Growing up Sunday dinner was such an important part of our lives, the table was dressed up a little more than usual and company was quite often invited in. The meat dish was very important as more was usually cooked so that there would be leftovers for lunches the rest of the week, so you could count on roast beef, pork roast,ham or on occasion a turkey or chicken. If we had chicken or turkey at the table you would also find a plate with baloney, as my father did not have an appetite for any type of foul.Roast beef dinners were my favorite as there was mashed potatoes, gravy, Yorkshire pudding,vegetables,and usually a salad, followed by some wonderful dessert that my Mom made so well. We would all be sitting there full and happy and my father would come out with one of his infamous sayings" well if the good lord had any better he would have saved it for himself". Usually we would be starting to feel a little uncomfortable and groan from making pigs of ourselves and mom would come out with Granny Lindsay's saying " well run around the wee house three times and make three muckle cracks and you'll feel brolly muckle fine", this would quite often crack us up and we would have a good laugh and forget about our discomfort. Occasionally she would bring out the creme de mint on special occasions, and anyone who wanted would have a liqueur glass of it. The Sunday dinner was quite often held just before Walt Disney Hour which came on at six o'clock, so we could all watch it,those were the days dad even went out and bought a color TV when they first came out because of Walt Disney and also the rose bowl parade, first on the block to have one.
Later when my sister went to teach up north of our home town, she and some of her fellow teachers would stop in for Sunday suppers on their way back from the south. I will never forget the one poor girl who came, she was just out of college and I don't think she had ever experienced humor like my father's. The poor girl was seated next to dad and he was on a roll, he passed her the peas with the comment eat your greens they will make your milk better. Funny thing is we never did see that nice young woman again.
Well time moved on and we married started families of our own, and traditions of our own and we were not home much for Sunday suppers with Mom and Dad as we both settled 250 miles south of home, but on the occasion we were there it was just as memorable and also for our families.
My girls have grown up and moved out to have lives of their own, as it should be, and now it is just Fuzzy and myself here. Sunday dinners over the years have changed, sadly it has just became another meal, mainly my fault as it just does not feel the same, but that is about to change. I have come to the conclusion that I have a nice dinning room and nice china,silver, crystal and they are not being used enough. The goal is that this fall and winter I am going to bring back Sunday Dinner even if it is just for the two of us, we deserve it and so does the dinning room, china,silver,and crystal,or at least that is what I will tell Fuzzy. We can start small and get back in the swing of it, and then we can maybe invite guests to join us, oh that will be fun, people other than just us ,Yes! So here is to the Sunday Dinner lets bring it back, yes we all have busy lives but it is important to be social and have a little formality in our lives.I will keep you posted on how it goes!
I miss the big Sunday dinners we always had. These days, I have to force my husband to turn off his laptop, keep the littlest one from getting up and down from the table with food in his mouth, and I myself am forever up and down getting everyone more drinks, or salt that I forgot to set out. I haven't had a hot meal in 8 years!
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