Growing up with a father who was a butcher you would think we ate a lot of good meat but the reality was that with five kids dad could hardly afford steak for himself. Many times we didn't even have meat for dinner. Often just having a ham hock cooked in with the Navy beans was a bonus but then we were kids who would eat pretty much anything and anything was what we got.
Back in the 50's, kids were treated differently, we were supposed to be seen but not heard and when it came to food we ate what was put before us except for me, as for me all food had to look good, smell good and taste good in that order. I admit that I was a picky eater and therefore I had my old standby's of mashed potatoes, Navy beans and cornbread for dinner meals and bologna sandwiches for lunch and Cherrios for breakfast. But every now and then dad would bring home a roast which if it wasn't consumed in one meal it was turned into leftovers in the form of "hash".
While we had our old standbys we did eat other things like green beans, peas, cornbread cooked in an iron skillet and cut into triangles, cornbread paddies that looked like small pancakes and sometimes cornbread muffins. We also ate chicken that was fried in the same skillet as the cornbread, in fact the cornbread often had a taste of chicken because some of the leftover grease was used in the making of the cornbread, the rest of the grease was poured into a special can to be used again later to cook something else, nothing was wasted.
There was a hierarchy for eating and another for the food itself. As for the act of eating the hierarchy started with dad going first then the oldest child, that was me, then on down the line with mom being the last to eat. Moms were the last to sit down at the table after having finished the cooking and getting the food from the pot into a bowl and on the table, then she would prepare a plate for the little ones and spoon feed the baby, I was 13 before there were no babies to feed. By the time I was nine I was mom's assistant with the cooking, washing, ironing and setting the table.
Then there was the hierarchy for the food itself, generally speaking that meant there was adult food and kid food. Dad, and sometimes mom, got to eat steak and baked potatoes or shrimp and fries. When mom and dad got to eat shrimp we kids had leftover hash and were sent to bed early.
One food that was popular back then was chicken, it was cheap, quick and easy to prepare. Chicken was usually eaten on Sunday and almost always it was fried, any leftovers were put on a plate, covered with a dishcloth and left on the table so anyone could come in and grab a piece for their "midnight snack". Chicken was one of those foods that involved a hierarchy for the various parts. there were seven different parts to a chicken, four of them were in pairs, then there was the dark meat / light meat factor. Chicken also held an eating order hierarchy, in other words, the adults got the pick of the best pieces. I think I was in my late teens before I got to eat a chicken breast.
In my opinion, the best part of the chicken was the breast and wish bone, the meat was all white, more tender and therefore more delicious. Because of this, the breast was considered "adult food" but the kids did get the wish bone after a small argument. The other parts contained the dark meat, the thigh, leg and wings were therefore they were considered kid food, the adults started indoctrinating us at an early age that these parts were the best and that we were lucky to have them. That leaves the neck bone and gizzard, I have never eaten either of them, they didn't meet my standards for looks, smell and taste.
There is an irony about chicken, where as back in the 1950's it was generally served for Sunday meals, it has today become one of the most popular foods. It is served baked, grilled and fried, covered in gravy, filled with various stuffings and consumed any meal of the day or night, it is served in strips (fingers), on buns with fries and purchased by the bucketful for the whole family. There are whole establishments serving nothing but chicken.
When I was in Vietnam and aboard ship, chicken seemed to be a staple. When food supplies ran low we always had chicken to the point that when I came home I forbade Linda to serve me chicken, I finally got over my disdain for chicken and it is once again a staple for me, Kay and I have it several times a week.
I have finally reached the age where I am the oldest of most tables I sit down too so I can pull the first served status if I want but most of the time it's women and children first. My palate has improved a little over the years but I'm still a picky eater, Linda and Kay will both attest to that.
Another irony is that the wings have become the most popular of all the parts, to me it is the most aggravating. of the parts as a lot of time and trouble is spent trying to get at the little bit of meat there is but Buffalo wings as they are called are eaten by the dozens. It is not uncommon for one individual to eat twenty or more at a time then wash them down with a cold beer.