When I was little going out to dinner was really special.  My kids( now grown) laugh when I tell them that and I am not that old.  A boomer, my family went out for special occassions, and I mean special.  Like Mothers Day.  Oh this was huge in my family.  There many cousins, grandparents aunts and uncles...all together, most getting along and the rest doing a decent job of pretending.  We went to a restaurant where we were known; and my grandpa flirted with the waitresses who wore flowered hankies on the uniforms,  The hankies were spread into a fan and pinned on with their nametag.  Oh my! 

Now, we go out to eat all the time; always did, even when the kids were babies in car seats.  But back then it was special.  We wore nice dresses, patent leather shoes and little anklets; no jeans, no sweats and surely no flip flops.  Although i did have a pair of flip flops I wore to the beach.  Back to dinner.  I always ordered the Salisbury Steak.  My grandpa would say to me, why do you order that, its hamburger, and then he would wink at the waitress and maybe pinch her arm, or maybe even pinch a little lower.  Ahhh the memry of it all

For dessert hey served all the kids ice cream with sparklers.  And they brought them to the table all at once.  Imagine-12 sparkler dishes all at once.  They were hot too.  We all knew better than to touch, but one year my cousin Ivey Kay ( thats the kind of names we had in the south) touched it, and they rushed her to the ER.  My mom just rolled her eyes and intimated to Aunt Rozzie, "another attention getting act".

Now we go to restaurants as a matter of course...just the basics... to eat out rather than home because hmmm no food thats interesting, no time, no real interest other than satisfying the immediate physical need, and surely not to have intimate family experiences.  Ahhh they don't know whatthey are missing