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Found a grocery list from 1987 in a used cookbook... took me an hour to stop laughing | Forgotten Bookmarks - Chatter Central

graydavis•4mo ago

Found a grocery list from 1987 in a used cookbook... took me an hour to stop laughing

Picked up a copy of The Joy of Cooking at a thrift store in Phoenix last weekend. Flipped through it and found a yellowed grocery list tucked between the pie crust pages. List had items like 'liverwurst, pickle loaf, Tang, and margarine tub.' The handwriting was cursive and perfect. My grandma wrote lists just like that. Took me a full hour to stop reading it and actually look at the recipes. I still have it on my fridge. Anyone else find things that feel like a time capsule? What's the oldest thing you've found in a book?

3 comments

3 Comments

grantf734mo ago

Did you save it or toss it? My buddy found a 1972 receipt for a Kmart purchase inside a Stephen King paperback at a yard sale. Had stuff like a can of WD-40 for 89 cents and a record album called "The Best of Bread." Said he spent the whole afternoon trying to look up if that was a real album or if the guy was messing with him. Turned out it was real and now my buddy keeps the receipt in his wallet like a weird good luck charm.

verawhite4mo ago

It's wild how a little scrap of paper can pull you right into someone else's life. @grantf73 gets it with that Kmart receipt, like you're holding a piece of their everyday reality. I think the coolest part for me wasn't just the stuff they bought, but the way it makes you wonder who they were. Like, who made liverwurst sandwiches and kept margarine tubs for leftovers? Were they a young mom in 1987 or an older lady? That list is a tiny snapshot of a whole person's week, and now it's just stuck to your fridge. That's better than any recipe in the book honestly, because it's a real recipe for how someone actually lived.

sethhernandez4mo ago

Up in my parents attic I found a whole stack of old grocery lists from 1993 stuffed inside a cookbook my grandma left us. One of them had "cat food" and "sherry" written in the same handwriting and it made me laugh because that summed her up perfectly. @verawhite you hit it exactly right, its like youre holding a little piece of someones real life. I actually kept that list and put it in a frame with a photo of her just because it felt too personal to throw away. Better than any old recipe book honestly.