Dinner

Call it dinner or supper...(is that wording a regional difference? Or is it a difference determined by the time the meal is served?)...whatever. I'm talking about the big meal of the day that used to be...what? The perfect little family gathering? I grew up in the 50's, the so-called "good old days"...a "simpler time"...yet I have few particularly warm memories of eating with the family. I don't remember many negatives, but neither do I recall it as a positive experience either. As the youngest of three, by the time I was old enough to remember things like that, my sister was entering dating territory and may have been away. Dad's Police Officer job kept him working weird hours too. But I probably ate between four and five thousand dinners at home during my childhood. That's a lot of hours to have not left much of a memory! Why am I thinking about the family dinner? I ate at a desk last night between CBS-8 newscasts, and read this story in the NY Times about the importance (or lack thereof) of teens eating with the family as often as possible. Most teens these days (and all days, really) are so irritable and sullen I don't know why anyone would want to eat with them, but the studies seem to urge parents in that direction. And maybe that's why I don't remember pot roast and warm roll dinners with funny stories. I was too busy making everyone else miserable. (-: