@BJCard:
We would get steak and lobster once every 3-4 months or so. Ice cream (hard pack) every day. Breakfast has eggs to order. No soda/beer though- only milk (powdered junk after a couple weeks at sea), coffee, and ‘bug juice’ (crystal light). Of course we have the best water in the world- we make fresh water from the cleanest water in the world (Distilled water from 400+ feet- Fantastic stuff, magical really…). I hear boomers have soda machines and surface ships have legit soda machines.Â
Thanks for the info – I always find these kinds of details interesting.
Regarding the powered milk, I guess some things never change. In the WWII movie Destination Tokyo (made during the war), there’s a scene in which the camera pans down over the menu of the Christmas dinner that will be served to the crew, and the last item – after a long list of goodies – is “Fresh Milk (while it lasts)”. And in the classic WWII sub film Run Silent, Run Deep (made in the 1950s, I think), an admiral comes aboard the Nerka when it docks at Pearl Harbor and asks the Executive Officer (played by Burt Lancaster) for a glass of milk. Lancaster says, “We only have powdered, sir.”
The part about the ice cream reminds me of an incident aboard one of the Iowa class battleships during WWII. A large number of sailors were lined up at the ship’s “gedunk bar” (soda fountain / ice cream counter) to get their daily allowance of ice cream. One young sailor tried to jump the cue, only to discover that one of the people he’d gotten ahead of was Bill Halsey. The Admiral casually told him to “Get back in line, son,” which the sailor very promptly did.
I wonder if the expression “bug juice” was inspired by this stuff…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torpedo_juice
…which was rather more potent than crystal light.