I don't remember a time without aluminum foil, but I sure remember my mom and aunts talking about how wonderful it was when it hit the market ... even though it was a little expensive for most of the housewives in their circle of friends ... they bought it. It really did help keep foods fresh, and those frugal cooks would do anything to keep from wasting money in the kitchen. So, what did they do? They saved it after they used it. They'd wipe off any crumbs of food and fold it up and put it in a special kitchen drawer! Our landfills are probably filled with stacks of perfectly folded squares of aluminum foil!
Reynolds Wrap is the brand I remember most. I don't think the quilted Kaiser Foil ever made it to Southern Illinois!
It didn't take the food manufacturers long to figure out ways of using foil to package other food items. Remember the foil pouch/bags inside cereal boxes? I don't think those were used too long ... probably made the cereal too expensive. One of my girlfriend's mom saved those things, too!
A TV dinner was never served at our house! We'd see them advertised on television and ask for them and Daddy would quickly start telling us about the food he ate while serving in the military! I was an adult before I had a TV dinner ... and that was only because my bachelor husband still had some in the freezer when I married him! As a youngster, though, there was something sophistocated looking about that aluminum sectional plate! There were days when Mother was busy all afternoon at church meetings ... but she always prepared her supper/dinner meal in advance and had it in the oven waiting to serve it at the appropriate hour!
Don't you love this ad? Who has kitchen cabinets that organized? That mom in the cute pink blouse doesn't know 'living' out of packages until she goes to four soccer games and two dance lessons in one week!
Do you remember the 'foil Christmas'? A foil tree ... and shiny foil wrapping paper? Our trees always came from the woods, but my Aunt Evelyn had one of those trees ... and wrapped all her packages in shiny foil paper one year! She had two kids ... there were five at our house and we were lucky if Santa Claus used any paper at all!
I never knew much about cigarettes as a kid ... and I don't remember 'Spud' cigarettes at all! I just know they tasted better and they were fresher, though ... because they, too, were wrapped in aluminum-inumm-inum foil!
I'm posting with Alphabet Thursday! so make sure you click through to see all the other participants! Thanks to Jenny for hosting this great linky party. She keeps us 'thinkin'!
