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August 7, 2002
Campbell, California Since 1999 |
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The Good Old Days
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Memories of home cooking fill the stomach and the soul
By Jerry Baum
One of the fondest and most lasting memories
of our childhood is that of food. I have
received several emails from readers and
almost every one mentions a particular place
they used to eat in Campbell.
Forty years ago there wasn't the plethora of
eateries we enjoy today. If you wanted ethnic
food, you went home and your mother cooked
it. There weren't any Mexican restaurants or
Chinese take-out places. Italian food was
pizza, and no one had ever heard of sushi.
The first time I had Mexican food was when I
was invited to dinner at a friend's house.
There I had tacos for the first time. Not
Taco Bell tacos - these were homemade
tortillas with shredded meat, and enchiladas
with rice and beans: a homemade feast that
could surpass anything served in Pedro's in
Los Gatos. To my friend Bill, this was
everyday, boring food, but I had never tasted
such a marvelous mixture.
My wife, who is Japanese, reminds me that she
grew up eating sushi and sukiyaki, with lots
of rice. I didn't really grow to like sushi
until I had her mother's. It seems that no
matter what the origin of food, the real
flavor of the meal always comes through when
it's the cook who grew up eating and
preparing the food. My daughter still thinks
I make the best fried chicken around, but I
can't hold a candle to my mother's fried
chicken.
My parents grew up in Kansas and Iowa and
were used to cooking the foods their parents
grew up with. In turn I grew up eating fried
chicken, fried potatoes, dumplings, pinto
beans, and the ever-popular SOS. For anyone
who has been in the military, you know what
SOS stands for; my mother called it "chipped
beef in gravy on a slice of bread." To us
that was good eatin'.
Our family never had much soda pop.The
selections were few. Of course we had Coke
and Pepsi, Nehi came in varying flavors, and
there was that new soda, Dr Pepper. If you
wanted a root beer you had to go to the
A&W on Winchester in Campbell.
Walking home from Campbell Junior High, I
would stop at the A&W and buy a quart of
root beer to drink. The container was unique,
the shape was like an upside down cone. More
like a dunce cap with a lid about the size of
a cap from a milk bottle. You had to drink it
fast, while it was still cold and refreshing.
On the way to school most kids would stop at
The Kopper Kettle doughnut shop, which was
located on Winchester Boulevard a block
before Campbell Avenue. Today it is a
flooring store.
The Kopper Kettle had the best doughnuts in
the world - hands down. I used to get the
cream-filled bars with chocolate on the
outside, or the butter horns with crumples on
top. Just the thought of the Kopper Kettle
makes my mouth water, and recalling the aroma
of those freshly made doughnuts adds three
pounds to my ever-expanding girth.
When my father decided to go out for dinner,
we all loaded up in the car and drove to
Monterey Road - near the corner of Alma
Road - where "Kings" once stood.
Kings was one of the first hamburger stands
around, years before McDonald's. It was a
typical drive-in, where you could place your
order and they brought the food to you. Back
then you could get a "Bag o' burgers," which
was 10 hamburgers for a dollar. We might eat
them there or drive around the corner and go
to the Spartan Drive-In and make a real night
of it.
After I graduated from Westmont High in 1966,
I worked at the McDonald's on Winchester
while going to college. Hamburgers were 15
cents, cheeseburgers were 25 cents, and we
had only one size of french fries, which was
also 15 cents. There was no
drive-through or lobby; it was an
open-air affair. Even in the rain, people
would stand in line at 10:30 p.m. to eat a
McDonald's burger.
Burgers may have been 15 cents, but I was
only making $1.10 an hour. But it was an
all-you-can-eat job, and I think I got the
better end of that.
When I returned from Vietnam in 1971,
Campbell had grown up a great deal - faster
than me, even. The Pruneyard seemed to have
grown overnight, along with its eating
establishments.
One particular restaurant was called the
Cookbook. I have never seen another
restaurant whose menu relied solely on
breakfast food. On a Saturday or Sunday
morning, you might wait up to two hours
before being seated. But it was worth it. The
restaurant make the largest and most
intricate omelets you could imagine. If a
particular omelet wasn't on one of the five
menu pages, you could build your own. When
the Cookbook went out of business it was a
great loss to Campbell.
Today Campbell is the place to find a myriad
of cuisines. Perhaps you might be remembering
them in the future as part of your "good old
days."
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