You Know You Are Old When

[Eagle1]

Curiously, how many here's mother did the vast majority of the cooking in the house? About the only times my father cooked was either if it was outside on the grill or if my mother was away for the evening, in which case you could be almost certain we were having grill cheese sandwiches. He went from living with his parents to being married (with a stint in the service in between) so he never really learned those skills. In his defense, it was fairly typical for men of his generation.

I do probably 75% of our cooking.

I taught my wife the basics of cooking when we got married, but have not cooked anything in over 20 years (maybe longer). On the flip side wife has not cut grass or repaired anything in that same time frame. We gravitated to the chores we prefer and the division of labor works for us, YMMV
36 years this June and neither is looking for a way out.

 

[goeduck]

Curiously, how many here's mother did the vast majority of the cooking in the house? About the only times my father cooked was either if it was outside on the grill or if my mother was away for the evening, in which case you could be almost certain we were having grill cheese sandwiches. He went from living with his parents to being married (with a stint in the service in between) so he never really learned those skills. In his defense, it was fairly typical for men of his generation.

I do probably 75% of our cooking.

My mother did all of the cooking with one or two of us kids helping. My father only knew how to make one dish, bread and eggs. Of course he used bread my mother made, and eggs we kids gathered from chickens we kids raised and fed. 7 boys, 2 girls and all of us are the primary cooks in our own families. I do 100% of our cooking. It was back the 80s when my wife last cooked a meal. We had guests and dinner was 3 hours late and her cooking kind of ended there. She does know how to boil an egg and make coffee, so in a pinch she feeds herself. Neither one of us is looking for an exit either, it is just the way it is. After surviving her cancers, cooking and kitchen cleanup is the least that I can do.

 

[milkman636]

My dad was not the one that any of us wanted to do the cooking. He was born into the depression and WW2 highlighted his early teens. Then Uncle Sam sent him overseas for a couple years of culinary desensitization during the Korean War. He could eat anything at room temperature out of a can or jar and be perfectly contented, and then take a nap in any awkward position he found himself in afterwards.

My mom did all the cooking while I was growing up. We were called on to help with whatever she wanted us to do, so we all learned a fair amount of kitchen skills. I even cooked in restaurants during high school and college, and I pitch in on cooking for the family about once a week. Plus I take a major role when cooking for any big gatherings that require volume . But, my wife does 95% of our normal cooking. She spoils me.

 

[goeduck]

I never did work cooking in a restaurant. To this day, I wish I had done so in a nice restaurant, not a burger or pancake joint.

 

[Jstpssng]

I never did work cooking in a restaurant. To this day, I wish I had done so in a nice restaurant, not a burger or pancake joint.

It's never too late!

I once ate in a restaurant on the coast, which was run by a woman who had put her life savings into her dream. She had some type of physical handicap which made it hard for her to walk, and the day I was there the waitress didn't show. She was doing double duty and ut was hard watching her struggle to get around but there was nothing I could do.

Oh yeah, she also couldn't cook. How do you mess up fried eggs?

 

[masseyrider]

Never heard the term "meat and two" before, I presume the "2" refers to side dishes? Don't recall ever seeing that before, must be a regional thing.

I found it with the British.
And everything some shade of brown.

 

[Hay Dude]

You know you are old when:

You can’t put 2 sentences together or you mangle & bungle words all the time.

Luckily, hasn’t happened to me yet.

“not hyperbole”

 

[masseyrider]

You know you are old when:

You can’t put 2 sentences together or you mangle & bungle words all the time.

Luckily, hasn’t happened to me yet.

What did you say?
Can you repeat it to make some sense?

 

[John0829]

Can I cook? Yes, do I, no I do not. She does all the cooking and I do the cleaning up after. A fair division that works for us.

 

[BravoXray]

I never did work cooking in a restaurant. To this day, I wish I had done so in a nice restaurant, not a burger or pancake joint.

I started working in the local restaurant as a bus boy in 1964, on Mother's Day. After the rush was over, I got to wash all the pots and pans. Made $.80/hr. I did a lot of food prep for the weekend crowds, flowering chicken and fish, making cole slaw and wrapping baking potatoes in foil. After high school, and I was going to Purdue, I came home and worked there on weekends. After college, I kept working weekends as a cook, even after I got married and was working at the family construction company. In 1975, the owners disappeared after they took out a $75K loan for redecoration the restaurant and a deli they operated at a local mall, so it closed down. Unlike most places today, we had very little employee turnover, and we all worked together well, and had a lot of fun.
To this day, I can't stand cole slaw, must have made a thousand gallons of the stuff while I worked there.