On Mon, 16 Jan 2006, Nancy Young wrote:
>
> > wrote
>
> > wrote:
>
> >> Side note: Our friends have the opposite problem. They raised their
> >> kids to eat everything very early on, and now every time they go out
> >> the kids want lobster and steamed mussels. :-)
> >
> > My sister brought up her kids the same way. This can be a very
> > dangerous thing for the pocket book. I can remember their great uncle
> > taking them to dinner and being a bit shocked when the oldest (10-12
> > yr?) started with escargot and proceeded down the menu from there.
>
> I guess they hadn't gotten around to the lesson where you don't
> order everything on the menu when someone else is paying?
>
> nancy
Tee hee hee. Nancy, that was exactly what I was thinking.
I remember when I was a kid my dad teaching me what a host is supposed to
say and what a guest is supposed to listen for in a restaurant setting,
so, that all parties were comfortable with the experience. Those "old
rules" were there for a reason and were so valuable. It made the
difference in a comfortable, pleasant evening and a very strained one.
I don't know if people just don't know these things any more or if they
just don't teach their kids anything any more. When I was dating, back
when dirt was new, very few men of my generation knew the protocols. Then
through the years with business dinners and social functions, men who
should have known these kinds of things, didn't.
I strongly suspect that is what happened to slow dancing, too. "Leading"
actually meant something that no one understands anymore. pity.
Elaine, too