We ate out twice on Friday!

My Dad worked for forty-eight years at Townsend Company;  mostly in Fallston, but a few years in Elwood City and about two years in Butler (I didn't see him much those two years).  It was not a major steel mill like J&L or Crucible;  it was a subsidiary that focused on making nails, rivets and fasteners.

He also worked part-time in the evenings at a Children's Home on Oak Hill. He was a general maintenance man.  I occasionally went with him to the home where I would play with the kids in the play-lot.

Dad never made big wages.  I discovered that rather painfully when I came home from Kentucky after being married for a year.  I excitedly told him that UPS had gone on strike to focus on higher wages for the part-time workers.  I was back to work making $4.70/hour!  I immediately noticed that he didn't seem excited.  When I questioned him about it, he told me that he had never made that hourly wage!  I was shocked!

I do recall an evening at the dinner table when my mother quietly announced that my Dad had made over $10,000 that year (it must have been tax time). She quickly added that it was due to lots of overtime and his part-time job!  I was mesmerized.  Then, to my surprise, she announced that we would be eating out every Friday night!

You need to understand:  we NEVER ate out - unless it was in our backyard! When we traveled, Mom packed these wonderful lunches:  roast beef sandwiches (specialized for each of us), chips, pickles, radishes and maybe even some potato salad!  A thermos of coffee pleased Mom and Dad;  she brought lemonade for me!  Chocolate chip cookies or brownies were for dessert!  Mmmmmm...

I remember stopping for gasoline along the highways and looking longingly at the people dining in the Howard Johnson's restaurant.  I promised myself that someday, when I had a family, I would buy them a meal at a Howard Johnson's.

But then, in the mid-60's, fast-food restaurants started to flourish! McDonald's restaurants were only 'walk-up' restaurants then;  you couldn't go inside.  A few had picnic tables sitting around, but most people ate in their cars.  Then came others:  Burger King, Arby's, Red Barn, Sandy's...

They kept their word!  Almost every Friday after that, we went over to Beaver Falls and ate at the McDonald's (hamburgers were fifteen cents - there were no specialty sandwiches yet).  Sometimes we would drive to Northern Lights to shop;  this meant eating at Sandy's - or occasionally, Arby's.  I felt like a rich kid!

I would guesstimate that I was fourteen before I ate my first meal at a restaurant.

Last week, Debbie and I had breakfast at Dizzy's in New Middletown.  Later in the day, we were in Chippewa and decided to grab a quick dinner at the Hot Dog Shop!  Can you imagine?  We ate out twice in one day!  Actually, we've probably done it a few times before also!

But most of my meal memories were cultivated around a beautiful oak dining room table (that resides in Tracie's home now).  Dad sat at one end and Mom at the other.  Beverly sat on one side with me on the other (she went out on her own when I was about eleven).  We ate wonderful home-cooked meals and LOTS of left-overs!

My Dad always led in the meal prayer.  Conversations happened, opinions were exchanged, plans were discussed, birthdays were celebrated and laughter erupted!  It was comfortable.  It formed me.  It was a safe place.  The dinner-table was the family meeting-place;  eating in front of the TV hadn't been invented yet!

Anyway, times have changed.  Young people who might read this would be stunned that I turned fourteen without having eaten out!  Not to worry!  I'm making up for lost opportunities!  But I still love a good, home-cooked meal!  :-)