What’s For Dinner?  80 Vintage Images of People & Food!

Jun 2, 2026 11:43 AM

FAUST44

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Yeah, but where are Greg and Mike? Brady Bunch, Ladies Home Journal, 1972

Looks like scalloped potatoes, maybe - also a green jello thing, 1970

That's a trough of potato salad! I see baked beans and kielbasa/sauerkraut for the win! Kentucky wedding, 1979

Our hippie son has come home! 1968

Washington Park picnic - that is one overloaded grill, Chicago, IL, 1973

Cake # 1 - Piano, 1980

Actor Cary Grant sharing a meal with Camp Crowder soldiers, Missouri, 1943

The cafeteria menu from the movie Sixteen Candles, 1984

Christmas dinner with Black Tower wine, 1976

Pie eating contest winner at the 1939 New York World's Fair

Damn, unchain Grammy from the stove so she can open her gifts, 1960

Colorado River trip picnic, 1972

Barney Google’s menu in Yorkville, NY, 1968

New Year's Eve feast, 1986 (photo by Nick DeWolf)

Pillsbury cake mixes, many discontinued ones, 1965

Coal miner's kitchen and wife, Wheelwright, KY, 1943

What is the greenish blue goo? 1982

Candy and gum display, 1965 - I'll take the Milk Duds or Heath!

Cake # 2 - Allen and his stereo, 1987

Lots of beige food, 1977

Red Cross rations for school lunch, Lonoke, AR, 1931

Chicken dictionary, Chicken Hut, Wash DC, 1940s

Barefoot lady and cat, 1938

Water pump, Shady Grove, AL, 1956 (photo by Gordon Parks)

The ocean called, they're running out of shrimp! Anderson House Smorgasbord, Fort Lauderdale, FL, 1972

Realistic moving day dinner setup, 1975

Taco Bell, 1988, Daytona Beach, FL. All that food probably cost them $5.00

Cake # 3 - Love the champagne bottle and the drunk pink elephants, 1966

Eating at commissary are extras for a Western TV show - Native American Iron Eyes Cody stands behind them, Universal Studios, CA, 1963 (photo by John Dominis)

Archaeologists eating lunch, Sénégal in West Africa, 1967

Thanksgiving tension, 1981

Bridal shower, 1979

Shrimp cocktail, stuffed celery, what are the little brown things on the plates? 1958

Actor Paul Newman enjoying ice cream and an illegal cat, Griffith Park Zoo, Los Angeles, CA, 1956

Cap'n Crunch was better than Fruit Loops, 1985

Joey Ramone in his kitchen, NYC, 1982 (photo by Laura Levine)

Beach lunch, 1962

Cake # 4 - that's a really childish cake for a 58 year old man, guess the kid picked it, 1975

1960

The Onion Bullies! Vincent Kosuga (an onion farmer) and Sam Siegel (a businessman), executed a massive cornering of the onion market, 1955 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion_Futures_Act

Muumuu luncheon, 1971

Red Lion orange soda, 1956

All hail the Good Seasons Italian dressing, 1973

Arkansas picnic, 1907

Dad on Rotisserie watch, 1961

Menu from 2nd Avenue Delicatessen, New York City, 1968

Picnic includes a bucket of drink with giant stir stick, 1974

Great eerie stock photo of housewife about to snap like a twig, 1955

Ice cream at Disneyland, 1976

Scouts BBQ, 1962

Cake # 5 - what you see is what you get

Coffee table feast, 1975

Big Boy Restaurant, Southern California, 1971

Wedding at the Rotary Club, 1973

The ghastly green punch of 1977

Beach picnic, Waiheke Island, New Zealand, 1963

Mrs. Howard and her daughter with their new refrigerator. The bill for electricity is about $4 monthly, 1946

Meals on the airplane, 1960

The Sauerkraut Queen, 1940s

Is foreground plate fish or Spanakopita or what? And what are the pink/brown things in front of him? 1967

Potato peeling at YMCA camp, New South Wales, Australia, 1946

Cake # 6 - Fourteen names on one cake, 1981

Eel and Pie House, East London, 1972

Opera singer Ezio Pinza and his family make pasta, 1955 (photo by Kenneth Eide)

Bookshelf food display, 1975

La Fonda del Sol Mexican restaurant, NYC, 1961

Saying grace in West Virginia, 1943

It's all mayo and paprika and that red jello thing, 1965

Family meal prep, bonus smiling dog, New Bedford, MA, 1942 (photo by John Collier)

Starting with salad, melon balls, and olives, 1959

Cake # 7 - Ralph and Carol's 50 birthday (twins?), meat cheese tray and what is that green thing upper right? 1984

Interesting wine decanter, 1960s

Shoppers at market during wartime rationing, Wash DC, 1942 (photo by Marjory Collins)

HB ice cream, UK, 1979. Dracula!

It's just poor hosting to make senior citizens sit on the floor. I can barely get up and I'm in my fifties. 1968

Zep Diner was a Zeppelin-shaped diner in Los Angeles that offered the Hindenburger, 1930s

Pink, 1972

A sausage eating contest - winner is second from left. Munich, Germany, 1952

Cake # 8 - Biography cake, 1977

Fridge friends, 1953

#1 Greg probably had serious munchies and they didn’t want him anywhere near that table.

2 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

I want to go back. Can I go back? Just for thanksgiving?

2 months ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

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#29 Iron Eyes Cody spurred me to environmental awareness when I was 10 with his teardrop.

2 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

#31 "Darling I would have brought a turkey if I knew you didn't know how to cook one. I don't mean to be critical. It's just that on Thanksgiving people have certain expectations. Didn't your mother teach you anything?"

2 months ago | Likes 11 Dislikes 0

“Damn! The rolls are still in the oven!”

2 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

#18 Teaberry gum, please!

2 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

#17 The blue goo looks like whipped jello. Jello and whipping cream whipped in defiance of the laws of god and man.

2 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

#74 aThe calssic strawberry shortcake was called "brunch?"

2 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

#29 Iron Eyes Cody, best known as the native with the single tear on those environmental ads in the 70s, was not native. He was Sicilian. Born as Espera Oscar de Corti in Louisiana to Sicilian immigrants.

2 months ago | Likes 27 Dislikes 0

Yup. Scrolled down to say this. Cultural appropriation at its ... whatever-ist.

2 months ago | Likes 14 Dislikes 0

#71 the green thing is pepper jelly over cream cheese

2 months ago | Likes 25 Dislikes 0

I still have my great-grandmother's recipe for jalapeno jelly; you boil it like any other fruit jam or preserve, a bit of pectin to help it settle, and sugar to taste.

When properly made, it's actually delicious; if you leave the pith (the white membrane) in the mixture, it's nice and spicy, but a little bitter so you have to add some extra sugar to mellow it out.

2 months ago | Likes 10 Dislikes 0

Recently tried jalapeño jelly and it’s my new favorite jelly

2 months ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

Scrolling down here, this 68yo flipped over to by Walmart (shopping list) browser tab and added Fruit Loops & Cap'n Crunch; neither have I eaten in decades and was checking to see if they were still made (they are ;-). So I'll be eating them for old times sake; can't eat such crap regularly!

2 months ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

Eat them for me (can't, Celiac.)

2 months ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

#72 When the drugs start to kick in.

2 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

2 months ago | Likes 22 Dislikes 0

🎶Spammitty spam, spam-spam spam-spam...🎶

2 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

But I don't like Spam!

2 months ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 0

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#8 iced tea is the only thing that makes sense

2 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

#25 Well the jerk store called

2 months ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 0

Well I had sex with your wife!

2 months ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

He's wife's been in a coma

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#58 "What did we have for dinner tonight?"
"Well, we had a choice. Steak or fish."
"Yes, that's right. I remember. I had the lasagna."

2 months ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 0

#29 Sicilian actor who portrayed First Nations people

2 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

I miss @SwankyGranny

2 months ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

#49 even in 1976 those four ice creams were probably $20

2 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

#18 Gimme some of that Teaberry, the taste of Pittsburgh!

2 months ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

#13 I don’t think he’s looking at the menu exactly

2 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Hes very carefully reading the title to make sure hes at the right place.

2 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

I’m sure you’re probably right 😉

2 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

#55 had a car, refrigerator and counter tops the same green color.

2 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

#63 if you’ve never tried the east London delicacy Jellied Eels, count yourself very very lucky.

And the British ice cream list - Cornettos were brand new but at 20p they were too expensive for my tastes
“e’ll get nowhere wi’ that. Bet ‘e can ‘ear me”

2 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Only took bloody cahd. Just stood they’ugh with muh cash

2 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

#17 looks to me like https://www.food.com/recipe/lime-horseradish-salad-149036 . It's... an acquired taste.

2 months ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

I thought it was Watergate salad (yes that watergate,it was named such as to capitalize on the notorious name ?). Pistachio pudding mix, canned pineapple mini marshmallows, cool whip. Very 70s, my mom used to make it, I never ate it

2 months ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 0

My midwestern family STILL makes this at Thanksgiving. It is not good by any metric, in my opinion, but they all love it.

2 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Sweet on top of sweet on top of sweet ugh!

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#9 Jeeze, I think my dad had that exact same model of stereo.

2 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

#72 the decanter is stupendous, but what about that chandelier?

2 months ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

I wondered the same thing. (My parents had a wine decanter like this, but I never saw them use it. It was just a decoration throughout my childhood.)

2 months ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

1965 Candy Display - EVERYTHING ON THAT RACK was 5¢ - "Here , Sweetheart. Take this nickel and go get yourself a candy bar." "Thanks, Grandma."

2 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Fascinating, @op!

2 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0