My father worked turns at the steel mill when pizza was a new-to-us food in the mid-1950s. My sister had persuaded Dad to stop at a pizza shop to buy a pizza one Friday night on his way home from work. He didn't usually get home until at least 11:30 but stopping for pizza meant his getting home after midnight. (We were not a family of night owls.) I have no idea how my sister learned about a pizza place in a city that was so far from our little village.
My usual bedtime when I was five or six was probably 8:30 or 9:00, even on Fridays and Saturdays. I was asleep when Dad arrived home that night, but my family, not wanting me to miss this new experience, woke me eat pizza.
Maybe I would have liked it had I been more awake when it arrived, but I doubt it. It had sauce, pepperoni, and cheese, as well as other toppings, probably onions, mushrooms, and peppers, and maybe olives. I was a picky eater, not to mention the fact that I'd never eaten pepperoni or mushrooms and didn't like peppers or olives. What a mess of a combination of foods it was. I scraped off all the toppings including the cheese and ate the crust with whatever sauce I couldn't scrape off.
And then I went back to bed, totally unimpressed with pizza.
It was a number of years before I remember eating pizza again. Probably at the encouragement of my sister, my mom bought a box of Chef Boyardee, sold with everything included to make a simple, plain pizza: dough mix, sauce in a can, and Parmesan cheese in a pouch. Getting the dough spread out to cover the whole pan was a challenge. And, well, it was plain.
Even later, around the time I was 16, our small, local grocery store, Beazel's, sold ready-made pizzas in plastic bags -- just take them home and bake them. My mom bought several when I had a few friends over for my 16th birthday.
By the late 1960s, pizza restaurant had become common.
These days I order pizza with pepperoni, mushrooms, and sausage.
Do you have early memories of trying new foods, or the first time you ate pizza?
—Nancy.
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A place called the Fredrico's opened in the late 50's or early 60's. You could order plain or sausage pizza, that was it. It was a splurge but my Uncle Ralph brought some one day. My mother was so pleased, I could tell. I had some but it was not a big deal (not enough cheese). Fredrico's is still there and serves the same sausage pizza and lots more. Their garlic bread is the best.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun memory, Robin. I guess pizza has evolved quite a lot over the years as far as toppings go, and crusts, too. How kind of your Uncle Ralph. It's impressive that Fredrico's is still there after so many years. I'd love to try their garlic bread!
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