I’m sure others have started threads on this same topic before, but I wasn’t there at the time; though I could be if I got my wish, and then this thread would vanish as if it never had been.
If I had a time machine, I would go back and buy myself cartloads of a lot of things:
the original Joico K-Pak
corn flavor Australian Toaster Biscuits
5th Avenue bars, before Hershey bought them and ruined them completely
same goes for Cadbury Mini Eggs (the hard-shelled ones)
the original Riviera Minestrone
Campbell’s Chili Beef soup
the original Ranch dressing. and some Roquefort dressing too, dammit!
butternut squash, back when they used to stain my hands orange from beta-carotene
the original Tripp black stretch jeans (way better-made, alas)
R.H. Philips Night Harvest Cuvee Rouge
I know there are more. I’ll come back and rant when I remember them.
Rowntree Nutty Bars (they were a bit like PayDay, but the peanuts were different) - not for me - for my sister, who loves them so much I had to try to recreate them myself.
For me, I would grab a lifetime supply of candy cigars. They were like the little white candy sticks that used to be called candy cigarettes, but they were cocoa flavour, and bigger. I have looked everywhere for these and I think they’re gone. (there are plenty of ‘chocolate cigar’ products that are not the same, but the chocolate candy sticks are nowhere)
Regal Crown Sour Fruits. Although, just now, doing an internet search, I see the Sour Cherry and Sour Lemon are back. Not the sour Grape and Sour Orange, though.
Rather than groceries, I’d be curious to go back a few decades to see if a McDonalds hamburger or a Pizza Hut pizza tasted better than what they sell now.
THEY DON’T HAVE THEM ANYMORE??? WHA–?? Dang, those were good.
I’d go back to around 1970 and stock up on Big John’s Beans & Fixins. The little separate can had chopped onions in a barbecue-tomato-y sauce. I don’t know if they even sell this product anymore, but the last time I bought it (maybe 10 years ago) the little can just had a paste of some kind in it. Blech.
Also, small frozen button mushrooms… don’t remember the brand-- Birdseye, JGG? My first husband used to do them up in a pan with butter and Worcestershire sauce. With an artichoke, a gin & tonic, watching the original Upstairs Downstairs (c. 1973), a nice evening. Of course, if that product were available, I’d have to call him up for the recipe. Never mind.
Howard Johnson’s frozen shrimp croquettes. Very deliciousl
Some old-timey foods, especially candy, can be found at the online Vermont Country Store, along with cosmetics, pajamas, cleaning products, and other stuff. The site and catalog are fun to read.
