“The oldest form of
theater is the dinner table. It's got five or six people, new show every night,
same players. Good ensemble; the people have worked together a lot.” ~ Michael J. Fox
San Mateo, circa 1960s.
Dinner was the required event
at our house and in most American households.
In our home it was straight up six, every night right after mom and dad
had drained their martinis. About five,
dad would shake up some gin with a whisper of vermouth in a gray metal cocktail shaker and the parents would
savor a couple of cocktails until dinner time.
The gin was cheap stuff, probably Seagram’s. I doubt the existence of snooty boutique gin
in 1960 and mom and dad wouldn't have it if it did exist. It was after I’d moved back home after college
that dad included me in the ritual and I developed a taste for martinis. I still had the cocktail shaker and used it up until a few years ago when the doc took alcohol off my menu. I recently gave it to my son in law for his home bar. In sixties America you didn't entertain the
thought of skipping dinner for work or an “activity.” Yeah, dinner was the activity; not soccer or dance class or karate. And certainly not work. You worked your 8 hour day and then came home. Those leashes known as cell phones and
laptops were fantasies in the minds of a few dreamers. Dinnertime was sacred.
