The casserole was a mainstay on the dinner table, coke was a soft drink and the ‘Tunnel of Love’ was an amusement park ride—it was all a part of the American-style, middle class, way-of-life in 1957. For fun, families would go to Disneyland or try to master a Hula Hoop.
After a decade of rationing, quick, processed, ready-to-eat canned and frozen foods came to the American table. Mom made bacon and eggs for breakfast, bologna sandwiches for lunch, and pork chops, mashed potatoes, and a green-bean casserole for dinner. Going out for American ‘EATS,’ Italian pizza, Chinese chow mein, or a TexMex taco were enticing options in the fifties and McDonalds elevated the hamburger-and-fries into the All-American meal.
What Americans Were Eating in the 1950s
The standard American meal of the 1930s—meat, potatoes, vegetable, and salad—grew to include casseroles, barbecued meat, seafood, and spaghetti as popular food choices.
High schoolers were dancing at sock hops, while younger kids were playing with silly putty. College students were swallowing goldfish and cramming into phone booths. Adults were introduced to cardboard 3-D glasses in movie theaters and everyone was trying to learn how to spin a hula hoop.
