What Would Grandma Do For Fun?
When I was a little girl, we would go out to eat once a month. Our favorite place to go was Red Lobster. I would order the all you can eat popcorn shrimp with a Shirley Temple (Sprite and cherry syrup). Even as I write this, I can picture my family shuffling to sit in a corner booth with a red and white checkered table cloth. I can hear the squeaky noise my skin made as it rubbed against the seat. I can practically taste the salty shrimp crunching in my mouth.
I still love to go out to eat. It feels special because of my childhood experiences. I go out at least once a week. That sounds like a lot, but it is pretty accurate when I consider ordering in and a quick sandwich here and there. My kids view going out to eat or ordering in as a very normal thing. I remember when McDonalds came to town, whereas my kids consider fast food signage a part of the landscape. I like to think of going out to eat as entertainment, but it is actually a pretty run of the mill activity.
I can probably say the same of movies. Going to a movie theater alone with my husband feels like a treat because our kids are not clamoring all over us, but watching movies is another very normal activity. We regularly rent movies online. We also rent them from the library. I like to pretend we are going to library for books but my kids race home to watch the videos, not to read. I am working on that one!
Speaking of reading, I think it used to be its own form of entertainment. My kids have more books than I can count. I read somewhere that Abraham Lincoln owned only a few books growing up. He read each one so many times he had them memorized.
I know I have a lot more leisure time than my grandparents did. My life seems to be focused on maximizing my time for leisure, relaxation and entertainment. Consequently, a lot of acitivites my grandparents would have labeled as entertainment feel like a normal part of my routine. We do other things as a family besides eating out and watching movies but I am hard pressed to think of anything that truly feels like entertainment they way I remember Red Lobster as a kid.
I am really curious about how my grandparents would have defined entertainment. What did they do as a family? Did my grandma spend time with friends? Did my grandpa meet up with the guys? Did my grandma and grandpa go on date nights? What Would Grandma Do For Fun?
I almost wrote this reply in “What would grandma’s kids play with?” One of the things I see over here on base is a lot of video gaming. I live in one of the most beautiful spots on the globe, and the preferred activity (besides going to the bar) seems to be Playstation 3 or Xbox 360. We call those who game all the time “barracks rats” because they will literally spend all their free time in the barracks playing video games. It is quite sad to see. Cultural and natural opportunities (such as diving and cave exploring) abound, yet comparatively few venture out. Some say it’s the new generation. Maybe. Technological advances have certainly made isolation and individual entertainment easier. But I don’t think that is the whole story, and I think you are asking the right questions. There is a value set attached to our modes of entertainment. I think some forms of entertainment are engaging and others are isolationist. And that is not to say that we should never have alone / veg out time. The most joy for me, however, comes through celebrating in the context of community. One hobby that I have picked up since being on Okinawa is smoking meat. It takes up to six hours to do that - so I have some personal time that slows me down! But the best part is when people show up to share in the feast. This is a good and simple balance for me, and I intend to continue something similar when I go to Kuwait. Thank you for being a catalyst for reflection.
My mom told me a story about her childhood . . . she would look forward to going to the county fair once a year because her parents would buy the kids a corndog. She looked forward to this corndog all year because it was the only time her family “went out” to eat.
Wow, my kids would have no conception of waiting for a year for anything. We are working on delay of gratification with our kids. The research says that one of the best things we can do for our kids is delay fun things so that they can manage their emotions in anticipation of a big event. In our day and age we almost have to arrange these experiences because they don’t come naturally.
Sunday rides - that was my mother and father’s entertainment - and they were born in 1906. I can remember the Sunday ice cream cone, until they raised the price. Not sure about my grandmother - holidays yes - yet she did all the cooking. Family dinners - I can remember crowding around the dining room table in the living room -also other occasions, family birthdays. Grandfather that was different he read, visited friends, and tinkered with the car to keep it running.
Visiting with friends - that was a whole afternoon and evening , talking, playing cards (that is what card tables are for, not garage sales) and dominoes, not the pizza but those little rectangular things with the dots.
Yes, the fair was a big thing - I remember when school was dismissed for the day to attend the fair - it was an entire day, checking on the animals, machinery, and hand products (food and garments) that were entered in the fair.
Reading was a major form of entertainment - remember no television, listening to the radio (anyone remember the Lone Ranger on radio?) and sewing, knitting they were necessary yet done as entertainment, since one could sit and talk as they sewed. That brings up quilting bees - yes they did exist.
Oh yeah, radio shows. I remember when I was about five or six, we’d go to the races on Saturday nights. (Car races, small dirt track.) On the way home, we’d listen to the ghost stories on the radio. I don’t know if they were live, they could have been 20-year-old recordings for all I know. So much better than fighting with my brother for a half-hour.