My earliest childhood memory of eating with someone is “ancient history.” "SMILE"
I grow-up in the 50s and early 60s. My mom always ate dinner at the dining room table, after my dad and siblings finished eating, which was at the kitchen table. So, at the table it was mostly my dad and the younger siblings, six of us. While my dad was at the table, we children would eat our food in total silence. I always felt uneasy when my dad was at the table. But when he finished, which was always before us kids, we would make jokes and laugh through the rest of the meal.
I remember one incident at dinner, my mom cooked black-eyed peas, she said, “She cooked them plain because that’s the way my dad liked them.” [as a child, I 100% did not like BLACK-EYED PEAS, now as an adult, season them right and that’s some good eating]. While my dad was at the table I eat them at snail pace. But, when he finished eating and left the room, I thought, what can I put on these peas, so that my mom will not make me eat them. I looked in the frig. and took out the jar of jelly and pour it on top of the peas. When my mom came in the kitchen and looked at my plate, it must have really grossed her out, because she told me to put my plate on the sink and go watch TV. Surprise, surprise, surprise, I didn’t get in trouble.
