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My stepmother is from Greece, and although we never ate Jell-O growing up--when it was my mother, father, and myself, my Greek father now loves it, as does my half-sister.

Greek sweets tend to be very 'sweet'--my stepmother cooks lots of fried, sugary sweets--no chocolate, no butter (heavens!) and lots of oil. That may be her palate to some degree, of course, but my father's as well--for example, he thinks chocolate is disgusting but loves fruit-flavored sherberts and such. So Jell-O is part of the flavor profile--also, at 'get togethers,' all of the Greeks will eat piles of my stepmother's Jell-O with Greek sweets.

I love candy and cake, btw, so although I try to be a health nut, I can't turn up my nose. But I don't get Jell-O. At. All. My stepmother doesn't get why I don't like it and I think she thinks I'm on some extreme diet, because I cannot comprehend the glory that is Jell-O. Jell-O makes me relieved to be a vegetarian.

I'm from NJ, incidentally.

I do not like your Jell-O mold.
I do not like it hot or cold.
I do not like it with whipped creme from a can.
I do not like it fried with Spam.

I do not like it in a dish.
I do not like wriggling with gummi fish.

I do not like it with fruit and whip.
I do not like it in a fruity dip.

I do not like poked in a cake.
I do not like it whipped and speared
With a Cadbury flake.

Keep it off my ice cream and fruit!
Keep it away from my egg salad too!

I do not like Jell-O Sam I Am!
I do not like Jell-O Sam I Am!

I dont think its a regional thing to be honest. I grew up in new england and noone in my family ever made jello. I think my mom had some in the cupboard but it was never made. However one year I was in charge of fixing the main course for the church t day meal, everyone was supposed to bring a dish, and I ended up with 6 bags of chips and 32 jello molds.

I don't believe it's a regional thing either. Families either embraced it or missed the wave, esp. those who grew up in the 1970s in Hawaii like I did.

I remember growing up on Jell-O. My mother always served them shaped like flowers with fruits, where grapes and mandarin oranges are set inside the Jello. My mother would use kiwi to decorate, and of course we always had mango, lychee, and papaya to eat with it.

When I got older I tried the salad with dessicated coconut, marshmallows, and pineapples probably at a school or work potluck. I hate pineapples that I haven't picked from the ground myself, so this was meh experience, but not revolting.

I've never had it with other stuff like meat. Would be interesting though, I suppose.

Jello salad is part of holiday meals, and despite my pastry-making tendencies, I occasionally crave my mom's cherry jello salad - the bottom layer is raspberry jello mixed with cherry pie filling, the top later (which I don't always make) is lemon jello, cooled but not set, mixed with (I think) mayo/Miracle Whip, crushed canned pineapple & cream cheese (maybe some Cool Whip?), with mini marshmallows. Topped with chopped walnuts.
My best friend's family's version used raspberries instead of cherries and was topped with a runny topping instead of the jello-based one.

@heartofglass - that was simply beautiful!

i also think it was a TIME thing, 50's & 60's.... i remember my mother making us drink jello water when we were sick. oh, the chemicals we injested. and they still give it to people in hospitals.

i have to confess, i did love jello. ice cold, slippery jello. with or without fruit and whipped cream. a battle between the head and the heart!

Mom never made jello molds, she made plain jello, which I never really liked. I had an aunt that would make multiple and spectacularly beautiful jello molds for parties, but as beautiful as they were, they were still jello. The beauty would entice me to try them, and I was always disappointed.

Here's a jello story for ya. When mom was a kid, a company rep came around handing out free sample boxes of jello to try to entice people to buy. Mom's parents didn't speak any English and were illiterate in any language, so they couldn't read or follow the directions for making the jello. The kids just ate it out of the sample box, dry, like candy.

Mom was from the Pittsburgh area, and I was born and raised in the Chicago area.

@Heart, I love the poem. I think I need to hang that on the fridge!

I never had Jell-O, let alone Jell-O salads, so these stories/recipes are fascinating to me (and @Heart - brilliant!)

I do love homemade jelly (would you call it jello anyway?), made with fruit juices and gelatin (sheets or powder), with fresh berries set in it. Not so much on it's own, but as a topping for citrus curd tarts or cheesecakes, with just enough jelly to cover a layer of berries.

My Nonna, who moved to Seattle from Sicily, did a Jell-O mold in the 60s (Jell-O heyday?) That was lime Jell-O, cottage cheese, pineapple, walnuts, and a can of condensed milk. Can I tell you? Nostalgia-wise, that stuff is still awesome, and I still ask my mom to make it once in a while.

My other grandmother would make cherry Jell-O and it always had fruit cocktail mixed in - the canned kind, you know? With the squishy grapes and maraschino cherries. I still love that, too, for nostalgia purposes.

Aw, hell. My name is BangieB, and I like Jell-O!

When we were little and would have a stomch flu bug my mother would prepare jello according to the package instructions and give it to us to sip on while it was still in it's liquid stage. I also had a grandmother that made us eat globs of Vick's Vapo-Rub when we had a cold.....I'm still alive to talk about these things.

When my sister and I were in grade school, my mom did merchandising in supermarkets. I have no idea who she actually worked for, but she'd end up with bags and boxes of random food. One summer, it was boxes of generic Jello. Which my sister and I proceeded to make into the most fantastical jello creations - a whole layered rainbow is the one that sticks in my mind.

And people wonder that I have such a sweet tooth.

@Julie- Good point, I think it's both a regional and an era thing.

Growing up in the Midwest, I remember attending many potlucks that included the following: a rainbow of jello salads, at least 7 variations of potato salad/coleslaw (many served out of ice cream buckets), and several pans of "bars". As a kid, we quickly learned that jello with fruit = tasty; jello with cottage cheese = crime against humanity.

My elementary school in new mexico served jello salad all the time. it always looked a bit hideous. i think some of the older ladies around town served it. i cant remember my mom ever making it though.

Jell-o published many recipe booklets,etc. to give people ideas on how to use Jell-o. They created a desire for people to try these concoctions and thus buy Jell-o. One of Tupper-wares most popular items was the Jell-o ring mold that jmfors mentions above. It was a cheap desert that anyone could make and people thought they were pretty "cool". It's kinda like the famous green bean dish so many people serve at Thanksgiving. They were just advertised and caught on, and the rest as they say is history.

My mom makes a "congeal salad" every year for Thanksgiving, and sometimes Christmas, since my family basically eats the same thing for every major holiday.

It's cranberry and raspberry jello, crushed pineapple, orange zest and juice, fresh cranberries (chopped), chopped pecans...everyone in my family seems to like it, but I won't go near it.

@veggieout - We occasionnally make that same strawberry-pretzel jello salad in my family as well, and it is delicious. Something about the saltiness of the pretzels mixed with the sweetness of the fruit and savory-ness of the cream cheese. I would recommend that to anyone without reservation. Other than that, I almost never eat jello, but I don't hate it the way so many other serious eaters do.

Okay, does no one do Jello shots???? I got sick on "old" jello in the first grade and threw up at school. I haven't touched plain jello since then. However, jello is nothing more than flavoring, color and sugar to be used in nostalgic dishes, which if you will notice in this economy are looking more comforting every day. The Green salad so reviled in the other thread is pistachio jello pudding mix, whipped cream, cherries, pecans, bananas, and pineapple mixed together. Jello was one of the first convenience foods that our post war Mommas could use to prepare varied dishes for us with less than 4 hours in the kitchen.

Calling any gelatinous mass that happens to suspend morsels of one type or another a "salad" is laughable to me. Call it what it is. Stuff Held In Suspended Animation Within A Blob Of Jell-O.

A friend of mine used to bring this thing to my BBQs and everyone seemed to like it. When I told her my friends enjoyed her "Green Jell-O Thing" she said it was called "Summer Salad." To quote the real men of genius ad for Giant Taco Salad Inventor - I don't see no lettuce.