Dinner or Supper?

[wallypop]

I'm in my 70's. Midwest raised, German/Welsh ethnic background. That being said, just thought it might have a bearing on responses. Never did I hear an evening meal called "dinner". Supper was late. (Remember swanky "Supper clubs?") The "dinner bell" rang around noon out on the old farms. Anybody relate to this?

 

[2jakes]

Growing up, it was breakfast, lunch and supper.

We would refer to “dinner” when we would go out to eat for a
special occasion at a favorite diner or restaurant mostly in the
evenings.
Also have friends/relatives over for a Thanksgiving "dinner”.

But supper everyday was in the evening in the kitchen table.
Dinner was in the dining room at home for the holidays
and friends or relatives would come over.

At least this is the way it was for me.

Today I don’t have a set schedule of breakfast, lunch or supper/dinner.

I eat in small amounts at all hours of the day or night mostly by
the computer and sometimes the TV.

The days of eating at the table with everyone enjoying a conversation
is something from the past which I think about now and then.

My roots are Irish/German/Spanish.
I’m "Heinz ’57 “ when it comes to background!

 

[Fading Fast]

I'm about 90% sure it was dinner or supper with no inflection or connotation difference between them when I was growing up - they are the last meal of the day. We had breakfast, lunch and dinner, in theory (i.e., we called them that), but in truth, the only meal that we ate together was dinner.

I grew up in New Jersey in a neighborhood very similar to the one portrayed in the TV show "The Wonder Years."

Based on what we believe about my grandparents, I'm a quarter German, quarter New England Yankee, quarter Russian and quarter Eastern European (that part had been, a few generation back, Jewish, but that had been dropped before my mom was born) and the first two are the ones I am pretty sure of, the latter two are probably right, but subject to error.

Like 2Jakes, I eat small amounts several times throughout the day - no set meals. While my girlfriend and I still have something we call "dinner," it is usually just a larger snack and usually just one thing (last night a PB&J sandwich, the other night a chicken sandwich) and not a full "meal." We eat it in front of the TV not because we don't talk or get along, etc., but because its so casual there's no impetuous to set up a table - and, half the time, we just talk and don't watch what's on in the background.

 

[wallypop]

I also now relate to the smaller, tv/computer meals!
ps: When my 3 kids(girls) were at home I ALWAYS took the phone "off the hook" until we were done with SUPPER!
It was pure torture for them!! But we talked and listened to each other.

 

[2jakes]

My mom would have a fit at the table if I was to throw a slice
of bread to my sisters instead of handing it to them on a plate.


We would eat by ourselves so as not to upset the
grownups during suppertime. Which was fine by us.
One of my uncles made noises or spoke with his mouth full,
but apparently that was ok for the grownups.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Dinna was eaten at noon. Suppa was eaten at 430pm. I never knew anyone who said "dinner," with a final "r" sound, to refer to the evening meal until I was an adult.

 

[2jakes]

Dinna was eaten at noon. Suppa was eaten at 430pm. I never knew anyone who said "dinner," with a final "r" sound, to refer to the evening meal until I was an adult.

Geeze...that woulda been sheer torture for me, eatin’ at 4:30 in the afternoon.
I woulda raided the icebox before goin’ to bed.

We mostly ate when pop got home from work.

 

[ChiTownScion]

Dinner was reserved for special occasions (Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, or a Sunday when we had guests) whether it was served at noon or 6 PM. Otherwise, it was breakfast, lunch, and supper.

Something else I was discussing with my wife today: soda pop was reserved for eating out (when you got ONE serving: refills were unheard of) or a treat when we were kids. Otherwise, you got milk.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Coca-Cola popularized the idea of drinking Coke with meals with an ad campaign in the last years before the war.

Despite this, it was rare to find soft drinks on the menu at a restaurant with more pretentions than a lunchroom until well after the war.

At the same time, they were pushing hard on the idea of serving Coke at home, with the "convenient six bottle carton."

 

[HanauMan]

We always ate supper when I grew up, unless we had a commissary bought TV dinner!

 

[2jakes]

Dinner was reserved for special occasions (Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, or a Sunday when we had guests) whether it was served at noon or 6 PM. Otherwise, it was breakfast, lunch, and supper.

Something else I was discussing with my wife today: soda pop was reserved for eating out (when you got ONE serving: refills were unheard of) or a treat when we were kids. Otherwise, you got milk.

I could never swallow milk as kid unless it had chocolate malted powder or the
“crystal” original Ovaltine.

My grandmother would fix a pitcher of orange juice that came in big
tin cans and mixed with water & sugar for noon lunch.

It was more water with sugar than orange juice.

But to this day... I fix it like that which reminds me of my grandmother
and I love the flavor very much, even though it’s mostly water and sugar.

I drank Tang and Kool-Aid during my early teen years.
Many times I’d go around with purple or red lips and tongue
after eating the Kool-Aid straight from the pack.

I cannot swallow hot tea unless you put a gun to my head or
I have a sore throat.
I will only take one sip...that’s it.

Cold tea & ice cubes is ok...but I drown it with too much sugar
which is not good.

I once tried liquor in coffee but after two swallows everything
was funny and I bonked my head on the table and fell asleep.

My other grandmother (British) would drink hot tea, either with cream
or milk like it was going out of style.

 

[GHT]

Dinna was eaten at noon. Suppa was eaten at 430pm. I never knew anyone who said "dinner," with a final "r" sound, to refer to the evening meal until I was an adult.

When you have won the lottery or have been bequeathed a large amount of money, get yourself over the pond. But, for Heaven's sake, don't join the blue rinse brigade who do the 'tour.' "If it's Tuesday we must be in Paris." Not for you that twenty eight day Kodak collection to take back to friends and family. No, you dear lady deserve something very special. Book yourself into The Savoy Hotel in Central London, there you will experience our English high tea, always at four pm. It will be served to you by a waiter in a long tailed morning suit, he will bow low and call you Modom, it sounds so much more snobby than Ma'am. Your tea will consist of scones, I've heard them called biscuits in the US, jam (jelly) cream and an array of delicate fancy cakes. Tea, in a pot of course, made with tea leaves, served in fine bone china. Your afternoon tea will come on a silver cake stand and with a great flourish the waiter will shake free the folded table napkin and place it over your lap. He will then leave you to enjoy your tea whilst you observe London's see and be seen set.
Give me a call and I'll join you.

 

[Fading Fast]

Dinna was eaten at noon. Suppa was eaten at 430pm. I never knew anyone who said "dinner," with a final "r" sound, to refer to the evening meal until I was an adult.

"Dinna," "dinner" or whatever, what's more interesting is how hungry was everyone by 8pm or 9pm? You guys must have had a serious snack by that point. Today - at 53 - I'm not a big eater, but as a kid, if I had eaten dinna/dinner at 4:30pm, I'd have been gnawing my arm off by 8pm.

Edit add: I see 2Jakes shares my concerns on the early dinner and later hunger worries.

 

[Fading Fast]

...Something else I was discussing with my wife today: soda pop was reserved for eating out (when you got ONE serving: refills were unheard of) or a treat when we were kids. Otherwise, you got milk.

I lived under that opposite set of rules. At home, I could have as much soda as I wanted (from those big value bottles) - my parents accepted that I was going to consume a lot of food / drink as a growing boy - but when we went out (mainly pizza or a diner), I was limited to one soda, period. That was torture as I would like to have had one while waiting for the food and then one with the food, but I learned not to order it until the food came.

 

[Fading Fast]

I could never swallow milk as kid unless it had chocolate malted powder or the
“crystal” original Ovaltine....

To this day, I drink milk everyday but only with U-Bet, Ovaltine or a similar syrup / powder in it.

...My grandmother would fix a pitcher of orange juice that came in big
tin cans and mixed with water & sugar for noon lunch.

It was more water with sugar than orange juice.

But to this day... I fix it like that which reminds me of my grandmother
and I love the flavor very much, even though it’s mostly water and sugar.
...

My mom made OJ from concentrate and it was watery and not great. But my grandmother had fresh OJ which was like the Tiffany's of OJ for me as a kid. Also, my grandmother made breakfast for me - at home, I was on my own. Staying at grandmother's was like going to a hotel (albeit in a tenement which is where she lived) in my world - things were done for me there. Oddly, she always took the milk out about twenty minutes before we drank it as she liked it at room temperature, but the OJ was served straight from the refrigerator.

 

[2jakes]

Warm milk ?

I recall my grandma serving me breakfast in bed.
And I wasn’t sick. I’m not sure why she did it.
All I know is that she would tell others that I minded her
when she told me what to do and I was not a spoil brat.

My mom never did that.
There was five sisters and the poor dear probably didn’t have
time to mess with one kid.

But my first grade elementary, I recall mom had to dress me
because I had trouble staying awake.
Breakfast was toast, egg and chocolate milk.
Once I was outdoors the cold air would slap me awake.

 

[Fading Fast]

Warm milk ? View attachment 87975

I hear ya, but it is what she did and considering I was on my own in my house (my mom bought the food, but it was up to me to make breakfast and lunch for myself), I wasn't going to complain when I woke up to a nicely set table with food all ready for me.

Every house has its quirks and small crazies, my grandmother's was warm milk and very late night snacks of cookies, cake or ice-cream also with room-temperature milk. Hey, it is what it is, but I loved those late-night snacks, warm milk and all.

 

[2jakes]

I hear ya, but it is what she did and considering I was on my own in my house (my mom bought the food, but it was up to me to make breakfast and lunch for myself), I wasn't going to complain when I woke up to a nicely set table with food all ready for me.

Every house has its quirks and small crazies, my grandmother's was warm milk and very late night snacks of cookies, cake or ice-cream also with room-temperature milk. Hey, it is what it is, but I loved those late-night snacks, warm milk and all.

Sorry mom....but,
The best soups....vegetable, chicken, bean or pot roast, beef stew,
chocolate brownies or pies have to be the ones my grandmother
made from scratch.

At home from school, when my mom was at work.
I made supper for myself. My sisters waited for mom
to come home from work.

The kitchen was a mess, but I never went hungry.

 

[GHT]

Today - at 53 - I'm not a big eater, but as a kid, if I had eaten dinna/dinner at 4:30pm, I'd have been gnawing my arm off by 8pm.

Apart from our intake of salt laden, preservative packed, processed food and our high intake of sugar and molasses, we are also eating our meals the wrong way around.
To keep your weight down you need to breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dine like a pauper.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Dinner was reserved for special occasions (Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, or a Sunday when we had guests) whether it was served at noon or 6 PM. Otherwise, it was breakfast, lunch, and supper.

Same here. You didn't eat dinner every day. But dinner wasn't at noon (heck you didn't home from church until at least noon and the chicken still had to cook), it was always around 2:00. And never at 6:00. If you ate dinner, you didn't eat lunch or supper, it was the one big meal of the day.

Something else I was discussing with my wife today: soda pop was reserved for eating out (when you got ONE serving: refills were unheard of) or a treat when we were kids. Otherwise, you got milk.

We didn't have "soda pop" either, all carbonated beverages were "coke". That said, we didn't have it eating out at all. It was iced tea for the lot of us.