]

Never liked, thus never drank, the likes of root beer or ginger ale. As a kid the only sodas I regularly drank were Coca Cola or Pepsi Cola (preferred the taste of Coke but drank both) or Fanta / Sprite. When younger I had Kool-Aid or Tang to add to water. When we lived in West Germany I loved the German carbonated orange or lime juices they had in one liter bottles or German Florida Boy juice. When I moved to the UK I found most of their sodas, such as Iru Bru, way too sweet though the natives drink the stuff like water (which is probably why most Brits my age (52) wear dentures). I love their Twinings iced tea juices, though.

 

[2jakes]

Root beer was too heavy & rich for my taste.

Grew up drinking 1950s Dr. Pepper.
My dad was manager of the local
Dr. Pepper bottling plant.
I enjoyed it “24/7” as they say today.

Ma didn’t care for it. Thought it tasted
like prume juice.

I loved going to the bottling plant.
Enjoyed the strong pungent odor combination
syrup and carbonation.
Fascinated by the assembly line of glass bottles
rolling along the conveyor being filled and capped.

Often times during the summer heat, bottles on the
delivery truck would burst from the rough bumpy roads and the carbonated mixture.

 

[Zombie_61]

...My dad was manager of the local Dr. Pepper bottling plant. So I enjoyed it “24/7” as they say today.

Ma didn’t care for it. Thought it tasted like prume juice...

I remember a rumor going around at some point during the 1970s that prune juice was one of the ingredients, and because of Dr. Pepper's "unusual" flavor a lot of people around here believed it. I never thought it tasted like prune juice myself, but could never quite identify what it did taste like...other than Dr. Pepper, that is.

We had a spare refrigerator in the garage when I was growing up, mostly used for beer and soft drinks. I had my preferences like everyone else, but it was usually stocked with whichever soft drinks Mom liked, or whichever was cheapest when we went shopping. At one point Mom decided she needed to lose weight, so I had to endure drinking Fresca and Tab for several months until Mom decided they weren't doing the trick; funny thing is that I had grown to like them by then.

 

[Fading Fast]

I remember a rumor going around at some point during the 1970s that prune juice was one of the ingredients, and because of Dr. Pepper's "unusual" flavor a lot of people around here believed it. I never thought it tasted like prune juice myself, but could never quite identify what it did taste like...other than Dr. Pepper, that is.

We had a spare refrigerator in the garage when I was growing up, mostly used for beer and soft drinks. I had my preferences like everyone else, but it was usually stocked with whichever soft drinks Mom liked, or whichever was cheapest when we went shopping. At one point Mom decided she needed to lose weight, so I had to endure drinking Fresca and Tab for several months until Mom decided they weren't doing the trick; funny thing is that I had grown to like them by then.

Dr. Pepper, like Tapioca pudding and root beer, each are a "singular" taste experience - most people tend to love or hate them and they really don't taste like (as you implied) anything else.

I like the taste of diet soda more than regular soda, I think because that was what was in the house growing up. I'll drink both, but (and it could be all in my head) the sugary ones taste "thicker" or "syrupier" to me. Also, when I was a kid, the dentist told us to avoid the sugary ones so I have - who knows if that really makes a difference either, but it's all those little things that happen to you as a kid that shape so many things in your life.

 

[Zombie_61]

Dr. Pepper, like Tapioca pudding and root beer, each are a "singular" taste experience - most people tend to love or hate them and they really don't taste like (as you implied) anything else...

Sometimes it's better to not know. Over the years I would drink Cactus Cooler on occasion because I liked the flavor, but couldn't identify it beyond "some kind of citrus". One day I actually bothered to read the can, where it plainly states "Orange Pineapple". Once the mystery was gone, it lost it's appeal.

...I like the taste of diet soda more than regular soda, I think because that was what was in the house growing up. I'll drink both, but (and it could be all in my head) the sugary ones taste "thicker" or "syrupier" to me...

Separate from my childhood experience with the aforementioned Fresca and Tab, back in 1981 I found myself out of work and gaining weight, so I returned to drinking diet sodas. They were varying degrees of "awful" to "tolerable", and it took a bit of time, but I got used to them. Approximately a year later the Coca-Cola Company introduced Diet Coke to the American public, and I haven't looked back since. Now on those rare occasions when I'll try a "regular" soda, they're exactly as you describe--thicker, syrupier, and so sickeningly sweet that I feel like I need an Insulin chaser.

 

[Shangas]

For me:

Breakfast = Morning.
Luncheon = Midday.
Dinner = Late Afternoon.
Supper = Evening.

 

[2jakes]

For me:

Breakfast = Morning.
Luncheon = Midday.
Dinner = Late Afternoon.
Supper = Evening.

Used to be like that for me in the past.

Today it’s “brunchsupper”!

Meaning....
I only eat when hungry and only in small amounts at all hours of the day or night regardless of the food.

I might have a slice of pizza in the morning or scrambled eggs at night.

Thanksgiving feast is the exception and
last couple of years, I haven’t finish everything that is on the plate.
I now have a habit of storing it in
the icebox for later. And it always
taste very good the second time
around especially when watching
TCM with my meal.
I no longer find a heavy or full stomach enjoyable or comfortable.

 

[wallypop]

you guys make me feel better! My kids all laugh at me and my "supper" term.
When I stayed at my gpa/gma on their farm their last meal(supper) was at 4:00pm or shortly after!!! Nothing after that!
At MY house mom dad"s home later. they liked to finish work, repairs, unwind, etc. then eat about 6:30 or so. I played lots of sports so late was the deal. also We snacked, whenever, whatever we wanted!

 

[2jakes]

you guys make me feel better! My kids all laugh at me and my "supper" term.
When I stayed at my gpa/gma on their farm their last meal(supper) was at 4:00pm or shortly after!!! Nothing after that!
At MY house mom dad"s home later. they liked to finish work, repairs, unwind, etc. then eat about 6:30 or so. I played lots of sports so late was the deal. also We snacked, whenever, whatever we wanted!

I’m looking forward to cooler weather
and snacking on leftover Thanksgiving
turkey and dressing.
Tastes better late in the evening!

 

[wallypop]

Another thought:
Does anyone think people spend extreme amounts just to "eat out", or eat out way too often? What I call"Sport eating" trying new restaurants all the time,etc?

 

[Zombie_61]

I’m looking forward to cooler weather and snacking on leftover Thanksgiving turkey and dressing. Tastes better late in the evening!

One of my ex-brothers-in-law always used to say that his favorite part of Thanksgiving wasn't the main meal, it was the turkey sandwich later that night. I can't say I disagree with him.