Memba him?
Seventies Breakfast
19 Responses to Seventies Breakfast
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Sands says:
No. But I remember my grandma stir-frying squash with grape nuts. And I remember it being pretty dang gross.
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Aaron Gross says:
The Seventies was the worst decade ever. No amount of irony can redeem it.
Didn’t know cattails were edible, though. We used to dry them out and light them as torches, running around the neighborhood at night. I’m sure that was a lot more fun than eating them.
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M_Young says:
“The Seventies was the worst decade ever. No amount of irony can redeem it.”
Oh, I dunno. Looking back on the old commercials, ‘Free to be You and Me’ etc, it seems pretty darn cool. Mellow, uncrowded, relaxed.
And don’t forget, the 70s brought you Apple, Microsoft, and the Mountain Bike.
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A junior high classic:
“Why does Euell Gibbons have purple kids?”
I’ll let y’all answer that for yourselves.
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MikeS says:
Oh yes I remember. “Ever eat a pine tree? Many parts are edible..”.
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Anthony says:
“The Seventies was the worst decade ever. No amount of irony can redeem it.”
So true; the ’70s were the hangover from the night of indulgence before, i.e. the ’60s. -
YIH says:
Sure do, as well as the cereal which looked and tasted like gravel.
That man as his ads were the butt of jokes for years. -
Bar Bill says:
Ewell Gibbons put granola on the map. I remember Johnny Carson doing Ewell Gibbons jokes. That’s when you knew you made it big in America.
Everything Ewell Gibbons touched tasted “like wild hic’ry nuts.”
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Cliff says:
Yes, I do remember him, particularly as the butt of the very best Watergate joke: What happened to the missing tapes? Euell Gibbons ate them!
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KXB says:
Seinfeld – Grape Nuts – no grapes, no nuts!
Ate only one bowl in my life on the recommendation of a room-mate. It was awful. Another room-mate, who grew up in Oklahoma, put it best, “Straight from the trough to your cereal bowl.”
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Maughold says:
I do remember.
But seeing the commercial again, I was hoping he’d take a bite out of the cattail and skip the bowl of cereal.
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Franklin Evans says:
Wasn’t he the guy who was famous for Christmas apes?
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David J. White says:
Wow, and on the 40th anniversary of another 70s icon, Schoolhouse Rock:
Aaron Gross — When I was in the Boy Scouts, we had some wilderness survival presentations in which we were told that, indeed, cattails are edible. Apparently there are parts of the plant which can be dried out, ground into a powder, and then used like flower to make a kind of break or biscuit. Probably not great, but presumably better than starving to death in the woods.
To be honest, I’ve always liked Grape-Nuts. But then, I also think that everything is better with Velveeta.
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elizabeth says:
Don’t forget that 70′s foundation of vegetarian dinner casseroles.
A significant number of us were convinced we’d drop dead of protein deficiency after any meatless meal. Special K was accepted as “grain” (5-6 cups) to which were added mountains of cottage cheese or grated cheddar, and at least 6 beaten eggs. Bake until the whole mess stops jiggling.
Mmm. 70s natural food cuisine.
Too bad Post got Euell. Imagine what Kellogg could have done with him.
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SAF says:
Elizabeth, don’t forget the Enchanted Broccoli Forest cookbook!
I love Grape-Nuts to this day but am convinced they’re (it’s?) responsible for some of my dental crowns. -
Jeffersonian says:
I didn’t remember his name, and I don’t know anything else about the man, but I do remember the “hickry nuts” commercial.
As for Grape-Nuts themselves, I always liked them best mixed with honey and soaked with whole milk, then heated for a minute in the microwave. My sisters thought I was weird, but… or, well, maybe I was.
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SAF -
Most recipes from Mollie Katzen oozed with cheese or took hours to make, or both. Grad students in those days must have had hours at home reading and typing, between which activities they could get up and do another step in an all-day recipe.
At least she didn’t base casseroles on Special K.
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Alf Kentigern says:
He was from around here, in the Northern Appalachian woods of central Pennsylvania, and one of the members of our mission church used to cut his lawn and had a relative who used to cut his hair at a small-town barber shop where he used to go before cutting a new Grape Nuts commercial. His modest house by the forest named It Wonders Me is at the entrance to a nature preserve area called Tall Timbers, which includes some beautiful rare old-growth hemlock woods alongside streams, which is where we have our church’s Fourth of July picnic and is an Amish teen-ager hangout. A friend is writing about connections between him and local plants and food foraging. Beyond the caricature of the Grape Nuts commercials, he’s really deeply rooted in this local area.
I remember back in the 70s the joke was that anything with Euell Gibbons involved had to be a bunch of mixed nuts.