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Other Title: Sunday Dinner, Where the Revolution Will be Fed Sunday Dinner, Where the Revolution Will be Fed Paula Devlin George Tomsco of the Fireballs once said that if you didn57;t live in the fifties, you missed the greatest decade in American history. There were many things that made the fifties great: fabulous cars; never having to lock your doors; 3 TV channels; test patterns; no junk food; hot lunches (prepared in the school cafeteria from scratch) for 25 cents; good neighbors; nearby relatives; prayer in school; dinner every night with the family; and Sunday, a day of rest, with its own special dinner. Some Sundays my dad would take us to visit his mother. We walked down to the town square where we took the red bus to Spring Street. There we would transfer to the trackless trolley, ride it to Park Street and walk the three blocks to Grandma57;s flat. Uncle Joe and Aunt Louise lived there until Uncle Joe finally got married in 1957. One memory of those Sunday afternoons was the uncles arguing in the living room. Uncle Freddy was the devil57;s advocate liberal who loved to needle Uncle John about J. Edgar Hoover and Joe McCarthy. Uncle John was an FBI agent in New York City. Now that I am older than all of them were at that time, I understand better what was going on. Those political arguments were dessert for Sunday dinners. These days, if you mention Sunday dinner to anyone you either get a nostalgic look or a blank stare, both looks accompanied by a litany of why they and their families are too busy to sit down and eat together. Everything else takes precedence over nurturing the family. Recently I57;ve started to have Sunday dinners again, complete with the good china and white tablecloth. People love it. Good food, good wine and good conversation are all that it takes to make them want to come back again. What has also become clear is that these are opportunities for people to talk about themselves test their opinions. Since television became such a dominant force is forming opinions, those who differ from that brand of thought control, feeling they are in the minority, keep silent about issues that concern them. Not so at Sunday dinner! Friends you never imagined admit to staying awake to hear far-out radio programs. They admit to following every detail of the shenanigans inside the Beltway and the traitorous behavior of many politicians, bureaucrats and newsmen. There is a relaxed freedom at Sunday dinner not available at evening meals. The great thing about these types of dinners is that they are private. If they do not form the basis for a grass-roots movement to restore our nation57;s sovereignty and integrity, then nothing will succeed in doing so. We need to share our ideas and dreams with one another in order to navigate the treacherous maelstrom facing us. At Sunday dinner, you can be as serious or silly as you like 51; and everything in between. Preposterous notions can be bandied about, laughed over and dismissed without any hard feelings. Opinions are respected without being endorsed and they can be explored to their logical conclusions. The good food and the welcoming hospitality that can be found only in private homes encourage animated discussion in the comfort of acceptance. No one would feel the need to bully for dominance or to argue every point upon which they disagree. The congeniality of family, friends and neighbors leisurely sharing a meal at a well-set table is a unique expression of American civility. Over the past forty years, the family-based culture that made this nation so strong has been undermined in many ways. Family and religious values have been most assiduously attacked from every quarter. The state has taken over the control of child development. It has encouraged debauchery, obscenity, promiscuity, narcissism, group control, et cetera, while attacking every single traditional value. Children now play sports at all hours of the day and night. They must be driven vast distances to compete and then raise money to pay for exotic trips. Coaches have more power than parents. (Their budgets are certainly out-of-control.) Some parents have no problem with this, but they fail to see the destructiveness of the underlying dynamics. We can choose to complain about the demise of our nation and hope some knight in shining armor will ride in on his trusty steed and rescue us. Or we can take responsibility for bringing back traditional values by graciously serving Sunday dinner to family, friends and neighbors. It will give us stronger families, safer neighborhoods and healthier networks. And don57;t forget to say grace before meals. Traditional values include traditional priorities. _________ "Published originally at http://www.EtherZone.com : republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact." Paula Devlin is a former New Englander who bolted to the Rocky Mountain West, where the air is clean, the stars are brilliant and men still put their pants on one leg at a time. Paula is a regular columnist for Ether Zone. Paula Devlin can be reached at: pdevlin@msn.com
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#1. To: Coral Snake (#0)
Thanks for posting the Coral Snake.
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