Honey Im home… words often heard in the 50′s and into the 60′s when the man of the house came home from work. Expected was the wife standing in a nicely ironed dress, hair fixed, make up perfect, and dinner almost ready to be served. The children were all well dressed, groomed, and polite as anyone could possibly ask for. The family dog stayed down from the table, and never begged for scraps. Dinner was a family affair. All calls, friends, and electronic items were put aside for the family gathering for dinner time. Of course back then, all there was was a radio, and possibly a television set, but they were turned off for the dinner hour. Food was hot, plentiful, home made and ready at 5 pm. Everyone sat at their assigned places, and waited for the Man of the house to say grace, and fill his plate. The children listened as dad talked about his day, the traffic, the job he hated, or loved. He would ask each of his children about their day, school, athletics, or glee club depending on what each child was doing at school. Dinner lasted more than just a few minutes, and when it was done…. each child asked permission to leave the table. Dishes were done by mom and the kids, each sharing in a duty of clearing the table, scraping the dishes, washing, drying and putting the dry dishes in the cabinets. It all began with those words…”Honey… Im home! Back in those days we dropped everything to greet dad.
In My household, it was not unusual to meet dad at the garage, while he parked his 1967 Pontiac Catalina in the garage. We would rush out to greet him and one of us would always carry his lunch box into the house for him. Dad got off work at the same time every day, and every day after he got home… dad took a short nap. We dreaded the duty of having to wake him… one gentle touch and he would jerk awake, and slowly make his way to the dinner table. Dinners were always full of conversations, and good food. Mom is a gourmet cook, and was always making things that were balanced as well as tasty… of course that was until she discovered LaChoy Chinese in a Can…. I think she truly believed it was Chinese food… it was more like dog food to Me…. she would make Chop Suey…. I would have rather eaten chopped liver with tomatoes…. I love liver by the way… but I cant eat tomatoes.. they make Me sick… just like moms chop suey would. We suffered through it at least once a month…. to this day… I cannot touch it, nor can I look at a can of LaChoy ANYTHING in the store. Dad would complain that the food was too much, too spicy, too cold, too hot, we had it last week, it was too bland, it was too rich…. He was a far more picky eater than I. I learned to clean My plate, at times while holding My breath to get the next bite into My mouth without letting My tongue taste any of it.
On Fridays it was creamed peas with tuna and toast… being Catholic.. of course there is the Catholic guilt about eating meat on Fridays… so we never did. Lunches were almost always peanut butter and jelly… grape jelly of course… but dinners on fridays were interesting… I to this day cannot touch a tuna noodle casserole… Mom would make scrambled eggs with steamed cauliflower, which even though it sounds kind of disgusting… it was pretty good…. the creamed peas with tuna and toast was pretty simple… a white cream sauce.. add peas.. and a can of tuna… serve on toast… for My dad though… she served a Bohemian dish called Cuchka…(chutch-ka)
It was lentils boiled to a paste…. and served with sliced hard boiled egg… again… something I would never eat… it was just disgusting… but dad ate it..
After dinner we would clean up and dad would go and watch television…. or work on a project… he was always doing something, or tinkering.
Dad was never bored… he was constantly taking things apart to fix them, or explore how they worked. He often times brought home broken power tools to tinker with.. taking several of the same item, and using parts to make one good one. He built his own alarm for the house… but to turn it off.. you had to be a track star…. it was attached to the front, back and basement doors, as well as the garage… so if he set it before he went to bed.. he knew exactly what time you got in…
Dad was a good man… even when we didnt see eye to eye. He was one of the most powerful men I had ever known… even into his 50′s was able to do handstands and walk down the driveway on his hands…. but those hands… always were willing to help. He was always doing projects for family, friends, and those who needed his talents…
On Saturdays as a child… I would accompany him to a priests farm in Wisconsin. We would spend the day there fixing things in the farm house. The priest was Father Long… a wonderful man who inherited his wealth and used it for good. Dad would build things for him, fix his barns, fences, and any other things that needed repair. I would get 3 dollars a day for helping. I would bring dad tools, and take the ones he was done with back to the tool box. At the end of the day… we would drive back home, and just listen to the radio…. there was little talking… we were both exhausted…
Dad never did call out “honey Im home”.. but mom always knew when it was time that dad arrived with Me. She would make hamburgers for dinner on Saturday night. I can still remember the broiled burgers… stacked high on a plate, with bottles of catsup, mustard, relish, sliced pickles, onion, and for dad.. brown mustard. There were chips, and cokes to go around…. we were hungry men and mom knew it. After dinner, we would watch television as a family. Back then the television was in the living room.. it was a piece of furniture, and each of us had our own place to sit… one never sat in dads place… it was forbidden. We watched such shows as Family Classics, Lawerence Welk, and Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom…. what ever dad wanted to watch was what we watched. We didnt march off to 3 or 4 different rooms with different televisions to watch our own shows… we watched as a family. Now.. we watch different shows, play on the computer, or play video games… all alone… video games, iPods, and portable DVD players… all designed for the one.. not for the group….
Im hoping to take a step back in time… and start watching televison as a family again. Maybe I can find videos of Lawerence Welk…..
Well Not THAT Far back…
But we will be watching televesion as a family…. again… for the first time….
Thanks for taking this walk down memory lane with Me….
I enjoyed it
peace
MJ
