This website is inspired by our mom, Lela Smith. When Mom was in her sixties, she taught herself to type -- back in the old days (before computers took over) most people did not know how to type.

Mom had a mission to save the old recipes. She spent countless hours compiling and typing her recipe book. Before word processors were invented, you had to correct typographical errors by hand, and if something got too messy, you just tore it up and started over.

People did not eat out as much fifty years ago as they do now. Most meals were made from scratch ingredients as you will notice looking at the recipes. This took skill and planning.

There was only one McDonald's in Lincoln in the 1960's and no KFCs -- pretty much every restaurant was a mom-and-pop affair. Harlan Sanders did happen to come into Dad's gas station a couple times in his white suit and white Cadillac, but the Colonel was only franchising his RECIPE to the nearby, locally-owned 'Red Rooster', not yet trying to put the little guy out of business.

We ate at home most of the time anyway -- a family could buy a couple shopping carts of food for $20 at the corner grocery store (in our case B & R IGA), and the owner (Russ), would sack it up for you.

Us kids (older now) remember the table almost always was more of a smorgasborg than is typical today. There was not just one vegetable, but four or five fruits and vegetables to pick from. If you didn't eat it all, it just went back in the fridge for later. Probably this was a carryover from the days when people lived off their gardens.

We rarely ate the same meal twice in a month, probably not twice in three or four months. Mom was always experimenting and making new dishes that she had read or heard about. We just took it for granted.

In today's world of fast food and poor eating habits, it's nice to look back in time to see what Mom was cooking for us back in the 1960's and 1970's (not that it's all health food, there's plenty of candy and cake in there!)