Our memories have a way of filtering out the bad and remembering the good.
Did you make it to Porky’s on Snelling Avenue before they moved last year? I remember following the story closely in the Pioneer Press about the selling, the calls to save Porky’s and ultimately, the moving of the building about a year ago.
I regret not stopping there at least once. I had meant to. And if pushed, I can still drive up to “The Drive-In” up at Taylor’s Falls (open since 1956) on a lush summer’s day and still experience the 50s.
Porky’s opened in 1953 as one of the first drive-in restaurants in the Twin Cities. When I think of Porky’s, I think of cars on a Saturday night peelin’ and screeching tires up and down University. I was not born in the 50’s and have only heard of such ideas in books and on TV while growing up. I like to romanticize a little about the best of all of the decades -- but the 50’s seem as special to us, come summer, as Victorian times are, come Christmas.
My husband grew up in the Midway area and went to St. Paul Central; so I always felt Porky’s was part of the neighborhood, and while I worked for the U of MN, I drove by it daily. All of those landmarks are very nostalgic.
For some women though, I have heard that the 1950’s were a challenging time. Some would say the only companionship women could look forward to were weekly ‘Tupperware Parties’ where neighbors would gather to have coffee and buy plastic kitchen products. Other women tell me they were too busy raising a family and working around the farm / home to recall such loneliness.
Some of the more verbal ladies, in the 60s, reckoned that there was more to life for women than babies, dishes and happy husbands.
Prior to this, women by the millions took factory jobs to make up for the domestic manpower shortage during the war. Many felt that their contribution to the war effort had been forgotten and wanted to make their mark.
Betty Friedan, a communist, who wrote ‘The Feminist Mystique’ said that women had been brainwashed by men into being their servants. She invited women to educate themselves and become partners with their men rather than act like second-class citizens. When describing the suburban home in the eyes of a women she called it “a comfortable concentration camp”.
I’m certain many, perhaps, felt this way. And yet I also am curious how much revisionist history is written into how women felt, as we compose from a post 60‘s mindset. It is often from a progressive approach to history that tells us how much better off we have it today than yesteryear. And yet, how many mothers of 7 children in the 1950s would have empathy toward the mother of 2, today, that claims to be in need of a nanny?
In 100 years, which generation of mothers will be judged the best mentor/ guide / guardian for her children?
When I think of the 1950’s I think of a particular fabulous time for desserts and I aim to examine and recreate some this summer. I’ve read up on Upside-down cakes filled with pineapple. Jello “broken glass” cakes, banana cream pudding pies, hot fudge sundaes and light and frothy milk shake fellows. All in a few retro bowls and plates. Now, Porky’s cuisine may not have served such delights, but back in this time period; I have heard that going out to eat was only a monthly or, at best, weekly treat, as few had enough money to eat out as often as the modern day family does.
And once again; in years to come, who will we admire more, the child raised on Mickey Ds 3x per week from a mom with a PhD or Betty Crocker’s 3 squares per day from a mom raised on the farm that went to Porky‘s for a treat once each summer?
Maybe each generation is equally problematic and enlightened in the final analysis?
Some things, in the past 100 years certainly seem to advance with time, such as medicine and computer technology; while other things such as social graces, our sense of family… But fast food… how has that progressed? Would I rather go to Porky’s or Burger Whop? For all I know, they may be the same. But in my cloudy recollection of old tales and Happy Days, I imagine smiley car hops on roller skates coming out to take my order as I lean back in my big boss ’57 Chev. Contrast that with waiting in the drive thru at certain places while a 17 year old looks annoyed that I interrupted her text message and can‘t understand how to make change. But, alas, once again, this may be revisionist history as well.
Yet this memory of Porky’s is soothing. I might just peel out of my driveway on my Fonzie bike after eating some retro chocolate chip congo bars! But, I will regret not experiencing some drive in hamburger, with oily onion rings, with a modern day Fonzie making an entrance -- at least leaning up against a winged back car or hittin‘ the jukebox while givin‘ a thumbs up and “heyyyyyyyyyy… WHOA!” And to be fair, Happy Days DID have Pinky Tuscaderro, the demolition derby driver / girlfriend of Arthur Fonzarelli -- revisionist Happy Days or women doing their own thing in the 50s?
Only Porky’s knows for sure.
