Wednesday, November 22, 2017

blame Swanson

 I want to begin by thanking Edie, a friend and fellow author, among her many other talents, for inspiring todays blog. Edie was writing about using disposable dinnerware for her Thanksgiving table. She went on to relate how in the past she used the good china and all of that. Several other folks left comments on that subject and it got me thinking. I too remember Mom getting out the good dishes, putting the linen on the table and even candles ! Yes Thanksgiving dinner was a big event and a formal one. Proper attire was required and proper deportment while at the table, no elbows ! It was the only dinner I recall the family saying grace at. As much as I would like to paint a different picture, that just wasn't so. I have no explanation for that other than it didn't happen. Well, my point is, it happened at Thanksgiving dinner, that's how important that dinner was.
 The more I thought about it the more I realized just how formal an affair that dinner was. Monies were spent for all the frills, nothing was held back. The table was set with the best we had , we wore our Sunday clothes, on a Thursday, and civility was the order of the day. That old story of everyone arguing with each other at Thanksgiving didn't happen at my house. Step out of line and you would be quickly reprimanded. You didn't get off easy by being sent out of the room either ! You were corrected and then had to demonstrate you had learned your lesson, no matter how grudgingly you did so. I can remember staring into my mashed potatoes having been corrected on some fine point of etiquette, like elbows on the table, or reaching in front of someone else. Yes it was demanded, at least on this one day, at this one meal, that you would behave yourself as a proper young gentleman. May I please have the salt ? Even Dad took his hat off at the table ! You just knew it was special.
 I was born in 1953 and so the Thanksgivings from my childhood would have taken place in the 1960's. In the 1960's families were still eating at the kitchen table. Supper was a set time of the day. We ate around six. That was supper time, be there or have a good reason not to be. When the evening meal was over, it was over. No microwave to reheat stuff and very little snack foods. There might be a bag of chips or pretzels but little else. But something else happened in 1953 as well. The TV dinner was introduced ! Following that came those TV snack trays, I have a set in the closet to this day. You still had to heat those dinners in the oven but now dinner got moved to the living room ! I'm thinking it was the beginning of the decline in civility ! Families no longer gathered at the supper table, the formality of eating a meal together was fractured. In 1967 Amana introduced their first Radar range ( a microwave for you younger folks ) and the fate of supper was sealed. And today, today a meal can be unwrapped, zapped and consumed just about anywhere. No set time, whatever is convenient. I wonder if any of this has any relationship to the obesity epidemic we are seeing in America ? Well that's for another day.
 I was just wondering what if ? What if we hadn't invented TV dinners. What if they had been called TV suppers ? Supper was eaten in the kitchen, dinner was eaten in the dining room. We didn't have a formal dining room, but the living room was transformed for Thanksgiving dinner. I'm thinking that TV dinners destroyed the dining room, didn't need them anymore when you could eat diner in front of the television. The family room was born. We started eating TV dinners  for supper !
 What if we still had to cook our meals, with real pots and pans over real fires ? Would families stay more connected ? Sharing food and drink with our families and friends does create bonds, that is well known. No one likes washing the dishes that can't be denied. In the 1960's the automatic dishwasher came into being. Still we all know they need to be rinsed before going in there and if there are a lot the machine is never big enough. The solution is disposable dishes ! Yup, that is what the TV dinner started. Those aluminum foil pans were designed to be thrown away, no need to set the table, no need to dirty dishes, just throw them out.
 As a man, a hunter gatherer, I must say sitting at the head of the table, overlooking the food I have provided for my family I do get a sense of accomplishment. I have reason to give thanks ! Isn't that a part of the tradition ? Some will label me a chauvinist for saying so, but it is a primal instinct. I'm thinking we would be better off if more men felt that instinct today ! It does provide a time to talk over the day, share our experiences and accomplishments. Ah but that is so 60's. Just zap your dinner and head to the mall, that's how it is done in 2017 ! Shoot just buy a fried turkey leg at the mall and skip the whole deal. You are going to need your rest for black Friday after all. No time for cooking and cleaning ! And you can blame Swanson and their TV dinners for all of that. 

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