...family dinners...

i was just thinking about family dinners ......in my little corner of the world, when i was growing up, we had sunday dinners at grandmama's house...she was a remarkable cook and we had lovely dinners...until after desert when the games came out...oh my god...grandmama, would cheat, blatantly cheat, and god help anybody who called her on it...we finally learned that losing has a time and a place, and for us, this was it...

...there were many times as we were growing up, that my brother and i would end up for dinner with grandmama and pop...she would have the table set, with seating for 12, and sit my brother and i at one end with her, and pop at the head of the table, surrounded by 8 empty chairs...now pop was getting hard of hearing after all those years spent riding the fire truck, so the conversation never reached him...i finally found the good sense that after dinner was served, i would take my whole dinner set up with me, and move down to pop at the other end of the table...i would occasionally wave and nod back down the length of the table much to the displeasure of grandmama...she may have been surrounded by all her crystal finery at the other end, but pop and i were right smack next to the liquor cabinet...we had some dandy chats at the far, far away end of the table...

...when grandmama no longer was up to cooking, we went out for dinner every sunday...scary...we would book the reservations under a different name every week, so as to be allowed back at some time in the future...she was lethal...absolutely nothing was ever right with her, or with her food...and she very clearly let them know just what those problems were...at the end of the evening, we would leave a hefty tip as an apology to the servers and staff...

...well one day, grandmama wanted to treat us to dinner...she was the poster girl of bad behavior, and the waitress who drew the short straw and got our table was very obviously expecting a baby...never in my life have i seen a waitress be put through what she was...she was basically told that her baby had better be a girl...and what names had been picked out, and why don't you call 'her' blanety blank?...all on top of grandmama's infamous behavior...now grandmama was no tipper so as we left the restaurant i said to my father, "don't worry, i went and left the waitress a big tip"..."no, i left the waitress a big tip" and my brother chimes in, "i left the waitress a big tip"...that sweet girl earned every penny...