Written 2014-05-29

Friday Night Suppers

It is getting near lunch and I can feel my stomach grumbling. I’m not sure what I will have but it did set me to thinking about some of the meals we had as kids. Mom was a good cook but some days she wasn’t in the mood to cook. This would happen many times on a Friday.

My mother was raised Presbyterian and my father Catholic. Since my mother was divorced, they could not be married in the Catholic Church, and my father would be considered “living in sin.” This attitude, prevalent in the 1940’s angered him so he left the Catholic Church and converted to Presbyterian. His words were that he wasn’t marrying the Catholic Church, he was marrying the woman he loved.

Being raised Presbyterian didn’t mean forgoing all Catholic traditions. Fish was almost always served for dinner on Fridays. The combination of my mother not wanting to cook plus serving fish meant we had catfish from the Village Dairy and two plates of French fries from Camerons, the mom and pop restaurant across the street from the Dairy. Or maybe I should say grandmom and grandpop store, as the owners were white haired and so old, at least to a ten year old – me. We would order the fries. While the elderly woman would peel the potatoes, we would cross the street and buy two to three pieces of fish for $1.00 to $1.50. Then it was back across the street to pick up the two over-flowing paper plates of French fries, both for a whopping $1.00. Imagine a whole meal for two adults and four to five children for a grand total of $2.50.