"At Joe's Appliances we're like family." "Mary's Diner -- it's like eating with family."
Is family really a selling point? Perhaps if your parents were June and Ward Cleaver or your last name was Von Trapp.
For some, family conjures up a quiet dinner exchange where Billie and Janie shared anecdotes about their day, while everyone listened politely and, when they finished, everyone told them how interesting their stories had been.
For me, family conjures up a loud, bickering dinner exchange where Billie and Janie tried to share anecdotes about their day while everyone interrupted and, when they finished, told them they needed a haircut.
Regrettably, this happened before the popularity of TV reality shows. Bring in a camera crew for just one of our dysfunctional Thanksgiving dinners and some network could have made ratings history.
I dreamed of being adopted by my best friend's family. They never argued. Their mother was beautiful and they had a kindly live-in grandmother. I knew this was as close as I was ever going to get to the Cleaver's and I got down on my little elementary school girl knees and prayed they'd realize that I had indeed been born into the wrong family and would make arrangements with my parents.
Of course, now that we're all older my family isn't the Jerry Springer Show it used to be. But can you see why I might be a tad wary of shopping at places that treat me like family?
1 comment:
I love this, especially the last part about being wary of "being treated like family". Does this mean you don't eat at Olive Garden ? I, too, had a friend down the block who I wanted to be my family for a short while. Mainly, it was the mother I wanted. As I have gotten older I look back and realize maybe it wasn't so bad. Well it actually was bad sometimes, but I try to remember some of the good times, too. I love looking at an old "Leave it to Beaver" episode once in awhile. Ward always has a suit on, June in her pearls looking like she just came from the beauty parlor. The boys are perfectly groomed with impeccable manners. And it seems that at every dinner they end up confessing to some horrible crime like forgetting to clean the hamsters cage or spending their milk money on candy. Even though it wasn't real or realistic, when I was a child watching this kind of programming, it was calming. My current family at dinnertime (when we are all here anyway) is not Ward and June, but it's not the Osbourne's either. It's somewhere in between. My boys' friends used to tell us that we should be on a reality show. During a short time when all the kids lived here it was usually Fred talking non-stop, the boys and Ariel talking back and making all sorts of gestures that boys make and laughing at themselves, while I sat and watched quietly, and my young daughter making deals with them to get 10 minutes where they had to shut up and listen to her. She has learned to fight for her time to talk and is now one of "them" in the chatty department. In the meantime, I just sit and listen and eat and say the occasional "Don't use the F word in front of Anneliese !". Good Times.
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