I Love Lucy Wasn't Vegetarian!

[Haunted_Armoire]

They sure ate a lot of MEAT on "I Love Lucy"!!

Aside from "The Freezer" and all that meat I realized they sure loved beef on "I Love Lucy". I wonder if some sort of meat campaign was going on? It was post war of course but it seemed the meat of choice was always beef followed by chickens. Roast beef, steak, hamburgers. Maybe you can name more. Oh yeah pork chops! And they were like what? Four inches thick?? YUCK! I hate meat!! Dead animals!

[Madame X]

Those were still the "meat & potatoes" days!

[Haunted_Armoire]

I guess along with smoking they didn't care much about cholesterol back then. And meat had a lot of fat in it in those days.

[Ireneparalegal]

Real girls eat meat.

Meat can be eaten in moderation and still be good for you. Cut the fat off as well.

[Larry Surrell]

And vegetarians were portrayed as weirdos, like the lady who drove Lucy and Ethel to Florida.

[Haunted_Armoire]

Originally Posted by Larry Surrell

And vegetarians were portrayed as weirdos, like the lady who drove Lucy and Ethel to Florida.

I never thought of her as a vegetarian. She was "English" and a watercress sandwich would be pretty normal to have for lunch along with maybe cucumber sandwiches. She wasn't a vegan though because there was butter on the sandwich. I do eat fish and eggs and if someone has chicken I'll sometimes eat that. If I were starving and the only thing was meat to eat, I'd eat meat. But mostly I make a choice not to. It's better for my health.

[Ireneparalegal]

If I were starving, I would NOT eat a watercress sandwich.

[Jude The Obscure]

Make that a buttered grass sandwich

[Ireneparalegal]

Touche Jude. Buttered or not, I would not eat grass.

[Haunted_Armoire]

You don't like buttered grass Irene?? Watercress is a really tasty salad green. It's peppery and packed with nutrients! I'll take your helping.

[Haunted_Armoire]

Hah we were all posting at the same time on that one!!

[Ireneparalegal]

We are all on a roll here on ILL.

[Larry Surrell]

I just assumed she was a vegetarian, or at least a health food nut. Who else in the 50s ate watercress sandwiches? The norm would have been baloney, ham or peanut butter.

[Ireneparalegal]

According to my book and the episode information, Mrs. Grundy was indeed a health-food fanatic.

[Haunted_Armoire]

Originally Posted by Larry Surrell

I just assumed she was a vegetarian, or at least a health food nut. Who else in the 50s ate watercress sandwiches?

I said this earlier but Elsa Lancaster was in real life a British woman even though her character wasn't exactly labelled as such. We get the jist from her accent. So a "normal" lunch sandwich for someone English would be a watercress or cucumber sandwich. It would be what she was used to eating, health food or not. The eccentricity of the character also included her offering up and eating a very unusual sandwich. I wonder too if she suggested it to the writers.