A Year of Food

This picture is from Life Magazine in 1951 and is an example of what the average blue collar family ate in one year. The amounts are based on Department of Agriculture statistics. The man in the picture worked for the Du Pont plant in Cleveland for $1.96 per hour. His family spent $25 per week on food.

This is the annual grocery list:

• Evaporated milk, 56 cans
• Cheese, 20 lb
• Butter, 56 lb
• Margarine, 21 lb
• Milk, 698 qts
• Peaches, 3 bu
• Grapes, 2 boxes
• Eggs, 131 doz
• Apples, 2 crates
• Oranges, 2 crates
• Cantaloupes, 1 crate
• Lemons, 1 crate
• Watermelons, 2
• Plums, 1 box
• Bananas, 1 stalk
• Peaches, 20 cans
• Cherries, 11 cans
• Frozen corn, 2 cases
• Frozen orange juice, 48 cans
• Shortening, 72 lb
• Flour, 450 lb
• Dried fruit, 8 pkg
• Sugar, 350 lb
• Pears, 15 cans
• Bread, 180 loaves
• Tomatoes, 15 baskets
• Potatoes, 690 lb
• Beans, 3 baskets
• Radishes, 1 basket
• Squash, 1 basket
• Cucumbers, 1 basket
• Beets, 3 baskets
• Ice cream, 8 ½ gal
• Lettuce, 2 crates
• Cauliflower, 1 crate
• Cabbage, 1 crate
• Carrots, 1 crate
• Celery, 1 crate
• Peas, 1 bu
• Onions, 1 sack
• Orange juice,11 cans
• Spinach, 22 cans
• Sauerkraut, 12 cans
• Cereal, 48 pkg
• Coffee, 39 lb
• Tea, 12 lb
• Ham, 144 lb
• Pork loins, 132 lb
• Saddle lamb, 15 lb
• Saddle veal, 30 lb
• Carp, 25 lb
• Salmon, 20 lb
• Chickens, 31
• Turkeys, 2
• Beef, 300 lb

This two and a half tons of food is such a clear example of hour our food choices have changed over the past sixty years. I first saw this photo in Bill Bryson's memoir The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, a comical reflection of his childhood in the 1950s. He features this picture on the first two pages of the book and refers to it as an example of how plentiful and happy most Americans were during the 1950s. From there, I researched the photograph further and found the actual list, particularly the amount of fresh produce and basic supplies and materials, fascinating. I would be interested to catalog and document the groceries we purchase for a year. I'm not sure if I would be as proud to share that list all of the time. It certainly would not include three baskets of beets, 15 pounds of saddle lamb, or 72 pounds of shortening. I still love the idea of going back to basics.

Ben has started to move into the next box of hand me downs (size 12 months), and I'm so excited about all of the new cute things he has to wear. Josh picked out this outfit for church this morning. It was a pretty big hit, but I can't believe how old he looks.