March 18, 2009

Vintage Food

I was home last weekend at my parents house in suburban Maryland. This is the same house that I grew up in so, over all this time, some things have changed (the Danish modern furniture and satellite chandelier are long gone) while some things remain the same (the basement is still decorated like an English pub). Yet one thing you’d except should change quite often is the food in the pantry. Well, while foraging for ingredients to make dinner one night, I found some Vintage Food that, no joke, was from the mid-1970’s. Check out this old school box of Shake 'n Bake, with no standard nutritional labeling and no UPC code!

This was not the only item I found. There was also a box of Betty Crocker Pie Crust Mix (29 cents!) which actually had a picture of “Betty Crocker” on the side panel. Granted, it was the 1970’s working woman update (no apron, hair up), but when was the last time you actually saw Betty Crocker as a fake-real person pictured on a box? If you are under 30 you might be going, uh, Betty Crocker is a real person? Yeah and so was Duncan Hines.

Granted, I found the Vintage Food way up on the top shelf where only someone who is 6'4" can easily reach. So I honestly don’t think my mom even knew it was there. I mean, the last time I can recall she was shakin’ and bakin’
, I was in high school. I suggested she call the Smithsonian regarding these items but, in the meantime, I think I might put them on eBay. I'll let you know what happens...