We also ate mullet what seemed like every other night. Not a fan of it now.

I lived for a week and a half off some hot dog buns and a 5lb can of hornel chili once. That was after I was out on my own. Hell, for the first couple of years, it was standard for me to take a $20 bill to the grocery store and get food for the week. Potted meat, ramen noodles, bread. I remember shooting squirrels of my back porch in the middle of the summer because I hadn't eaten in 24hrs and didn't get paid for another day or two.

Now I eat well, and it shows cuz I keep growing outwards.

When I was in school, my roommate and I would go weeks eating nothing but ramen noodles and spam sandwiches.

I stayed with my grandparents alot when young. Almost every day.

Normal diner was fried potatoes, okra, and some kinda bean(pintos, limas, or northern beans were common).

Grandma always had cornbread also.

I do not remember having meat often, in fact rarely ever. Salmon patties on occasion.

Bologna was the normal lunch item.

I never ate out until I was up in my teens.

I grew up on the hobo dinners too! Mom made them just wrapped up in aluminum foil, and threw salt and some worchestershire sauce on it for flavor. Heck yeah them things were some kinda good!

Me too. I may have to bust some of those out this weekend.

"Cause we wern't nothing but poor folk............."

"Just po folk"

My Dad would take me camping and make hobo dinners in a lettuce lined tin coffee can cooked in the fire....good stuff!!!!

This is what the wife & I had for supper tonight and it was some kind of good. Should have taken a pic.

The first year or two I was married, there was a whole lot of stuff that I shot or caught, a lot of peanut butter crackers and/or sammiches, countless beans of every variety, and grilled cheese made with the commodity cheese that the wifey's grandmother gave us. I was making little over minimum wage, so NY Strip and Crab legs just didn't happen for a few years.

SOS was the dish for us. Tiny amount of ground beef...now
That I think about it probably a 1/3 or so of a pound because we normally had it
3 times a week...make a little gravy in the pan with the meat and serve it
Over two pieces of toast. Man....I still love that stuff...probably more for the memories than anything

Whenever it was my Dad's turn to cook cause Momma was working late at the hairdresser shop, Dad would make us all Hobo dinners, except he would make them in individual foil packets. My wife and I still make them today. All the time at the cabin...

let me tell you guys the best nanner sandwich you ever had:

Two piece of wheat bread, spread one with crunchy peanut butter, then drizzle with honey, then add sliced bananas. Spread butter on the outside of both sides and grill in a cast iron skillet like a grilled cheese on both sides until it's golden brown. Serve with a tall glass of ice cold whole milk... man... I want one now.

I love hobo dinners. We had them just last night

I had a buddy that used to say that he was so poor growing up they used to feed the chickens through the cracks in the floor and that while the more affluent neighbors dined on hogballs, they could only afford hogball helper.....

I never ate out growing up either but not because we couldn't, it was just my dad didn't care for it. I remember going to Pizza Hut one time and that was it. My wife grew up like OcToBeRDrEaMiN67 did and her family didn't have a lot. She said her mom would make spaghetti and they would eat on it all week. The spaghetti consisted of spaghetti noodles and ketchup. She said sometimes they ate mayonaisse sandwiches for lunch. Her mom and dad didn't have a lot when her and her brother were growin up but they did the best they could do and both of them are great people.

Reading this I see a lot of folks who may have been "poor" in stuff but were incredibly rich in blessings of strong parents who forged on, did the best they could and apparently raised their young'uns pretty well.

Ain't nothing wrong with spoon burgers, hobo dinner, baloney, beans-onion-cornbread and whatnot. Sounds like some pretty darn good grub. Except for the liver, which if it was like what my mom made was overooked, gray, tough and nasty. Ugh.

I agree very much Clem.

There's nothing I would change.

I agree.

Just so I understand the hobo dinner...you basically just put uncooked hamburger patties in a foil packet with taters, carrots, onion, etc and bake it with a little seasoning? How long and at what temp? I got a hankering to try this.

Hotdogs and sauerkraut. If lucky, there would be a chopped onion added to the pot. Learned at a early age how much food one can get from a garden. Plus lots of fish caught from the local lakes.