Childhood Through the Lens of Food

Water Boy On A Peach Farm in Newman, Georgia in 1945 (US National Archive Collection)

Starting a new series today on food memories and children. In researching my book Hog and Hominy I conducted some thirty interviews with people born before 1945. Some never left the South, and others were southerners or like my mother and father, the children of southerners who migrated from the south to the North. Many of them had vivid memories of their childhood through the lens of food. As an adult, my Dad Fred Opie Jr. made regular donations to the Salvation Army as thanks for the acts of kindness they showed to his family during the Great Depression. “If it wasn’t for the Salvation Army, my family would have never survived the Depression,” because they brought our family much needed food. Below find wonderful stories about children and food.

Hog and Hominy: http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-14638-8/hog-and-hominy

Anne Bramely’s Childhood Food Memories: http://www.eatfeed.com/eat-feed-105-food-and-memory/

BBC Food Programme Directory: http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/foodprog

Digital Dishes, Life Stories and Recipes: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/foodprog/foodprog_20130505-1300a.mp3

 Madhur Jaffrey on Children and Food: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/foodprog/foodprog_20130408-1956a.mp3

Banishing Childhood Memories of Jim Crow Train Cars: http://www.npr.org/2012/05/30/153725362/with-one-wish-banishing-memories-of-jim-crow