Step right up, step right up! Feast your ears on a true spectacle of food and amusement history! In this episode, stroll through the fairgrounds with Nicole and Julia to learn about the history of the carnival, snack on some traditional carnival foods, and discuss 20th century American dating norms. Strap on your ill-fitting, definitely-not-up-to-code safety belt and get ready for a bumpy, possibly bruise-inducing ride!

Our theme song is “Red Onions” by Louie Zong, off of his album Vegetable Soul: https://louiezong.bandcamp.com/album/vegetable-soul

We’re on Twitter at @girlslunch and on Instagram @girlslunchpod. Nicole is on Twitter @nicoleh262 and her website is nicolehylton.com. Julia is smarter than all of us and not on social media. Have an episode suggestion or question? You can email us at girlslunchpodcast@gmail.com and we will add it to our chaotic list of future episode subjects.

Links to sources:

• Inside the Live Reptile Tent: The Twilight World of Carnival Midway, by Jeff Brouws and Bruce Caron
• “Circuses, Carnivals, and Fairs in America,” by Marcello Truzzi et al, Journal of Popular Culture 6(3), 1972

• “A Roundabout History of the Ferris Wheel,” by Defunctland

• “The Sticky-Sweet Story of Cotton Candy,” by Rebecca Rupp for National Geographic

• “Know Your Sweets: Funnel Cake,” by Sarah Baird for Serious Eats

• “Funnel Cake” entry in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, ed. Andrew F. Smith

• “Chicken Charlie, The Deep Fry King,” by Elina Shatkin for the Los Angeles Times

• “The History of Deep Frying Food at Fairs,” by Rebecca Strassberg for Thrillist

• Cheap Amusements: Working Women and Leisure in Turn of the Century New York by Kathy Peiss

• How Products are Made Volume 3, Krapp & Longe, editors[Gale:Detroit] 1994 (pages 276-277).

• Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 481)

• “Why is it a thing? Sweet potato, marshmallows,” by Lindsay Deutsch for USA TODAY Network

• “Why Do We Serve Marshmallows on Sweet Potatoes?,” by Michele Debczak for Mental Floss

Julia and Nicole (and David) return for the thrilling conclusion of the history of school lunches! We’ll wade through the Cold War, and then in the 60s, things really pop off for the school lunch program, feminists, and the Black civil rights movement. Like, seriously. Shit gets wild. So grab your Uncrustables and carton of milk and get ready to learn. Class is in session!

Our theme song is “Red Onions” by Louie Zong, off of his album Vegetable Soul: https://louiezong.bandcamp.com/album/vegetable-soul

We’re on Twitter at @girlslunch and on Instagram @girlslunchpod. Nicole is on Twitter @nicoleh262 and her website is nicolehylton.com. Julia is smarter than all of us and not on social media. Have an episode suggestion or question? You can email us at girlslunchpodcast@gmail.com and we will add it to our chaotic list of future episode subjects.

Links to sources:

• Levine, Susan. School Lunch Politics: The surprising history of America's Favorite Welfare Program. Princeton University Press, New Jersey, 2008.

• Weaver-Hightower, M. B. Unpacking School Lunch: Understanding the Hidden Politics of School Food. Springer Nature Switzerland, Cham, 2022.

• Gaddis, J. E. (2019). The labor of lunch. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvr00xpk

• https://www.usda.gov/

Do you recall the halcyon days of your youth? The days spent in school, anxiously awaiting the bell, going to find your friends in the lunchroom, the same table every time? Surely you also remember the tasty lunches served to you in that room. Scrumptious salads with fresh vegetables, lovingly crafted sandwiches, bowls of gooey mac and cheese. No? Not sounding familiar? Your school lunch sucked?! Wow, pizza was a vegetable?! Gritty chicken nuggets! No, that can’t be right. All school lunches are delicious and nutritious! Unless… On this episode, we discuss the lengthy and opinionated history of school lunches, in all their infamy, with special guest David Cogswell (that’s me).

Our theme song is “Red Onions” by Louie Zong, off of his album Vegetable Soul: https://louiezong.bandcamp.com/album/vegetable-soul

We’re on Twitter at @girlslunch and on Instagram @girlslunchpod. Nicole is on Twitter @nicoleh262 and her website is nicolehylton.com. Julia is smarter than all of us and not on social media. Have an episode suggestion or question? You can email us at girlslunchpodcast@gmail.com and we will add it to our chaotic list of future episode subjects.

Links to sources:

• “Eggo: The Waffle that Revolutionized the Frozen Food Industry,” by Mark Haney

• Levine, Susan. School Lunch Politics: The surprising history of America's Favorite Welfare Program. Princeton University Press, New Jersey, 2008.

• Weaver-Hightower, M. B. Unpacking School Lunch: Understanding the Hidden Politics of School Food. Springer Nature Switzerland, Cham, 2022.

• Gaddis, J. E. (2019). The labor of lunch. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvr00xpk

• https://www.usda.gov/