When you lived in the country, shopping in town was an all day affair. You would plan to eat lunch there. For me, it was the highlight of the trip. I planned my route and time to take me to my favorite spot for lunch. Isn't that a deliciously sounding word - “lunch”? I made a list of my shopping needs. I knew which store sold what at the price I could afford. I always planned to afford lunch.

Back in the day, “fast food” described how fast you could throw together a meal. There were few restaurants. Of course, every small town had one, but Woolworth's, Kresge's and Walgreen's stand out in my memory as places to do lunch. A restaurant for me was a fancy place to celebrate some event, not a place to stop for lunch. Then there was the cost. It wasn't something you budgeted for back in the bleak days of the Great Depression. During WWII, small restaurants started up near factories to serve the working person's needs. We got used to the idea of eating out. Mickie D's was drawing nearer on the horizon.

I had two favorite places to do lunch: Kresge's Five and Dime and the Walgreen Drug Store. The above menu was from Kresge's, what we know today as K-Mart. Let's look at it. Roast beef was the most expensive item there. Doesn't that sound good? “Tender Roast Beef.” What was it served with? Creamy whipped potatoes, of course. They were the real thing, not instant. Does “garden vegetables” sound good? Makes you think they were fresh from the garden. Probably green beans, corn or peas. A roll and butter was served with each dinner. They weren't just frozen dough baked fresh that day. They were the real thing – homemade.

How do I know all this? One of my first jobs was at Woolworth's. I was fifteen years old. I made the doughnuts in the morning and worked the counter during the lunch hour. I know everything was homemade because of my doughnut duties. When I arrived at work, the dough was waiting for me in one of the refrigerators. The cooks had worked the night shift prepping the food for that day. But as that fellow in the commercial said, “I got to make the doughnuts.” Another time I will tell you some of my adventures of working at Woolworth's.

Notice the Baked Macaroni. Kraft Mac and Cheese was unheard of back in the day. It wasn't cooked on top of the stove. Macaroni and cheese was baked. Then there was the Meat Loaf Dinner. With no freezers, fresh ground beef was a luxury you prepared at home no later than the next day. There were some great meat loaves served back then.

The only things missing on the menu were the soda fountain items. Would you like a cherry Coke? Not bottled, a soda, on draft, could be combined with cherry syrup over ice. Sundaes, ice cream sodas and malteds rounded out the menu. Enjoy your lunch.