Foodies and Folkways

Wouldn’t you know that food comes up on a regular basis in discussions of Agincourt history; one of those topics we all recognize but just as often know very little about. The topic du jour was food carts: When did they become a thing in American popular culture?

Fargo went from having one to probably in excess of six or eight. I’ve lost count. And wouldn’t you also know that the internet has come to rescue my reputation and remedy my ignorance.

Google provides a number of images for early food carts. One in Los Angeles from early in the 20th century specialized in tamales—no bad thing, as far as I’m concerned. So I continued to search and feel confident know that something like the cart shown here will become part of the story. The very idea of four waffles for 5¢ is astonishing.

The, of course, in my own experience, there is the Good Humor man, a neighborhood staple from the 1950s. Ozzie and Harriet; father knows best, and all that.