Supper Clubs

 I read an article about supper clubs the other day.  When I was a kid, supper clubs were a big thing.  You never hear of them anymore.  Generally, a group of friends, couples, would get together periodically at one of the member’s home and have a big pot-luck dinner. 

My uncle and aunt belonged to one for over 50 years. There was even a story about them in the local paper.  They started in the late 1940s when all the men returned from WWII. They were young married couples and none of them had much money.  They would meet every month on the designated Saturday night and rotated who would host the dinner. The hosts provided the meat and the guests provided side dishes and desserts.  They continued the group until the early 2000s when several members died. 

My mother’s friends had a lunch group for a while.  There were about 10-12 ladies in the group and they would go out to lunch once a month.  They took up $1 from everyone each month and used it to buy lunch for anyone who had a birthday that month! After a while, some passed away and some went to nursing homes so the lunch group disbanded.  The ones who were left started meeting every Wednesday at one lady’s house and everyone brought a dish.  Her house was centrally located and was just down the road from the beauty shop where a couple of the ladies had standing Wednesday hair appointments.  They all enjoyed it so much. Mama would come home and talk for hours about all they talked about.  “Billie Jo told me such and such.”  “Dorothy and her husband are going on a trip.”  “That Virginia is just a hoot!  She tickles us all to death!”  It was fun and good for them to get together.  

My folks, well, my dad mainly, never liked the supper club idea.  But he loved to go out to eat.  So their group of friends started going out to eat occasionally. It started out with no set day or week, just whenever they were in the mood.  However, it eventually got to be a weekly thing!  Every Saturday night they’d get together and head to one of their favorite restaurants. Daddy even bought a 15 passenger van so they could all ride together!  

I tried once to get my ex interested in starting one with our friends, but she said that was just for old people!  I thought it would be fun and a good way to get together with friends.  But like most ideas I came up with, she shot it down. But that’s a story for another day.  

The article I read said that supper clubs are becoming popular again with young couples. It’s a good way to entertain and gather with friends on a budget.  I hope it lasts as long as Uncle Gene and Aunt Yancey’s club did!  

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Angel

 No, not like the angels I wrote about earlier.  This is much different.  I’ll explain in a minute.  And I promise this will be the last post on this subject, but I need to write this for my own peace of mind. This is about the Angel of Death.   I’ve known Robert since we were 3 years old, almost 67 years.  We were two months apart in age. We grew up together, went all through school together, and even though we traveled different paths after high school, we remained friends and stayed in touch.  I stayed in Utica while he got a job in Saudi Arabia and lived there for nearly 30 years.  But no matter where in the world he was, he didn’t forget his old friend. He stayed in touch and would see me when he was back in the States. After he retired, he and his wife settled in the Orlando area in Florida    I hadn’t heard from him in a couple of months, and I thought that was strange.  We usually email, text, or talk once a month or so. The...
Read more

Christmas

 Today is Christmas.  Families everywhere are gathering to celebrate, exchange gifts, and eat themselves into a food coma!  I’ve had a nice Christmas, quiet and low key, but nice.  A far cry from Christmases past.   When I was a kid, we had to go to both sets of grandparents. We’d get up early, my sister and I would see what Santa brought, and open our gifts from each other.  Then we’d load up the car and go to my mother’s folks.  All the aunts and uncles and cousins were there.  We’d eat a huge lunch and open gifts.  Then we’d load up again and go home for a few minutes and go to my father’s folks.   Same scenario there.  Aunts, uncles, and cousins, except this side had more of each. Another huge meal and we’d head home.  By this time, we were so tired we didn’t want to play with our new toys, all we wanted to do was go to bed! After I got married, it got more hectic.  We had to go to my mother in law’s for Christmas with...
Read more

The Greatest Gift

 At my cousin Roy’s funeral a few weeks ago, I was talking with one of his co-workers and he said something about how Roy could fix anything.  He was amazed. “Like how did he know all this stuff?”  I explained that it was almost a way of life in our family.  I mentioned in my earlier post about the tractor shed, how my father taught me so many things.  Roy’s dad, my Uncle Jerry was the same way.  It was a great gift.   Uncle Jerry was an appliance dealer. He sold and repaired Whirlpool appliances for over 50 years. Naturally, all our appliances came from him.  But, like Daddy, he expected me to fix things myself whenever I had a problem.  He would sell me the part and talk me through the repair over the phone and if I still couldn’t fix it, then I could bring it in or he’d send one of his guys to check it out.  But he was teaching me how to do things for myself. I tell people all the time that the greatest gift my father gave me was to t...
Read more