My memories are alot alike but different worlds. We grew up in Japan. Even when we moved back to the States in the late 50’s always had a Japanese Cook/Housekeeper. Guess that is why I always lean oriental. LOL
My time in the service involved alot of Asia also.
But over the years I have been paid good monies to travel all over the Continent. Never knew I was eating Road Food until I found this site. Good to be paid to travel and sample foods from everywhere.
People need to get back to their roots. Everybody cooks here. In fact over Thanksgiving Holidays for 10 days am going to learn how to make some Goat Cheeses. Gouda, Feta and Chevre.
 
I have to add that I think it is legal to shoot the cook that burns the CornBread here. LOL

Unfortunately, my family falls into the category of no planned dinner time. Our schedules just dont seem to permit it and that saddens me. My wife and I both work. I work 12 hour midnight shifts and she works different shifts at our business. Here’s a typical weekly schedule.
 
Monday – Wife works 12 to 3. I wake up around 3. Daughter has piano lessons at 5 and both daughter and son have teens at church starting at 6.
 
Tuesday – Wife works 3 to 7:30. I wake up around 3 and make the kids what I can (i’m not a good cook so its usually easy stuff) and leave at 5:30.
 
Wednsday – Wife is off and i’ll say i’m off, but son has drum lessons at 4 and my wife teaches a first place class at church at 5:30. Daughter and son have bible quizzing classes starting at 6:00.
 
Thursday – Wife works 3 to 7:30. I make the kids what I can.
 
Friday – Wife works 12 to 3 and trys to make it home to cook before I leave at 5:30. Doesnt always happen and if it doesnt, I man the stove again.
 
Thats a typical week and a reason why the sit down supper never happens. When I was growing up, my mother made dinner every night for my dad and us 5 kids and we sat around the table. My mother didnt work though.

When I was growing up, hearing my mother calling to come home for dinner sent chills up and down my spine. Just the thought of having to sit down to her cooking was enough to cause any appetite to disappear. I used to make up friends names and tell my mother I’d been invited over for dinner just to get out of having to face her food. My mother’s cooking was what kept my father on the road for his sales jobs, almost always too late for dinner.

  I’m with you on this BillyB. When I was a lad, I lived with my grandparents. We had a large garden that we got our veggies from and also put up for winter. Grandma cooked three meals per day. Not always the best meal but always nutritious. We ate supper around 5:00 because Grandad didn’t get home til 4:30 and always wanted to clean up before dinner.(He was a house painter)
 
 Now that I am all grown up with my own children we also cook three meals at home. Going out to dinner is a treat that we can’t afford often. When we do go out it is usually to our local burger joint. I have also been in the “business” for about 30 years. I usually don’t have time to eat at work so I look forward to left overs. My wife is a pretty fair cook in her own right as she was a line cook at a Hotel for a few years as well as working in the bakery when she was pregnant. Most of the time when we go out we are disappointed because we know that we can make it better at home. I only get to cook at home once or twice per week so it is usually something that is time consuming like smoked ribs, chili, tamales, or lasagna. Usually enough to eat and put some away for later.
JMHO
 
  David O.

I actually don’t know anyone who doesn’t cook regularly, nor do I know anyone who is not teaching their children to cook.  Everyone I know with children still in school has a dinner time for the entire family (schedules permitting…sometimes a parent has to work or a kid has karate or whatever).
 
Maybe the problem isn’t so much how ALL parents are raising their children, but how everyone assumes they are.

The USA has changed.  I pray for my grandkids, and their kids, every day.
Supper time is one instance—-
 
Sitting in Bob Evans a few weeks ago I watched a family of 5.  Mother and Father across from one another talking and stuffing their facss.  3 kids tweetering away, 2 boys with baseball hats on.  Kids all ate junk and made a mess.  Not a word was spoken between the 5 the whole time I was there.  It was a very heart warming display. 
 
Get out and vote—–vote for the good old days.

I never propagated … I guess that gives me some sort of a backasswards credential to pass judgment on others.   [:I]   I don’t know why what I’m about to write makes me sad — insomuch as I have no vested interest (at least I don’t think I do).
 
In my travels, I encounter many young families and what I see is the EXACT OPPOSITE of BillyB’s (and for that matter, my) experiences growing up.
 
It seems, from what I can observe, feeding kids now adays has NOTHING to do with nutrition or family time and just about filling their tummys up.
 
I say why not make some chicken and a vegetable and I hear “they won’t eat that” … so, so many kids these days survive on Pop Tarts, Happy Meals, http://www.snopes.com/food/prepare/msm.asp chicken nuggets, frozen pizza (on a good day Little Caesar’s) or Taco Bell … then repeat.
 
I remember getting served food I wasn’t enthusiastic about eating and having to sit at the table until that changed.
 
We hear news of schools falling apart, students not performing, etc.  I wonder how much a lack of nutrition slowly and steadily contributes to that decline?
 
The other day, I was dispatched to retrieve a couple Fast and Ready Little Caesar masterpieces from the mall … I was feeling bad for the kids who’d have to eat them and was stunned to see the SUV’s double parked with parents (ie. “responsible parties”) to pick up these quick, salty, treasures.
 
There are exceptions.  I have a friend who has worried about her kids eating from day one and today, her son eats whole wheats, good protein — even sushi at age 6.  But sadly, I think this is an example of the exception far too often.
 
Blah, blah, blah …
 
 
 

I grew up in the 1950’s & 1960’s & our family also was one of a set time for supper.  My mom was & still is a wonderful cook.  My grandparents still had their dairy farm, my grandma raised chickens, & they had a huge garden, so many of the things we ate came from them-eggs, chickens(after they had stopped laying), fresh fruits & veggies in the spring, summer & fall, canned & frozen in the winter.  I never had store bought jelly or jam, we had concord grape jelly, blackberry jam, rhubard preserves.  We also called it supper because both of my parents were raised on a farm & dinner was the big noon time meal & supper was in the evening.
One of the things about my kids that makes me most proud is that they all have family supper in the evening & Sunday dinner after church.  It takes some juggling with sports, music lessons, etc, but they do it.  Sometimes it is early, sometimes later, but most of the time they eat as a family.

My father dictated our mealtimes in our household. During the week dinner was at 6p.m. Not before, not after.He arrived home at 5pm and had to have his evening Scotch. And when I called him to dinner, he always( and I mean ALWAYS) said” I dont care for any” which left me in a fit of giggles. We always sat around the table. On weekends, things were a little looser.Breakfast was an on your own affair( except for Christmas day when Mom made a feast) and lunch was put out on the kitchen table buffet style. Dinner was not a formal affair, depending on my parents social calendar. My favorite time was Sunday nights- we got to eat on TV trays in the living room and watch Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. Bob and I havent sat at a table together in our home in years, as it is just he and I and we invariably end up in front of the TV. So I grew up with a mix-but meals were always a family affair.

The meal titles were Breakfast, Lunch, and DINNER…although the word Supper coud be used now and then, it was the same ‘evening’ meal.
There were four of us until I was about 14 when my younger brother was born. Breakfast was eaten at the dining room table, but due to individual schedules it was normally a solitary meal. Mother supervised the table to be sure I got milk on the cereal, and only one glass of OJ (she added a teaspoon of Brewers Yeast to the OJ). Bacon was rationed as were the number/amount of scrambled eggs when they were served.
Dinner/Supper was also at the dining room table. My Step-father had his office in the house (CPA) so the timing wasn’t linked to anyone’s commute. But it was a sit-down-together, please pass the potatoes, etc etc sort of meal.
 
That era ended for me in 1960 when I went into the Army. When discharged and married, my ex hated kitchen tasks, and anything related to food-prep, so meals were always slapped together disorganized events. To avoid any kitchen contact she would involve herself in outside activities ( usually church-related) to be too busy for meals. She is still that way !  The result of that behavior is that most of my kids (5 out of 8) have homes where that line of thinking rules in the kitchen. 3 of the kids (2 boys and 1 girl) have partners who share kitchen tasks and maintain organized meal-times for their families.
     Jan and I eat together in the evening, and when she is home during the day. We tend to sit in the TV area to watch the never-ending evening news during the meal. 
       I won’t get into the observations of other folks and their families in restaurant  dining.  I am disappointed in the tend toward chaos in the training of children in public.  But that seems to be a generational issue for me.

   I also grew up with supper time at 5pm if it was not on the table when my father walked in he would sit down at the kitchen table and go on about this guy and that at work.
   Later I relized that at my house the meal was not at such a ridget time and I could some times help fix the meal while shairing a glass of wine with my wife. I also relized that this thing we call Suppertime is a funny thing. I will share with the the folowing.
 
What time is supper:
Later editions, such as the 1960 edition edited by Elizabeth Post, standardized the times and dropped all the old traditions of formality. Lunch was formal or informal, but always at midday, and everyone ate it whether male or female. Dinner was formal or informal, but always in the evening. Supper was an optional meal, thrown in during late night balls. Timing had become more important than ritual; ritual became an optional and personal choice. Of course not everyone relies upon the Posts. Most people rely upon a hodgepodge of ancestral traditions and newer customs arising from modern life.
     In our current century, we eat lunch at noon and dinner any time around sunset, and most people never have a supper. Like so many old rituals, once followed with iron-clad discipline, our meal times are now as fluid and changeable as the rest of our lives. Customs that persisted for centuries have disappeared in a few decades. Perhaps it is just the rest of us catching up to the upper classes, who became flexible long ago.
    In our house we almost always ate the evening meal together and when my son went away to camp the camp leader told my wife and I that he got a little weepe not at breakfast or lunch but at Dinner. What my parrents called Supper.
Ed