2004-02-11 04:17 PM CST
When I was a kid we had three meals every day, and we called them "breakfast," "dinner," and "supper." When I started school, they called the meal during the day "lunch." Once a month we got to school early and bought enough lunch tickets to last all month!
Sometime (I don't know when), I started hearing "dinner" used for the evening meal.
What that means is that "dinner" is of indeterminate time, since it can be used for either the noon or evening meal. A friend looked up "supper" once and it was defined as (something like) "the evening meal, when dinner is taken at noon." My solution is to not use the term "dinner" at all anymore. My meals are "breakfast" (which means a glass of purple unsweetned grape juice followed by coffee all morning), "lunch" (no mistaking that for any time except noon, and besides, I don't eat a big enough lunch to call it "dinner"), and, of course, "supper."
Suppertime is the time of day when the whole family is together (except those who are away). I don't know how many times Adam and Jesse told us that they were the only ones they knew of who ate as a family. Most people apparently eat whenever they get hungry.
When I was growing up, my dad worked 7:30 to 4:10. Ask him what time it is right now, and he's likely to say "4:10!" He took a shower and then came home. When he got home, same time every day (about 5:00 as I recall), the three of us kids were sitting at the table and my mother was there to greet him at the door. Supper was on the table.
Supper hasn't always been on the table when I've gotten home from work, and I don't care about that, but we almost always eat together still. Readers getting married soon or recently married, if you want your family to stay close, if you want to stay married for life, if you want your kids to grow up right, you can start by always having supper with your spouse, every day if possible. Don't be going somewhere with your co-workers after work. You haven't seen your husband or wife all day... go home, or else meet them somewhere for, uh, "dinner." (I guess you can call it that when you eat out.)
What made me think of this was that I heard two songs yesterday that mentioned "supper." How rare is that? Well, it was on XM radio channel 7 (The Seventies on 7), so that might explain it.
The first was John Denver's "Back Home Again," and the other was CCR's "Down On The Corner."
("Back Home Again," a couple of verses.)
There's a storm across the valley,
Clouds are rolling in,
The afternoon lies heavy on your shoulders.
There's a truck out on the four lane
a mile or more away,
and the whining of his wheels just makes it colder.
He's an hour away from riding on his prayers up in the sky,
and ten days on the road are barely gone.
Like a fire softly burning,
Supper on the stove.
It's the light in your eyes that keeps him warm.
("Down on the Corner" excerpt)
Early in the evening,
Just about suppertime,
Over by the courthouse
Things are starting to unwind...
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