Boomers and Generation Jones share the meals and foods they miss the most from the 1960s

“Casseroles involving canned veggies, cream of mushroom soup, chicken, and potato chips.”

By Emily Shiffer

Baby Boomers and the Boomer microgeneration known as Generation Jones grew up on classic foods from the 1960s. Back then, food was typically home-cooked but was entering an era of convenience, thanks to an abundance of processed and frozen foods.

“The American housewife spends 11 hours a week fixing food for her family, less than 1/3 the time it took her when she used raw ingredients,” an article in LIFE magazine said about 1960s food in a November 1961 issue (via the National Museum of American History).

The museum also cited a 1965 report from the Quick Frozen Foods trade journal: “the industry had enjoyed . . . the largest single increase in both dollars and poundage in frozen food history. Products were now valued at $5.2 billion and production estimated at close to 10 billion pounds.”

After 11 hours, rescuers gave up on the boy in the well. Then a 14-year-old hero stepped in.

The Romanian teen who went headfirst into a well to save a toddler just became a professional firefighter.

By Adam Albright-Hanna

In April 2013, a three-year-old boy named Gabriel fell into a well in the yard of his family’s home in Segarcea, a small town in Dolj County, Romania. The well was about 15 meters deep and barely wide enough for a slender teenager to squeeze through. Professional rescue crews arrived quickly. They tried everything available to them: shovels, a tractor, specialized equipment, different angles of approach. None of it worked. Hours passed.

After eleven hours, according to accounts that circulated widely at the time via CVL Press in Romania, a firefighter finally said aloud what everyone had started to fear: “There’s no more hope. The well is too narrow.”

At that moment, a 14-year-old boy named Cristian Marian Becheanu stepped forward. He was a seventh-grade student from the area, thin enough to fit where the adults could not. He told the crew he wasn’t afraid. He said he would go in.

Happy Anniversary to your parents

Singing mailman serenades woman who lost her husband, and people rally to get him a life-changing gift

“Renewing my faith in humanity one song at a time. What a star!!”

By Heather Wake

Sometimes sharing joy really is the gift that keeps on giving. 

For 23-year-old mailman Lavonte Harvey, joy was found every day along his delivery routes as he sang tunes while dropping off letters and packages. Clearly, he wasn’t the only one enjoying it. As Whitney Cumbo shared on Instagram, Harvey was her grandmother’s “daily dose of life,” especially after she had lost her husband of fifty years.

That’s why Cumbo knew she had to ask Harvey to sing a special song for her grandmother’s birthday. Harvey agreed, and a video of his sweet serenade took off online, garnering more than 14 million views.

It’s easy to see why it resonated with so many. Between Harvey’s angelic vocals, generous spirit, and genuine kindness, there’s so much to love here.

Wish you could belt out Broadway tunes at the top of your lungs in public? There’s a nightclub for you.

“It was so much fun.”

By Annie Reneau

Broadway Rave is every theater kid’s dream come true.

When you’re a fan of Broadway musicals, the world is your stage. Or at least, you wish it was. The urge to break out in song always bubbles under the surface, but other than annoying your friends at karaoke or singing into your spatula while you make dinner, there aren’t a lot of opportunities to indulge the impulse.

Singing by yourself in your kitchen can be fun, but sometimes you want to experience the energy of joining a full chorus. What if there was a place where it’s not only okay to sing show tunes at the top of your lungs, but where everyone else will sing along with you?