Were any of you so poor as a kid, that your dessert was...

[St. Louis Suomi SASS #31905]

I remember being made fun of in school because I had to take onion sandwiches with mustard as my lunch.  Sometimes I would be able to get leftover white bean sandwiches on, of course, homemade white bread.  Everyone else had store bought bread and maybe PB&J.    Best time was when the smelt were running.  I could take leftover smelt sandwiches.  Smelt were for free mostly.

 

Lime jello with carrots or strawberry jello with pineapple.  - I do not like jello, but that is what I got so I ate it.  Best meal was home made Dutch Noodles (dumplings) with chicken on mashed potatoes.  Sometimes mom would use venison rather than chicken.  YUM-YUM Or Kartoffelknödel with a brown gravy.

 

 

STL Suomi

[Chickamauga Slim]

I always thought we were poor when I was growing up. Well after reading all of this I realize just how well off we were. Momma kept a piece of bacon, one of them thick slab pieces, cooked to perfection. She kept it wrapped neatly in one of Grandma's old silk handkerchiefs. During the school year, just before we left to go, she would unwrap it and let each of us kids rub it on our lips. That way when the other kids got on the wagon that me and my brother had to pull up the hill to the school (pulling that wagonload of schoolkids is how we were able to eventually pay off the store for the slab of bacon), anyway, that way them kids could smell our bacon breath and think we had eaten. Once we dropped the poor kids off at school we headed to our place of learning, Jim Stoltsmyer's smelting house and rock quarry. As a 4 year old I learned a lot about stoking fires and swinging sledge hammers. Them other kids never had a chance to find out what life was about. About sundown we'd settle up with old man Stoltsmyer. On a really productive day we didn't owe him a penny for the water we drank from his cistern. Just before bedtime Momma would bring us a warm bowl of dandelion soup. I usually turned it down because I was kinda bright and knew how much we'd owe Mr. Stoltsmyer for the water she used.

I always wondered what happened to them poor kids locked up in that school house all day........

[Birdgun Quail, SASS #63663]

20 hours ago, Three Foot Johnson said:

My maternal grandfather's first house in the New World. By the time I came along 48 years later, things were a lot better. Frame house, shingle roof, running water, indoor plumbing, electricity, fresh beef/chicken/pork every day, fresh eggs, fresh milk/cream/butter, fresh bread, fresh vegetables, wild huckleberry/strawberry/raspberry/chokecherry jams & pies. Realistically, my folks had to save up to buy a new pair of shoes, but for daily sustenance, we had everything we needed. 

Never heard of vinegar cobbler.

 

I wish I had the picture of my grandfather in front of his Soddy that he built when he homesteaded in the NW corner of the Oklahoma Territory.

But here is a picture of my grandfather and grandmother holding my two oldest cousins.  You can see the Soddy in the background...and yes....there was a fence on the roof.

 

[John Kloehr]

Dessert? What about finding out other kids get cake once a year on their birthday?

[Yellowhouse Sam # 25171]

Buttered bisquit with a dab of sugar

 

[Badger Mountain Charlie SASS #43172]

9 hours ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

I haven't seen Neopolitan ice cram in ages.  Used to be some in everybody's fridge.

My Dad's favorite. 

[watab kid]

never had this - desert in our house was saturday evening popcorn with ed sullivan - once we got the B&W TV , before that we went to the grandparents on saturday evening to watch theirs - still popcorn , we did get salt and sometimes a bit of butter on it , 

 

never got sodas or any sweets save the holidays , sometimes there was pie on sunday if the parents didnt eat it all , 

[Rye Miles #13621]

15 hours ago, Chickamauga Slim said:

I always thought we were poor when I was growing up. Well after reading all of this I realize just how well off we were. Momma kept a piece of bacon, one of them thick slab pieces, cooked to perfection. She kept it wrapped neatly in one of Grandma's old silk handkerchiefs. During the school year, just before we left to go, she would unwrap it and let each of us kids rub it on our lips. That way when the other kids got on the wagon that me and my brother had to pull up the hill to the school (pulling that wagonload of schoolkids is how we were able to eventually pay off the store for the slab of bacon), anyway, that way them kids could smell our bacon breath and think we had eaten. Once we dropped the poor kids off at school we headed to our place of learning, Jim Stoltsmyer's smelting house and rock quarry. As a 4 year old I learned a lot about stoking fires and swinging sledge hammers. Them other kids never had a chance to find out what life was about. About sundown we'd settle up with old man Stoltsmyer. On a really productive day we didn't owe him a penny for the water we drank from his cistern. Just before bedtime Momma would bring us a warm bowl of dandelion soup. I usually turned it down because I was kinda bright and knew how much we'd owe Mr. Stoltsmyer for the water she used.

I always wondered what happened to them poor kids locked up in that school house all day........

I agree, my dad worked in a factory and my mom made some meals for families in the neighborhood for some extra money. We always had sweets and deserts in the house. Homemade cookies, pies, cakes and store bought candy! My mom had a sweet tooth and so do I. 

[Pulp, SASS#28319]

We had Air Pudding with Wind Sauce.

 

Since this thread is about desserts, I won’t mention cutting hemorrhoids off our boar hog so we could have chitlins without having to butcher him.  

[Alpo]

1 hour ago, Pulp, SASS#28319 said:

I won’t mention cutting hemorrhoids off our boar hog so we could have chitlins without having to butcher him.  

And I, for one, appreciate you not mentioning it. I'm still eating breakfast.

[Tennessee williams]

  My favorite dessert growing up was coffee with sugar and biscuits in it. Every now and again I can still taste it when I drink certain coffees.

   I did work up a good way to feed the cat. Momma would give me the left over bone from the ham she put in the beans for the dog. I'd take it out back and hold it up in front of the dog to get him slobbering real good and the cat would run up and drink the slobber. Once the tomcat had his fill, I'd break that bone in half and finally share it with the dog. 

   When we felt like showing off and acting uppity, Momma would put potatoes in with the pinto beans. That was mostly when we knew someone was gonna come over to the house. That way they'd think we had money.

 

[Go West]

We had Jello and tapioca occasionally. Later after Mom got a job, we got cookies, pie and cake, though not all the time. Usually coincided with company. My mom was pretty good at stretching things, like turning a scrawny chicken into 3-4 meals with a family of 6.

[Michigan Slim]

My folks would let us lick our plates for dessert. 

[Okie Sawbones, SASS #77381]

I was so poor growing up, we only had a calendar to use as toilet paper… Now those days are behind me…