My Sisters Home Economics Project-1967

On Sunday my siblings and I went to my parents house to celebrate my fathers 83 birthday. My older sister Karen was there and I gave her a cookbook that she used to have when she was younger (I bought it for her on ebay) . She is the oldest of 5 and we all remember when she made this gigantic hamburger for dinner when she was 13 years old. Somewhere, there is a photo of her proudly sitting in front of it ready to cut it up for all of us to eat. When I asked her about it this summer, she mentioned that she had cooked it from The Seventeen Cookbook, but she no longer had the cookbook. Thus the reason I bought it for her. I had planned on giving it to her at Christmas, but forgot. So brought it along with me on Sunday to give to her.

This got her thinking. She knew (I did not) that our mother had kept some old school projects of ours. Karen rummaged through a closet and exclaimed, "Here they are". In a pile were some of each childs school projects and Karen searched for the one she wanted to show me.

When Karen was in 8th grade, she was required for a Home Economic class to cook dinner for our family for the entire month of November

It is snapshot into our lives back then. It must have been hard for my mother and sister to come up with meals that she (my mother) knew were relatively easy to prepare and that we would all like.

Tiny Pizzas
Steak
Macaroni and Cheese
Pot Roast
Stuffed Hot Dogs
Glori-Fried Chicken
Spaghetti
Tuna Tetrazzini
Meatloaf
Chicken Breast
Hamburgers
Fried Ham
Swordfish (must have been Friday)
Turkey Pies & Spam -I love this one. The turkey pies were frozen and Spam...she must have been getting weary of cooking dinner each night.
Pork Roast with Sauerkraut AND Nesselrode Pie-This was a BIG hit.
Hot Dogs, Pizza
Hidden Dill Hamburger. Not a Hit. See Below.

My mother was asked to critique each meal. The critique for the Hidden Dill Hamburger reads:
Karen's younger brothers and sisters weren't very happy with the Hidden Dill Hamburgers. She is learning it is difficult to please everyone.

Glad to see my mother helped with Thanksgiving!

The final critique for the entire project shows hints of my mothers disdain for preparing meals for seven each night! Thankless task!!!

The year was 1967 and as I stated in the beginning of this post, it remains clear that a girl or boy would NEVER be asked to do something like this today. I went to the same junior high school as my sister 6 years later and although I took Home Ec, this was not a requirement for me. I would have enjoyed it though. Too bad.