When I was little my family didn't have a whole lot of money to spend. Most of the money that my parents made was spent improving our home, paying for us kids, and the bills. We rarely went out to eat, and when we did it was both a treat and sort of an event. Even rarer did we eat at a full service sit down type place...generally when we went out to eat it was to McD's or some sort of fast food joint; and yes that was a treat! It was something other than home cooked food (which means...it wasn't always the best food for us but sure tasted good so it had to be unhealthy).
Fast forward about twenty years (give or take a few) to where I am now working in the food service industry. I don't work at the classiest of restaurants in town, nor do I work in the fast food establishments that have infiltrated every corner of America it seems. Where I work, I have long made the observation and thought it amazing that many people, even whole families, make it a weekly ritual to go out to eat at the one restaurant that I work at. I eat at a variety of restaurants, and I guess being brought up out in the country and traveling for our shopping needs to stores in many districts and towns in my area that we never exactly became tied to one location. We also have a great appreciation for variety in our diet so we never were all that tied to one restaurant for any extended period of time...and yet...I see the same faces over and over again every week. I have concluded that they must be rather boring people for it they have such a bland pallet to go to the same restaurant every week...they must lack in imagination and taste (not to mention that 9 times out of 10 they order the same menu items week after week...so much so that the people I work with and I often refer to them by their order...as we don't always know their names...if we want to talk about them).
Now I wonder...Do people eat at home anymore? The situation that I experienced as a kid I think is similar to the situation of most people out there when they were little. Where you mostly eat at home and occasionally you go out for a meal...or order take out, what have you. It seems that my childhood dining habits are not the same as a lot of kids' today. I have seen so many kids who take eating out for granted...they don't eat their food and are often very ill behaved...not to mention messy! Now I know kids are not the cleanest, however, nor do they have to be pigs and neither should parents think that just because we will clean up after them that they should leave their dining area with Cheerios, cheese and who knows what else all over the floor and chairs. HAVE SOME DIGNITY for heaven's sake!
Hmmm...that was a fun rant....!!! lol...oh! MARCH IS HERE!!! Guess what that means! YAY!!!
The Bard O' the Bubble
For Whom the Bubble Floats
- About the Author
- After many years seeing the world outside the confines of his rural Irish Catholic home, The Bard returns home to review the world from his own turf. In 2006 He graduated from Ave Maria College in Michigan and after a year at Sacred Heart Major Seminary has pursued a career in teaching while remaining busy with many projects of artistic natures.
2 comments:
Hello, stumbled into your blog and read a few posts. My family rarely went "out" to eat either. I never visited a pizza shop until I was 16 years old! I can remember the first time I had a steak at a restaurant. Why did everything taste so much more delicious when it was a rare treat? Now when we go out to eat, usually whenever we want, the magic isn't there and often the experience is just so-so. Oten I get mad at myself because I know I could have made the same meal at home, only better, and for far less money. I think about how, if I tried, I could feed a family of four for a week with the money spent on one meal for two people at an average restaurant. Interesting post.
I HERE...
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