Friday, May 2, 2014

Don't hear much about these anymore

I've been contemplating whether or not to write something about my mother for Mother's Day this year. In the past, I've written about my father, but Mom has always been a different subject. But in thinking about her, I've been reminded of something that used to be quite the "thing" back in the day, but seems to have dropped off people's radar these days.

Progressive Dinners.

If you're not close to my age, I doubt you've heard or been to one of these affairs, but back in the 60's and early 70's they were not uncommon at all.

It's a pretty basic idea -- you get maybe a half-dozen couples (and they, at the time, were mostly a couples driven thing, no so much for bringing the kids along) to agree to host a "course" of a meal at their house. And then, along with perhaps a few tag along couples, you traversed your city or neighborhood going house to house for each course.

Cocktails here, appetizer there, main course somewhere else -- you get the idea. It was a way for folks to host part of a party, get to see each other's houses or show off your own abode, etc.

It made for a long evening, especially if there was a lot of driving involved. But they were fun, and the perils of finding someone's house you'd never been to always added some hilarity to the proceedings. But so what? An interesting evening full of fun and conversation and good food . . . what's wrong with that?

Not sure why they went out of style. Perhaps the change in generations -- a social laziness where it's easier to text or skype or simply meet at a bar to interact rather than put some effort into an "event." More's the pity, I think. Another bit of our past lost to our "evoloving" culture.



And, apropos of nothing, here's Dylan Penn in a recent issue of Treats:

dylan penn treats magazine

Dylan is the child of Sean Penn and Robin Wright. Sean Penn is a raging, paparazzi punching, murderous dictator loving, eco douchebag, but he's got some good genes working for him. Moves in mysterious ways indeed:

dylan penn treats magazinedylan penn treats magazine

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