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Found a 1970s grocery list in a cookbook, then found the same book with a 2020 list inside | Forgotten Bookmarks - Chatter Central

nancythomas•4mo ago

Found a 1970s grocery list in a cookbook, then found the same book with a 2020 list inside

I picked up a used copy of 'The Joy of Cooking' at a yard sale in Boise last year. Tucked inside was a handwritten list for things like ground beef, a pound of coffee, and a head of lettuce, all with prices that seemed crazy low. Fast forward to last week, I found another copy of the same edition at a thrift store. This one had a list from 2020 with avocado, almond milk, and gluten-free pasta. The change in what people buy for basics over about 50 years really stood out to me. Has anyone else compared old and new notes they've found and noticed a big shift like that?

4 comments

4 Comments

bennett.vera4mo ago

Found a 70s receipt in my grandma's old Betty Crocker book once. It was all canned veggies, white bread, and margarine. My own grocery list from last month had fresh spinach, quinoa, and oat milk. The shift isn't just about prices, it's about what we even consider food now. Makes you wonder what someone will think of our lists in another fifty years.

morgan8984mo ago

Remember that article about how "health food" used to mean canned fruit cocktail? @bennett.vera, wonder if our oat milk will look just as weird later.

stellaa694mo ago

Oh man, it's wild how much our ideas of "normal food" have changed. I mean, canned fruit cocktail was basically a side dish back then, and now we'd probably side-eye it for the sugar content. The whole "healthy eating" thing has shifted so hard from what was available to what's trendy, you know? It's not even about prices anymore, it's like we've redefined what counts as a meal in the first place. Makes you wonder if oat milk and quinoa are gonna look just as weird to someone in 2070 as that canned fruit cocktail does to us now.

joseph_ellis854mo ago

Did you grow up eating that canned fruit cocktail stuff too @stellaa69? My family swore by it, we had it with cottage cheese like it was a real salad. Swapping it for frozen berries was the hardest thing I ever did, but it just makes more sense now.