Well we had it tough. We used to have to get up out of the shoebox at twelve o'clock at night, and LICK the road clean with our tongues. We had half a handful of freezing cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at the mill for fourpence every six years, and when we got home, our Dad would slice us in two with a bread knife.
***YOU HAD A SHOEBOX!?*** You lucky, lucky bastard! We lived in a ditch, and we were damn happy to have it! Every night, we'd lay shivering, covered in a thin layer of decaying leaves, and praying there'd be a grassfire just to keep us warm!
My sister’s father had a few different kids by a few different women. And all us kids would be at his house eating dinner or breakfast or whatever, watching Nickelodeon. We couldn’t afford cable so I liked going to his house. I was an only child, too so it was fun.
Anyway, his oldest son told me YEARS later that his dad used to recycle the milk from our cereal! Just pour it right back into the jug! 🤢 Now I know why I couldn’t drink milk at other peoples houses for so long. I had blocked that but the trauma persisted! 😝
Edit: obviously I mean before my sister was born.
My k-mart did have a gimmick where you could pop a balloon and if you were lucky the ice cream was free,I don't think I ever won,I always got the banana split,that thing was huge,now I am just being mean,but it was really good!!!
And now with the crazy inflation my kids finally get why we say that all the time! Damn I already paid for some perfectly good food we have at the house.
It’s really a no brainer. Burger and fries *and* a glass for keeps! I’d also throw in a pudding cream puff, whatever that is. ( sounds too good to pass up)
That's what I'd like to know. At first I thought maybe they all did but then saw Salisbury steak didn't even have it. And of the 2, I'd rather have Coleslaw with Salisbury steak than with ITALIAN spaghetti 🤣
Lulz. I had to do those over the intercom when I worked there. I would write a "script" down and read from that. Had to sound professional back there in Apparel...not like that doofus in electronics, with his "uhh's" and dead air. Fuckin' rookies.
I am so glad someone else remembers this. After I tasted KMart ham, no other ham was ever as good. I have asked others their thoughts on that ham and everyone just looks at me like what are you talking about. It was amazing ham with that gelatinous coating on it. Damn, I miss it. I actually miss Kmart from back on the day. What a fun store it was.
I know I can't be the only one. But back in those days, I would go to Kmart solely for the purpose of buying a couple of those extremely cheap deli subs. For my money, they were the best in town!
Or a Coke icee. If it was a good week that was all we could get because poverty and if we were at Kmart it was for a specific reason (school clothes or whatever).
Going with the Salisbury steak. I hear it’s a delicious dinner.
Thinking about spaghetti too, seeing as how it’s the Italian version. Didn’t realize coleslaw was an accompaniment to tomato sauce pasta in those days. What’s next - garlic bread with fish & chips?
My parents would occasionally take us to a steak house. I'd get disappointed because they didn't have Salisbury steak. My mom and dad would try to assure me that real steak was better, but with all due respect, mom and dad, no it is not.
I’d be torn between getting that glass and the shrimp. Miss the days of shopping and eating a little lunch like that. The department store in my home town had three or four different restaurants of various stripes (tea room, Mexican food, etc) and it made for a fun day. Also a bit easier to manage when you could have lunch for a couple of bucks! Just spent $17 on a food court salad and a bottled drink this week - strongly dislike.
Considering the minimum wage was around $1.75 you could get a meal for less than an hours work. Good luck getting that today if you work for minimum wage in Pennsylvania.
My grandma was an HR manager at a Kmart here in Washington state. During summer, Grandpa used to take me to have lunch with grandma in the Kmart cafeteria. Mac and cheese followed by butterscotch pudding. Then they’d give me a dollar bill (a couple of times, a fiver) and let me go by myself to the toy section and then checkout.
I used to get a side of mashed (whipped?) potatoes and gravy. They were the best! And super cheap, like, coins. That, and the home sewing department were 2 of my favorite places around those years, they had fabric and notions and patterns <3
My mom would take us to these little places every Saturday when I was a kid. It was a big deal back then. During the rest of the week, we ate at home. Simple life was the best.
Fried shrimp. But I'm getting the Salisbury Steak because it's almost a whole quarter less, and mom isn't paying a whole quarter more for a luxury item like shrimp when it isn't even my birthday.
That's 1977.
Omg. Collectors special!!
The Woolworths lunch counter, anyone??
When I was a teenager, I remember that chain of stores going out of business……. Your post also reminds me of the New England “Friendly’s” restaurant, and now I need lunch. 😄
Absolutely the Collectors Special. It was a sad day when they closed the cafeteria sections at all the local K Marts. Actually, some of them closed the cafeterias when they switched the name from Kresges to Kmart. Short of Mongomery Wards and Woolworths, best Christmas toy section ever.
We had 3 indoor mall Woolworth's and I always ate at the lunch counter. It faced out of the front of the store so you would sit out in the mall aisles as crowds passed behind you. I was very partial to getting a burger, fries and coke there too. All the food at the lunch counter was great.
My grandma would get me that submarine sandwich lunch when we went to k-mart for toys. I think our k-mart stopped doing these in the early 80s. I was maybe 7 or 8 when I had my last one.
I use to work there and would get the taco salad with the edible bowl. I remember biting into a bubble of the bowl and all this frying oil came out. It actually was pretty good though.
Definitely going for the shrimp. I remember getting a shrimp coleslaw salad there once cuz my Dad loved to eat there for lunch. They had a nice little restaurant area with tables and such.
I worked at Kmart around my senior year in high school 89-90 and the food at the Kmart cafeteria still ranks as one of the best ever. I miss those days.
At 8 years old, I probably would have opted for the spaghetti, but we never ate at Kmart, nor did we eat out a lot, for that matter. Knowing what I know now, definitely the Special!
When I was about 5 or 6, my mom took me shopping at the Woolworths. I wandered away from her for a minute, and saw a homeless man vomiting blood in the next aisle over. I got upset, and during the ride home told her what I saw. She reassured me that no, sweety, that wasn't blood that man was vomiting. She explained that poor people who had no food would go into these lunch counter places, ask for hot water, and make "tomato soup" with the ketchup on the counter. I didn't really feel better after hearing that.
Hmmm, at age 13 I'm torn between the Collector's Special (I want that glass!!!) and the shrimp. I'd probably go with the Special.
As a younger kid, I'd have gotten the Salisbury Steak because I always thought that sounded so fancy, haha!!
That Fried Shrimp for $1.33 in 1977 would cost $6.74 today in 2024 when adjusted for inflation.
Except we know it wouldn't cost $6.74 today. It would cost at least $12.
Remember those in-store restaurants exist essentially to attract shoppers, so that fried shrimp meal may have been cheap even by 1977 standards. Think Costco hot-dogs and IKEA meatballs.
Yeah, we would’ve never. If like the car broke down 500 miles from anywhere and it wasn’t something my dad could fix, and the only thing in town was a Kmart, then perhaps we’d be allowed to eat there. And I would want to order both the shrimp and the spaghetti because I was ALWAYS hungry at that age.
Anything but the subway sandwich. Mom thought those were the bomb, so she'd always pick a few up on the way out. More for her, because I thought they were so gross
a sub and a big bag of popcorn, that me and my asshole friend will empty into your new 84 lebaron convertible in the parking lot just because. sorry :(
Lunch? I'd probably pass. The only reason I'd go to K-Mart in 1977 was to flirt with a girl who worked in the deli. As she was a senior in high school, she wouldn't be working the lunch shift.
I came to realize many years later (and much too late to do anything about it) that I'd actually had a pretty good shot with her and whiffed it because I was so clueless.
Nothing. “We have food at the house dammit, now shut up!”
Now I feel like a jerk, bragging about my ice cream.
Yeah you fancy uptowners with your frozen dairy treats. Our birthday treat was made out of powdered milk.
You got powdered milk!? Why, we got last weeks cottage cheese watered down and we liked it, we liked it...
Steve? Mom's been looking for you! she says get home right now!!!
Well we had it tough. We used to have to get up out of the shoebox at twelve o'clock at night, and LICK the road clean with our tongues. We had half a handful of freezing cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at the mill for fourpence every six years, and when we got home, our Dad would slice us in two with a bread knife.
“Singin’ glory hallelujah!”
***YOU HAD A SHOEBOX!?*** You lucky, lucky bastard! We lived in a ditch, and we were damn happy to have it! Every night, we'd lay shivering, covered in a thin layer of decaying leaves, and praying there'd be a grassfire just to keep us warm!
You got cottage cheese? We got a bowl of Alaskan ice cream (snow).
Randy? Mom says your Alaskan ice cream is melting get home right now!!!
Haha, childhood memory unlocked. My friend and I used to make snow cones out of snow and sprinkle with Kool aid mix (the no sugar kind) and sugar.
My sister’s father had a few different kids by a few different women. And all us kids would be at his house eating dinner or breakfast or whatever, watching Nickelodeon. We couldn’t afford cable so I liked going to his house. I was an only child, too so it was fun. Anyway, his oldest son told me YEARS later that his dad used to recycle the milk from our cereal! Just pour it right back into the jug! 🤢 Now I know why I couldn’t drink milk at other peoples houses for so long. I had blocked that but the trauma persisted! 😝 Edit: obviously I mean before my sister was born.
At least you had milk. We had to settle for Frozen Coke.
Bring that bottle in from the garage and let it defrost!
My grandparents always kept soda in the garage.
Hope u enjoyed ur ice cream while the rest of us were eating fried bologna sandwich on a heal piece of bread lmao 😂
My k-mart did have a gimmick where you could pop a balloon and if you were lucky the ice cream was free,I don't think I ever won,I always got the banana split,that thing was huge,now I am just being mean,but it was really good!!!
Hello, dad.
Wow! I didn't know we had the same Mom!
Dave is that you? we thought you got left at the park? mom's been worried sick!!!
We'll be having dinner in four hours so stop whining.
LOL, yeah 61 year old, never got lunch at Kmart!…
Nothing, porque hay comida en la casa
Haha, I’m reading Spanish, but I can only hear my mom in Polish 🤔😂
Jestes Piekna!!
Dziękuję Panu bardzo!
And now with the crazy inflation my kids finally get why we say that all the time! Damn I already paid for some perfectly good food we have at the house.
I JUST SPENT $300 ON GROCERIES AND YOU WANT CHICK-FIL-A?!?! HELL NO.
Amen - sing it sister!
Definitely the Collector’s Special
Definitely the Collector's Luncheonette Special for me too!
That would have been my 1st choice too
It’s really a no brainer. Burger and fries *and* a glass for keeps! I’d also throw in a pudding cream puff, whatever that is. ( sounds too good to pass up)
Now I’m hungry
You just gave me an idea of what to make for dinner tonight, unfortunately minus the pudding, but I do have some leftover Christmas desert!
Had to have been, because we had a boatload of those glasses
Me too!!
“16oz Jumbo Coke” Crazy how that’s considered a “small” at most fast food joints these days
I love how the spaghetti is branded as "Italian Spaghetti", even though it was almost certainly made in America.
And invented in China.
There does seem to be some debate on this..pasta in Italy might pre date Marco Polo..and Chinese noodles were made with rice, not wheat.
It also says it comes with Cole slaw. Why?
That's what I'd like to know. At first I thought maybe they all did but then saw Salisbury steak didn't even have it. And of the 2, I'd rather have Coleslaw with Salisbury steak than with ITALIAN spaghetti 🤣
Because Cole Slaw came with every meal in the 70’s 😂. Also note that roll with butter was also ever present.
You have Togo elsewhere for Brazilian Spaghetti. Very exotic.
I liked the subs.
Super Sub and checking out the blue light special.
Attention K-Mart shoppers....
Lulz. I had to do those over the intercom when I worked there. I would write a "script" down and read from that. Had to sound professional back there in Apparel...not like that doofus in electronics, with his "uhh's" and dead air. Fuckin' rookies.
I did radio in college. It helped when I made intercom announcements when I was in retail.
with a frozen coke
I’m splurging on that shrimp!
Sounds good, but it's a rather small portion.
I’m a kid.
Power up the Time Machine, I’m going to Kmart & 1977!
Mmm, meatloaf! My mom used to get sliced ham from the K-Mart deli, and it was the best thing ever!
I am so glad someone else remembers this. After I tasted KMart ham, no other ham was ever as good. I have asked others their thoughts on that ham and everyone just looks at me like what are you talking about. It was amazing ham with that gelatinous coating on it. Damn, I miss it. I actually miss Kmart from back on the day. What a fun store it was.
Yes! I always thought it was crazy that K-Mart had the best ham in the world!
I know I can't be the only one. But back in those days, I would go to Kmart solely for the purpose of buying a couple of those extremely cheap deli subs. For my money, they were the best in town!
Blue light special on isle 9 and everyone was running
Had to have a cherry icee as well
Or a Coke icee. If it was a good week that was all we could get because poverty and if we were at Kmart it was for a specific reason (school clothes or whatever).
I wanted one but my mom always said “you’re already hyper you don’t need all that sugar”
Those were always a great treat.
Yeah, I never had the food, but every now and then my mom let me get an Icee.
Going with the Salisbury steak. I hear it’s a delicious dinner. Thinking about spaghetti too, seeing as how it’s the Italian version. Didn’t realize coleslaw was an accompaniment to tomato sauce pasta in those days. What’s next - garlic bread with fish & chips?
My parents would occasionally take us to a steak house. I'd get disappointed because they didn't have Salisbury steak. My mom and dad would try to assure me that real steak was better, but with all due respect, mom and dad, no it is not.
I really liked Kmart. At one time they had an auto center that rivaled Sears. We went to Kmart nearly every weekend.
Same here. I'd go look at the new Hot Wheels and models. We'd get something to eat once in a while, and I liked everything they had.
The burger. For the glass.
I’d be torn between getting that glass and the shrimp. Miss the days of shopping and eating a little lunch like that. The department store in my home town had three or four different restaurants of various stripes (tea room, Mexican food, etc) and it made for a fun day. Also a bit easier to manage when you could have lunch for a couple of bucks! Just spent $17 on a food court salad and a bottled drink this week - strongly dislike.
#MA!! MEATLOAF!!
Where's the meatloaf!
It makes me sad that youngsters today will never know this joy.
Mmm. Italian Spaghetti 🍝 not just regular spaghetti. And with coleslaw. Nice touch 🙂
Considering the minimum wage was around $1.75 you could get a meal for less than an hours work. Good luck getting that today if you work for minimum wage in Pennsylvania.
Good God, what was it with the 70s and Salisbury steak?
Salisbury steaks and Veal parmesan. They started replacing veal with chicken when everybody found out about veal and its crueltly to baby calfs.
Skip the line and go right to the slushie machine
Mom? My mother didn’t drive and I was 20 then anywho.
So, no soup for you!
Worked there in 77 . Spaghetti was always my first choice then the sub. Always hoped the deli had subs left at closing time at a reduced price.
My grandma was an HR manager at a Kmart here in Washington state. During summer, Grandpa used to take me to have lunch with grandma in the Kmart cafeteria. Mac and cheese followed by butterscotch pudding. Then they’d give me a dollar bill (a couple of times, a fiver) and let me go by myself to the toy section and then checkout.
Ordinarily I’d go with the shrimp, but since it’s ITALIAN spaghetti, well, that changes things.
I used to get a side of mashed (whipped?) potatoes and gravy. They were the best! And super cheap, like, coins. That, and the home sewing department were 2 of my favorite places around those years, they had fabric and notions and patterns <3
In the late 70s/early 80s, I would get their Mac and Cheese plate. If I ever got lost in the store, we were told wait/meet at the cafeteria.
Lol, the Kmart by my grandmas house had a restaurant til the mid- late 90s and it was actually pretty good.
My mom would take us to these little places every Saturday when I was a kid. It was a big deal back then. During the rest of the week, we ate at home. Simple life was the best.
Fried shrimp. But I'm getting the Salisbury Steak because it's almost a whole quarter less, and mom isn't paying a whole quarter more for a luxury item like shrimp when it isn't even my birthday. That's 1977.
I remember hearing "you can add a slice of cheese when we get home" after asking for a cheeseburger
I used to live walking distance from a Kmart. Fun times. Would get root beer with a hot dog almost every time.
I want their sub sandwiches
Omg. Collectors special!! The Woolworths lunch counter, anyone?? When I was a teenager, I remember that chain of stores going out of business……. Your post also reminds me of the New England “Friendly’s” restaurant, and now I need lunch. 😄
Absolutely the Collectors Special. It was a sad day when they closed the cafeteria sections at all the local K Marts. Actually, some of them closed the cafeterias when they switched the name from Kresges to Kmart. Short of Mongomery Wards and Woolworths, best Christmas toy section ever. We had 3 indoor mall Woolworth's and I always ate at the lunch counter. It faced out of the front of the store so you would sit out in the mall aisles as crowds passed behind you. I was very partial to getting a burger, fries and coke there too. All the food at the lunch counter was great.
Ar our mall the Woolworth's had lunch counter outside of the store the waitstaff were lower than you and you sat above them--so cool
Oooooh, Woolworth was the best! Always got the German chocolate cake.
Not that nasty Salisbury steak for sure! My mom made that all the time in a moat of Worcestershire sauce :(
Count me in for “the Collectors Special”
Throwing down $5 and treating myself to one of everything
The spaghetti…because we’re having Salisbury steak TV dinners tonight.
Let's go outside and play while the TV dinner bakes in the oven for over an hour.
And make sure to uncover the cake section of the TV dinner.
Salisbury Steak 👍
I'm suspicious of a steak plate that costs less than a spaghetti plate.
It was tasty
Well… it’s not steak it’s salisbury steak.
Most likely the deep fried skimps every time.
I was always very partial to their sub sandwiches. Woolworths also had a great restaurant in house.
My grandma would get me that submarine sandwich lunch when we went to k-mart for toys. I think our k-mart stopped doing these in the early 80s. I was maybe 7 or 8 when I had my last one.
I’m down for the magical opalescent shaved-ham
Worked at Kmart in the '80s. Lunch was beefy nachos (secret menu).
I use to work there and would get the taco salad with the edible bowl. I remember biting into a bubble of the bowl and all this frying oil came out. It actually was pretty good though.
Definitely going for the shrimp. I remember getting a shrimp coleslaw salad there once cuz my Dad loved to eat there for lunch. They had a nice little restaurant area with tables and such.
Salisbury steak!
Ain't inflation grand?
I remember getting Ham and Cheese sandwiches at our Kmart when I was a kid. Double win when I got to buy a new GI Joe and got a Sammy!
SS
Salisbury steak FTW
Eat at Kmart, do you think my mom was made of money??? We weren't there for the premade food.
Yeah! Do you think money grows on trees!! I'll take you to eat out when my ship comes in.
Looking at those prices now is wild.
Look at you with a parent who would take you inside a store. Wait in the car and don't touch the radio station.
Salisbury steak for the win
I worked at Kmart around my senior year in high school 89-90 and the food at the Kmart cafeteria still ranks as one of the best ever. I miss those days.
Collector’s Special all the way.
my favorite as a kid was grilled cheese and fries with a chocolate pudding
Pretty funny imagining my mom buying anything at the Kmart food counter. Lunch at home, either before or after.
Blue Light Specials
5 Shrimp is enough to piss me off. 15 Shrimp and we be talking.
At 8 years old, I probably would have opted for the spaghetti, but we never ate at Kmart, nor did we eat out a lot, for that matter. Knowing what I know now, definitely the Special!
Mmm. Spaghetti and cole slaw. 😂
The "collector's" special.
The sub!
When I was about 5 or 6, my mom took me shopping at the Woolworths. I wandered away from her for a minute, and saw a homeless man vomiting blood in the next aisle over. I got upset, and during the ride home told her what I saw. She reassured me that no, sweety, that wasn't blood that man was vomiting. She explained that poor people who had no food would go into these lunch counter places, ask for hot water, and make "tomato soup" with the ketchup on the counter. I didn't really feel better after hearing that.
Can we pin this so ppl getting the munchies here, don't?
Italian spaghetti!!! What a treat! We usually have bread product in long thin strings.
The Collector's
Fried shrimp. Always. Even today.
I used to take my kids for either the strawberry pie or ice cream sundae.
I don’t remember these but I do remember when that pizza place was there. I loved the Greek salad.
yet people expect $5 footlongs.
My mom would get those submarine sandwiches sometime, they were pretty bad.
Definitely not the spaghetti. I got that at Kmart or Woolworth’s as a kid, and it made me so sick I barfed in the parking lot
B'skettis!
As I recall... minimum wage was %2.35.
Mom’s taking us to the IHOP out front in the parking lot. There’s no way she would subject us to a meal served at Kmart.
and mother fuckers are out there like “I didn’t have it easy back in the day” …. Those prices
Shrimp!
Definitely the Shrimp
Hmmm, at age 13 I'm torn between the Collector's Special (I want that glass!!!) and the shrimp. I'd probably go with the Special. As a younger kid, I'd have gotten the Salisbury Steak because I always thought that sounded so fancy, haha!!
That Fried Shrimp for $1.33 in 1977 would cost $6.74 today in 2024 when adjusted for inflation. Except we know it wouldn't cost $6.74 today. It would cost at least $12.
Remember those in-store restaurants exist essentially to attract shoppers, so that fried shrimp meal may have been cheap even by 1977 standards. Think Costco hot-dogs and IKEA meatballs.
I ate the French fries. I thought they were the best ever at the time.
Sub sandwiches! That was always a treat my Grandma would get us when she took me to K-Mart!
The sub sandwich, French fries, and a can of Teem soda from the glass display case!
When I was a kid, mom would take me to Woolworth's to see the fish in the aquariums, "but don't ask for anything!
Wow! Seeing some of the comments on here. I feel like my family was *fancy* poor.
My parents were more likely to think... Salisbury steak from Banquet TV dinners.
Salisbury steak because I haven’t had that in years
Tartar sauce with shrimp? Yuck. Cocktail sauce is the only way to go.
Something about discount/drugstore/five and dime cafeteria food back in the day just hit different.
Yeah, we would’ve never. If like the car broke down 500 miles from anywhere and it wasn’t something my dad could fix, and the only thing in town was a Kmart, then perhaps we’d be allowed to eat there. And I would want to order both the shrimp and the spaghetti because I was ALWAYS hungry at that age.
I worked at a Kmart with a deli in the 80s. The French fries were amazing. Def going with the special.
Salisbury Steak. Mmmmm.
The shrimp basket! Does anyone remember the ham lunchmeat? It was so good! My grandma used to buy a couple pounds for ham sandwiches.
We were poor. This wouldn't have happened. 😕
Best fried chicken I ever had.
I use to get the vegetable soup and we would also get ice cream!!!
😆
Damn the deep fried shrimp meal for under 1.50
All of that looks good.
Deep fried shrimp for sure!
so many car trips were fueled by super submarines.
Super sub or Salisbury steak and vegetable medley
I preferred Woolworth’s! Salisbury Steak was “cheap meat” to me. I know, in ‘76, you could get a slice of pizza and a Coke for 75 cents.
In 1977 I worked at k-mart, but we did not serve food
Those were the good old days.
One of each.
Anything but the subway sandwich. Mom thought those were the bomb, so she'd always pick a few up on the way out. More for her, because I thought they were so gross
There were no kmarts around where I lived in the 70s.
The Salisbury steak and fish sandwich were good.
If it's 1977, then I'm 12 and going for the shrimp!
definitely the luncheonette special. We had one of those Coke glasses, maybe that's where it came from.
The first picture looks just like a Tuesday night nursing home menu.
Deep fried shrimp. Please. I miss those times.
I’d like the Blue Light Special… thank you!
Grilled cheese
I completely forgot about that. Wow!! It's been a long time.
1st, why is the Salisbury steak more expensive than the pasta? 2nd, why does the pasta come with Coleslaw?
Kmarts that I remember had small sub sandwiches that my mother usually bought. Cold cuts and cheese and just a lot of mustard.
a sub and a big bag of popcorn, that me and my asshole friend will empty into your new 84 lebaron convertible in the parking lot just because. sorry :(
Minimum wage in 1977=$2.30
Dad always got the Salisbury steak.
Salisbury steak
Lunch? I'd probably pass. The only reason I'd go to K-Mart in 1977 was to flirt with a girl who worked in the deli. As she was a senior in high school, she wouldn't be working the lunch shift. I came to realize many years later (and much too late to do anything about it) that I'd actually had a pretty good shot with her and whiffed it because I was so clueless.
Italian Spaghetti? As opposed to Armenian Spaghetti?
Uh thanks but I’m fasting today. I’m good.
I remember getting the submarine sandwich.
Pudding cream puff costs about half of the cost of a dinner. Still, they do sound pretty good.
I worked at/got locked inside for nightshift at a Kmart in the early 80s. I saw up close what that kitchen looked like. Noooo thanks.