Adults--did your mother put ice packs in your lunch?

[themarquis]

Not only did we not get ice packs from our mom ... but we were also trained to pack our own lunches from age 6-ish: one sandwich (usually mayo and bologna, tuna, or Kraft cheese slices , no veggies), one piece of fruit, one drink, and one bagged/packaged snack item (doritos, fruit roll up, pudding, etc.)

Any deviations from the lunch packing system, and especially any greedy attempt to take more than one packaged snack item were strictly punished!

 

[Pooh Girl 71]

Oh goodness no! I didn't die either.

By the 5th grade (1980), Capri Suns had come out. Mom would freeze those and they would be all slushy goodness by the time lunch rolled around.

I also walked to the local 7-11 and bought cigarettes for my mom. No one batted an eye.

 

[dismom2]

Nope. No ice packs.

Didn't use a car seat.

Didn't wear a bike helmet.

Only started using seat belts when I had my first child.

It's a wonder I made it through childhood.

We never wore seat belts, and there was not a law that said you were suppose to back then.

A bike helmet? Then I wouldn't have looked as cool on my purple banana seat bike.

I'm wondering how I survived, too! Ha-Ha!

I am curious how babies were transported in cars, though. I can see a mother holding one baby, but what if you had two or three? I'll have to ask my parents. maybe they just threw us in the trunk or something.

 

[dismom2]

Nope - not once.

I ate sandwiches with mayo, too!

I also ate "hot" food from a thermos that had been packed hours earlier and was nowhere near hot anymore.

As other posters have mentioned: no bike helmets, no seat belts, walked everywhere and a classic - bought cigarettes for my mother at the corner store I walked to!

Ah... the 70's.

Did you ever eat the candy cigarettes? They were good. And the wax things with liquid in them?

 

[CookieDiva]

We never wore seat belts, and there was not a law that said you were suppose to back then.

I think that I remember when seat belts became standard equipment in cars.

I am curious how babies were transported in cars, though. I can see a mother holding one baby, but what if you had two or three? I'll have to ask my parents. maybe they just threw us in the trunk or something.

Good question. I never thought about this before. My DB was born when I was only 18 months or so. Guess I was crawling all over the back seat?

 

[CookieDiva]

Did you ever eat the candy cigarettes? They were good.

My GRANDMA used to give those to us all of the time. It was quite the treat to go to Grandma's and get candy cigarettes!

And the wax things with liquid in them?

Oh yes! And the big red or pink lips!

 

[golfgal]

I think that I remember when seat belts became standard equipment in cars.



Good question. I never thought about this before. My DB was born when I was only 18 months or so. Guess I was crawling all over the back seat?

We got a Toyota in '72 or so. To start the car you had to have the front seatbelts buckled so what did we do (and everyone we know that had the same feature) just left the seatbelts buckled and just sat in the seat without them

As for the ice packs in the lunch, why would the check my mom sent to school with us for hot lunch need an ice pack

We had one of those abused childhoods where we had to walk uphill, both ways in the snow to school too-honestly--we lived at the top of one hill, school was at the top of another hill so down our hill and up the hill to school, down the school hill and up our hill on the way home.

 

[bumbershoot]

Went to school in San Jose CA, where it gets hot. Elementary school had no air conditioning (don't think jr/middle school or HS did either), and we just put our lunch boxes on a shelf. I routinely had tuna fish sandwiches with lots of mayo, and so on. Never any problem, and it tasted just fine.



Cars...we used to fight over who got to sit in the "way back"...we had a Pinto station wagon (not the ones that blew up, that was not the stagion wagon) and my mom would sometimes let one of us sit in the back part with no seatbelts or seats at all. We would actually sleep back there on longer trips or late at night coming home from San Francisco after visiting friends.

My dad once let me sit on his lap and steer his beast of a truck...on the big main road through SJ. Now that was stupid...I guess we nearly took out a bicyclist!


But all of that stuff ended when my mom remarried...my first stepdad's dad owned a gas station and tow truck in Morro Bay, CA, and my stepdad spent his teenage years cleaning up "messes" on the roads. So there were no more way-back trips, and he even retrofitted our '55 Chevy with seatbelts. Just lap belts, but more than it had before!

 

[friendofgusgus]

I am curious how babies were transported in cars, though. I can see a mother holding one baby, but what if you had two or three? I'll have to ask my parents. maybe they just threw us in the trunk or something.

You could purchase a bassinet to put the baby down in in the back seat!

 

[tink_n_pooh]

I don't ever recall have an ice pack in my Strawberry Shortcake or Barbie lunch box. I did have a plastic thermos filled with some sort of juice or when we were rich I got a juice box

I'm pretty sure I had a car seat, I was born in 1980 so I think they were all the rage by then

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

Did you ever eat the candy cigarettes? They were good. And the wax things with liquid in them?

I actually have some of those in my kitchen cabinet at home right now The store my 18 year old cousin works at have them for $.25 a pack, I think they were $.05 when I was little.

PP, I don't know how your mom did it, but when we rode in the car, we sat in the front seat in my grandmothers lap or between the 2 adults on the front seat. My mom did have this funky looking seat when she was by herself and I am sure it probably sat on the front seat with out a seat belt. She just threw her arm across me if we had to stop suddenly

I don't remember how old I was when you had to start wearing seat belts, but the law was first out here on base, but that thing came off as soon as you drove off and it didn't go back on until you drove back on.


Suzanne

 

[CookieDiva]

I did have a plastic thermos filled with some sort of juice or when we were rich I got a juice box

The thermoses WE had WAY back then were metal on the outside and glass on the inside.

I'm pretty sure I had a car seat, I was born in 1980 so I think they were all the rage by then

They were. We brought our oldest home in a car seat that year.

 

[barkley]

I actually have some of those in my kitchen cabinet at home right now The store my 18 year old cousin works at have them for $.25 a pack, I think they were $.05 when I was little.

PP, I don't know how your mom did it, but when we rode in the car, we sat in the front seat in my grandmothers lap or between the 2 adults on the front seat. My mom did have this funky looking seat when she was by herself and I am sure it probably sat on the front seat with out a seat belt. She just threw her arm across me if we had to stop suddenly

I don't remember how old I was when you had to start wearing seat belts, but the law was first out here on base, but that thing came off as soon as you drove off and it didn't go back on until you drove back on.


Suzanne

my mom is in her late 80's, and to this day if she is a passenger in a car she throws her arm in front of whomever is next to her as soon as she feels the brakes engage (nearly made dh drive off the road the first time he drove her ).

someone asked about how mom's with multiple kids handled it in the pre car seat days? that's what the older kids were for-stick the smallest kid inbetween them and they served as human air-bags on LONG road trips my parents would take my old crib mattress and throw it in the back of the station wagon-all us kids would crawl on top of it and lay with our feet hanging out the back window

btw-i never used an ice pack for my official softsided monkee's lunchbox (which i still have the thermous for ). i never died from unrefridgerated food and my mom was infamous for packing stuff like tuna and egg salad (and we lived where the temps at the begining and end of the school year would enter the high 90's and low hundreds-and we stored our lunch boxes under the lunch benches on the playground ).

 

[powellrj]

My mom use to freeze our sandwiches. I don't think it was because of safety, I think it was because she would make lunch for the week and then toss it in the freezer. That way all she had to do was get lunch out of the freezer. It was pretty gross and to this day I still won't eat frozen bread.

One of my favorite things was a fried egg sandwich. When I got to jr. high I would get up and and fry an egg and put it on two pieces of bread for lunch. I think my kids would turn me in to CPS if I sent those to school.

We had open lunch in jr high and once a week I could eat at McDonalds for lunch. It was .55 for a hamburger, FF and sm drink, while the plate lunch at school was .50 so I was only allowed to eat out one day a week. In the warm weather months we would walk across the street to the park and eat our sack lunches on the swings. I can't imagine any school that would allow that now. I graduated in 1977, so its been a few years ago.

 

[monkey68]

My mom never packed an ice pack. She put my bologna sandwich in my New Kids on the Block plastic lunchbox, and it went on a shelf in the back of a classroom. Never got sick, also never ate much of it (I'm still not a big lunch eater). On my way home from school, I would give my leftover lunch ot my neighbor's golden retriever, and he never got sick either.

 

[Stacerita]

No ice packs. If I was on a field trip, she may have frozen my juice box or something like that. But no ice pack. And heck, it was in a brown bag with no safety to keep it from getting squished.

 

[Piglet4Ever]

Never got an ice pack, didn't even know they existed!! We usually got a sandwich with lunchmeat and miracle whip, milk in a thermos or bought it at school. My brother and I were allowed to have 5 tickets a month each to buy lunch at school. We had a station wagon as the family car, never used seat belts we just rolled around in the back of the wagon. The good old days

 

[dismom2]

Sounds like we old folk had a lot of fun back in the day.

 

[dismom2]

My mom use to freeze our sandwiches. I don't think it was because of safety, I think it was because she would make lunch for the week and then toss it in the freezer. That way all she had to do was get lunch out of the freezer. It was pretty gross and to this day I still won't eat frozen bread.

One of my favorite things was a fried egg sandwich. When I got to jr. high I would get up and and fry an egg and put it on two pieces of bread for lunch. I think my kids would turn me in to CPS if I sent those to school.

We had open lunch in jr high and once a week I could eat at McDonalds for lunch. It was .55 for a hamburger, FF and sm drink, while the plate lunch at school was .50 so I was only allowed to eat out one day a week. In the warm weather months we would walk across the street to the park and eat our sack lunches on the swings. I can't imagine any school that would allow that now. I graduated in 1977, so its been a few years ago.

I've never heard of someone making a weeks worth of sandwiches and freezing them----yuck!

 

[sdarwkcabemanmy]

Nope. We were on the free lunch program, so we always ate lunch at school. On the rare occasion we had to take a bag lunch for a field trip or something, we usually got a peanut butter sandwhich and potato sticks, so we didn't need them to be refrigerated.