Cranky Old Man

Hey, maybe it is just me. I am getting older. Perhaps I am a tad crankier than I used to be, but it seems to me that this world is getting exponentially dumber every second. Even the most basic ritual of human consumption has been perverted into some "me first" activity.

I was brought up in a family where I was taught that people shared food together. I'm not saying that it was foie gras and lobster every night, but if we were all home together, we ate together.

As kids, my brother and I had to beg my mom to let us have dinner in front of the television to watch the NHL playoffs. Permission was not always granted.

Dining was important in my family, and as I became a little older my parents would take me out to restaurants. Nice restaurants. It was implied that I would use my best manners, and I think for the most part I did.

Sharing food together was sacrosanct, something a family or community does together. You know, breaking bread?

I know that I work in a bar with no pretense to being a fine dining establishment, but manners should be universal regardless of environment.

And tonight was a perfect example of something that has been stuck in my craw for a long, long time.

A young couple walk in and sit in the back. Once they are settled, I head over. The lady excuses herself to go to the powder room before I can get her order. No biggie, I ask the dude if he wants a drink. He orders for himself and the young lady.

Thats cool.

Now make no mistake, this is a nice twenty something couple. They are both polite and they are exactly the kind of people that I enjoy serving, and I hope they come back.

But here is where my bile begins to flare. I ask if they want a menu and the gentleman asks for one for the lady and then proceeds to order food for himself. I hold the chit for a few minutes, but eventually am forced to submit it in the name of expediency.

A moment later the lady decides to order.

Their food comes up at different times, and neither one cares. And I see this all the time.

I don't know if they were a couple, they may have been brother and sister.But I do know that
when I went out with anybody in any size group we ordered and ate together. To do otherwise was considered rude. I guess people don't dine together, the just have to get their "Eat On".

Eating is now reduced to a level of filling up your sport ute with gas. For the masses in North America, food is nothing but fuel, and that is a very sad fact.

I deeply worry about a society that doesen't care to dine with one another.

Are we so caught up in our own needs that we cannot wait four minutes for our friend to decide, so that we may share this bounty that sustains us together?

What the fuck is wrong with you people?

Sharing food together is a sacred ritual that transcends humanity.

Sigh.

Maybe I am a cranky old man.

http://www.goyestoeverything.com