I remembered a time we only used butter growing up, then one day, I can only assume fuelled by a journalist working for the margarine control board of the world, an article smearing butter was published and like that, men in Hazmat uniforms arrived at our door to remove the foil wrapped plague littering our fridge, never to be spoken of again.
We were introduced to margarine as a gradual transition. I guess as a healthy alternative to butter at which time we were told about all of the negative properties of butter, how it comes from animal fat and no amount of de-toxing could cut through those permanent, creamy layers that were already clogging our arteries and possibly even our gizards.
Someone years later wrote an article quipping, “margarine is plastic butter.” which was the end of margarine in our house and our old friend butter was back.
I know I’m not alone in this debate having grown up in a house where eating healthy was held in such high regard, it sometimes trumped going to school if the cafeteria was serving anything with “deep-fried” on the chalk-board.
It got me thinking about those kids who lived in houses where their parents hadn’t read those articles and simply shopped for what they liked both from a taste and aesthetic perspective.
Those that had the following menu items became my instant friends and I would follow them home with a trail of foil butter wrappers behind me.
In no particular order…..
1. Processed cheese slices
2. Kraft Dinner
3. Bologna
4. White Wonder Bread
5. Salt
6. Chewable Vitamins (NOT white Vitamin C tablets)
7. Cereal with added sugar, colour with a marshmallow kicker
8. Alphagetti
9. Hot Dogs
10. Grilled cheese with numbers 1, 4 and unlimited ketchup
11. Skippy peanut butter
12. Cream Soda (pink or orange)
I’m not necessarily proud of this list. It’s just what I thought I always wanted in a pantry cupboard.
If my kids ask for any of the above, I laugh and laugh as I toss the “All Natural” peanut butter into the cart.
Just for the record, we are both a butter and margarine family.
What were some of your favorites when you were a kid? Do you allow your kids to eat them now? Do you eat them now?
