by Pa Rock
Human Garbage Disposal
In my continuing effort to write less about you-know-who and his Nazi infestation of OUR White House, I am continually searching for other topics to explore in this blog. Some days I happen across something that captures my interest, but many days I am forced back into the dung heap of this unpresidential administration to dig through their refuse. Today there was something in my email in-box that triggered some thoughts and memories - so I can leave the Big Orange Menace to his own self-mockery for the time-being.
I subscribe to a couple of dictionary websites which provide a word of the day. Both sites, MerriamWebster.com and Dictionary.com also sponsor vocabulary quizzes and send out the occasional newsletter dealing with words and their usage. Today Dictionary.com sent around an item which explored the backgrounds and usages two words which are often used - in various parts of the country - to refer to the evening meal. The article was entitled: "Supper versus Dinner."
After identifying the origins of the words, the folks at Dictionary.com said basically that dinner has seen more traditional use to describe the midday meal, and supper is a more common reference to the evening meal. And I felt extremely validated because that is the way we talked out in the country where I grew up. The meals of my youth were breakfast, dinner, and supper. It wasn't until I "grew up" and moved off to the city to attend college that I was gradually corrupted into labeling those same three meals breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
I had a basic speech correction course in college which trailed off into dialects and even addressed where certain words were most likely to be heard in which parts of the country. "Pail" versus "bucket" and that sort of thing. I remember meal names being discussed there with the instructor saying that breakfast, dinner, and supper were more common in rural areas where closer ties were likely to have been maintained with Old World English.
I also remember hearing about daily routines on my grandparents' small farm during the depression. Everyone was up before daylight for a big farm breakfast, and then the men hit the fields for a full morning of very hard labor. While they were working to keep the farm functioning and sustainable, the women were in the house cleaning up after breakfast and preparing a big noonday meal, one which they called dinner. Dinner was, in fact, the main meal of the day. The men would come in, eat hearty, and then head back outdoors to continue their physical labor in the sun, or rain, or even snow. After dinner the women would set the food aside - much of which would be saved for another round at supper - and then they would go outside and tend to gardens and gather eggs - or stay indoors to clean or sew. Everyone was busy all day long.
And the biggest meal of the week was Sunday dinner - again just after noon as families were returning from church. Much of the food had been prepared before they headed out to church in the mornings, and the big gathering at the Sunday dinner table was a continuation of the church experience - sometimes with other relatives, friends, and even the preacher and his family dropping in to share in the meal.
And now, as noon rapidly approaches, this weary typist will set blogging aside and concentrate on what to fix for dinner!
Human Garbage Disposal
In my continuing effort to write less about you-know-who and his Nazi infestation of OUR White House, I am continually searching for other topics to explore in this blog. Some days I happen across something that captures my interest, but many days I am forced back into the dung heap of this unpresidential administration to dig through their refuse. Today there was something in my email in-box that triggered some thoughts and memories - so I can leave the Big Orange Menace to his own self-mockery for the time-being.
I subscribe to a couple of dictionary websites which provide a word of the day. Both sites, MerriamWebster.com and Dictionary.com also sponsor vocabulary quizzes and send out the occasional newsletter dealing with words and their usage. Today Dictionary.com sent around an item which explored the backgrounds and usages two words which are often used - in various parts of the country - to refer to the evening meal. The article was entitled: "Supper versus Dinner."
After identifying the origins of the words, the folks at Dictionary.com said basically that dinner has seen more traditional use to describe the midday meal, and supper is a more common reference to the evening meal. And I felt extremely validated because that is the way we talked out in the country where I grew up. The meals of my youth were breakfast, dinner, and supper. It wasn't until I "grew up" and moved off to the city to attend college that I was gradually corrupted into labeling those same three meals breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
I had a basic speech correction course in college which trailed off into dialects and even addressed where certain words were most likely to be heard in which parts of the country. "Pail" versus "bucket" and that sort of thing. I remember meal names being discussed there with the instructor saying that breakfast, dinner, and supper were more common in rural areas where closer ties were likely to have been maintained with Old World English.
I also remember hearing about daily routines on my grandparents' small farm during the depression. Everyone was up before daylight for a big farm breakfast, and then the men hit the fields for a full morning of very hard labor. While they were working to keep the farm functioning and sustainable, the women were in the house cleaning up after breakfast and preparing a big noonday meal, one which they called dinner. Dinner was, in fact, the main meal of the day. The men would come in, eat hearty, and then head back outdoors to continue their physical labor in the sun, or rain, or even snow. After dinner the women would set the food aside - much of which would be saved for another round at supper - and then they would go outside and tend to gardens and gather eggs - or stay indoors to clean or sew. Everyone was busy all day long.
And the biggest meal of the week was Sunday dinner - again just after noon as families were returning from church. Much of the food had been prepared before they headed out to church in the mornings, and the big gathering at the Sunday dinner table was a continuation of the church experience - sometimes with other relatives, friends, and even the preacher and his family dropping in to share in the meal.
And now, as noon rapidly approaches, this weary typist will set blogging aside and concentrate on what to fix for dinner!
1 comment:
I think we must have grown up in the same household or on side-by-side farms!
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