Last weekend I attended a seminar on writing family history and one speaker encouraged us to write blogs often about our lives as well as those of our ancestors. This started me thinking about how things were in my life as I grew up and how different they are now.

So I thought I’d like my kids and grandkids to know more about my life and the result is that I have a long list of topics to blog about. And breakfast is the first.

My parents always ran their own business and our home was onsite from the time I was five. Hence breakfast was a family affair with us all, Mum, Dad & I, sitting at the table eating a cooked breakfast. We didn’t get TV until I was 13 so we would have the radio playing on the ABC. Russ Tyson’s breakfast radio was a favourite. Even when we had TV it was never on at breakfast time.

First course was vita brits with hot water & milk & sugar. We drank cups of tea; never coffee or juice or water.

For seconds we had various things on toast: tinned lamb stew & vegetables, tinned beef stew & vegetables, tinned spaghetti and sometimes the tinned spaghetti contained meatballs – that was exciting but I can’t remember ever having baked beans. Mum hated cooking lamb’s brains & she especially hated preparing them for crumbing but Dad & I loved them so they were an occasional treat. I think we had bacon & eggs on Sundays with fried bread. How good was the fried bread? Yum! Lamb’s fry & bacon was another that Mum hated. Dad also liked to have tinned kippers & herrings.

Of course, all of these were cooked or heated on the stove. We had neither bbq nor microwave & no dishwasher except Mum & I. She’d wash & I’d wipe & we’d have a great chat.

I’m happy that my kids grew up enjoying breakfast as a family sitting around the table & I’m very happy that my grandkids do the same. I firmly believe that sharing food & discussion as a family is a key factor in children’s learning respect for others & for themselves.

Of course, the food eaten & the way it is prepared is often very different today.