Sunday Dinner

Sundays were a special day when I was growing up. It was a day when you put on your Sunday-go-meeting clothes and went to worship God at your local church. It was a day when about the only folks you could find on the job were nurses, other hospital staff, and restaurant employees for the few which chose to open on that day. There were blue laws that kept your downtown stores closed on this sacred day.

One of the highlights of Sunday was getting together with the family for a meal. It was not necessarily always at your house because sometimes you'd go to your grandparents' home. The menu would be pretty much one of a couple of options. One option would be fried chicken which could be made earlier in the day with mashed potatoes and other vegetables such as green beans which were grown in someone's garden. Another option would be a roast which was cooked slowly with potatoes and carrots around it. There would usually be a green vegetable like green beans as well. When I was smaller, we usually bought those brown and serve rolls that had about 5 sections to them. The beverage of choice was iced tea. At our house, unlike in most Southern homes, the tea was unsweetened. For dessert, there would usually be a fruit cobbler (blackberry and peach were the most popular) or banana pudding. After crock pots came in vogue, the roast was often prepared in it.

We later got in the habit of eating at one of the two restuarants in town that I remembered being open on Sunday (Pickle's or Stanford's). The most popular entrees for adults were catfish and fried chicken. When I was smaller, I usually preferred a hamburger, but I gradually preferred the other options!

Later in the day, we might take the infamous Sunday afternoon drive. We'd go back to church later that evening for the evening services.

Nowadays, I rarely get an opportunity to enjoy a Sunday afternoon meal with anyone other than my cat. (I have no family members nearby.) I occasionally will go with someone to a local restaurant after church, but that is rare. Most of the time, I go to the grocery store after lunch and pick up something fresh to cook. Sometimes I break down and purchase the rotisserie chicken. I can eat some hot and fresh at lunch and then make my own chicken salad to enjoy later in the week.

The fun times had at Sunday dinners seem to be lost. Half the fun in the past was in cleaning up after the meal where the women all pitched in to help in the kitchen (while talking about all sorts of things that came to mind) while the men watched the ball games on television.

How did your family observe the Sunday dinner?