Middle class woman gets government cheese, and lives to tell the tale..

[SoCalDem]

The year is 1982..

The mother encourages her children to read the paper and watch the news. In fact the oldest boy ,once.... only 5 at the time proceeded to shussshhh adults in the room so he could hear what CNN was saying about Anwar Sadat.... "Sadat?? Who's HE? someone asked...President of Egypt..just assassinated, chimed the youngster".. but I digress..

back to 1982...

Mom & the boys are out shopping and going to the bank. On their way they pass St Vincent's Thrift shop.. Having things to donate already in the car,(leftover from another shopping foray..and all but forgotten) they decide to drop them off as well..

FREE CHEESE... FREE CHEESE... The banner fairly screams...

The mother enters the store and puts down the box of clothes, toys and assorted cast-offs..

"Here's your cheese", says the woman at the counter..

Back to the car, which is bouncing from the antics of the pinching, pushing, not-so-patiently waiting boys...

Errands completed, they all head home and of course.. what do the boys want for lunch??

TOASTED FREE CHEESE SANDWICHES

as they settle in to eat lunch, the oldest peruses the paper... Page Two top right..

Free Cheese Giveaway to the poor...Today at St Vincent's....


...."Mom , are we poor?".....

My sons still kid me about the FREE cheese :)

[SmileyBoy]

1. I'm a little too young to remember government cheese.

I know that it was still topical humour on TV when I was a little boy, but I don't know if Reagan had scrapped the free cheese program by that time.

I remember my parents telling me about how they were basically poor when they first got married, how they were worried they would have to resort to getting government cheese.

[SoCalDem]

4. Picture a 5 pound box of velveeta

The sad part is that the damn stuff molded before we ever finished it :)

and the oldest blabbed to Dad the minute he walked in the door that night..


"Daaaaaad.. Mom got Free cheese today.. Poor people's cheese"..:grr:

[SmileyBoy]

6. That's absolutely horrible and funny as hell at the same time.

I'm sorry, but I cracked up when I read that last line.:)

I do agree, it's a horrible thing to say.

[TahitiNut]

14. Grilled cheese sandwiches, mac and cheese, cheese potatoes ...

... and lots more. Believe me, growing up I really learned to like those dishes. And the mold scrapes off quite easily. (We didn't throw edible food away.) Ring balogna stew is another dish I've occasionally made since then, too. About 6 potatoes peeled & chunked, about 1/2 of a ring balogna chunked, add water to cover, salt, pepper, and cook covered until the solids start breaking down. Cheap and filling. Yum.

[MrSandman]

2. The cheese may have been good, but ...

The butter was awesome.

[CubsFan1982]

3. Government cheese ROCKED

Still, to this day, best. cheese. ever.

[mitchum]

16. Absolutely!

It's what we always had at Boy Scout camp. It would make these nice, thick strings when melted. World's best American cheese :)

[Schema Thing]

5. ick! I remember it as being really bad.

Maybe mine wasn't toasted with butter and luv?

[Nikia]

7. Government American is identical or better than brand cheese

They have a USDA inspector come in who sees the ingredients put into it and supervises the whole process. If there is anything going on that he/she doesn't approve of, the line is instantly shut down and the problem is fixed or the cheese is not accepted. Several samples of the cheese are taken. If all the samples do not fit within parameters, the cheese is not bought by the government or it is bought at a lower (non profit making) price. Government contracts for this cheese are awarded to companies who already make this type of product. Because the companies fear the wrath of getting their cheese rejected, the product tends not to be cheapened. Often the company is even more careful with the government run than it is with runs of their regular brand cheese.
One incarnation of government cheese sells for $5.99/pound at delis under a brand name.

[SoCalDem]

9. The cheese we got actually was tasty.. just too huge of a box

:)

[CanuckAmok]

8. "Five pound blocks of cheeeeese...bags of grocereees..."

"Social Security, has run out,
on you and me,
we do what ever we can,
gotta duck when the shit hit's the fan,
doobeedeedoowopwopyeah..."
--Circle Jerks

[Historic NY]

10. I hated the cheese give-a-ways.............

all those crazed senior citizens had only one thing one their minds, free cheese & peanut butter. It totally interfered with their driving abilities. I saw a partner hit by a cheese crazed senior. We used to have dozens of car accidents because of this program.

[SoCalDem]

12. Damn.. You mean I could have gotten peanut butter instead??

:)

[Historic NY]

15. Yup they gave peanut butter away too and a coupe of other things..

besides the cheese..Reagon was cleaning out the storage bins. Mostly it was cheese.

[LoZoccolo]

11. The USDA peanut butter was supposed to be good too!

A friend of mine's mother had some.

[baldguy]

13. We got Government Cheese when I was a kid too. Damn good stuff.

Bush probl'y killed the program.

[Elidor]

17. You forgot the 2nd half of the story

Mom? Why can't I poop anymore?

Because you ate 3 pounds of government cheese, son. Have some more castor oil and get off my rug.

[kodi]

18. govt. cheese, powdered eggs & milk, peanut butter and flour.

sat in line with my mom and three other kids to get it in the early '60s. two jobs waitressing could not feed a mother and her four kids.

were it not for the government, i would have gone hungry.

i do not forget that, ever.

its the major the reasons i am a liberal.

[AbbeyRoad]

19. I remember enjoying government cheese

It was tasty.

The peanut butter kind of creeped me out, because when you opened the tub(not a jar but a tub) there'd be a thick layer of oil that you'd have to stir in. That doesn't happen with JIF.

I also remember seeing in the cabinet cans of meat with a picture of a pig on the side and "Pork" written in black block letters. I tried my hardest to stay away from the contents of those cans.

Also, I remember that when I was a kid there was a generic aisle in the grocery store where all the cans and boxes were white with black lettering kind of like the covers of JD Salinger novels. I can't remember, however, when exactly it changed.