Family Dinner

According to the 2000 US Census, approximately 29% of Americans live in "non-family" households. Although I don't think it's possible to assess how many of the 71% of Americans living in "family" households are truly in a functional family, I know that my Maryland family is among them.

Last night we had dinner at Greg and Debbi's house. Deb was making corned beef and cabbage, and although she's not of Irish descent herself, you couldn't tell it by the way she cooks this meal. By my count, the original number of family members that would be sitting down at the table was to be seven. By the time we all gathered 'round, the number had swelled to eleven, but Debbi didn't even flinch...she's the same welcoming hostess regardless of the number of guests, and she and Greg make each person feel that they are the center of love and attention.

Between bites of corned beef and cabbage, followed by homemade banana bread hot from the oven, we laughed at Greg's impression of a bullfrog with bulging eyes croaking from his lily pad in deep rhythmic tones, "Baa-rrrack, Baaa-rr-aaack, Baarraack." (I don't suppose it's necessary to say that Greg isn't a huge Obama supporter!)

Greg and Debbi's daughter, Lisa, who is a senior at Catholic University in Washington, DC, gave us an example of one of the oral histories she's been studying from the Smithsonian's collection of American Craftsmen. This famous furniture maker started in the 1970's, and as Lisa (a demure, dark-haired beauty) began relating the interview, she shed her 21-year-old demeaner and became a 60-something burned-out hippie: "Ya know, man, we started by making roach clips in California..." She had us in stitches by the end of the story.

As dinner was breaking up, I was sitting in the living room of the house where my father lived from the time he was 6 years old, listening to a minimum of four lively conversations being carried on, while my Aunt Gladys (81) and my great nephew Wesley (15) played Rummy with equal passion. I remember my dad telling me about sitting in the kitchen and living room when he was a boy telling stories and reading aloud. I know he is smiling down on us seeing that he has given my sisters and me a gift we never knew we were missing...a family.