Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-05-23
ONE O'CLOCK DINNERS
STILL THE RULE IN MANY
HOUSES IN THIS CITY.
Survival of an Old Custom-The De-
lights of the O'Clock
Supper.

Where you heading for, this time of
day out this way?" asked ONE man of an
other. whom he met at 1 O'Clock in the
afternoon going homewards.
Going to dinner was the reply.
You mean luncheon?'
mo, 1 don't mean luncheon. I mean din
ner; plain, solid, substantial dinner. Soup,
and baked ham and green's mashed pota-
toes, creamed and Drowned, hot corn bread
and coffee. That's what 1 mean, and you
bet m ready for it,
why does anybody in town eat dinner
in the middle of the day."
Lots of 'em in this town do; that is,
among the older families. I know 1t seems
a country custem or one that prevails only
in the west and south, among townfolks.
but can take you to a dozen homes in my
section of the town, where the people are
old friends of gran'pap's, in which the din
ner hour has been o CLOCK Tor tnree-quar-
ters of century.
..Gran'pap is one of the old-fashioned
kind, himself, and he still insists upon
being the head of the family, although
there are several of us more progressive
and hustling young fellows who are ready
to take over the job of undermining things,
he runs the house. He never would listen
to suggestion to change the dinner hour.
Even when the girls complained TO nm
that the custom was SO awfully unstyliSh,
and people really might think item COM
mon, gran pap would not give in, ort alter
listening until his patience was wora out.
grabbed his horn-handled cane and raped
on the floor until they jumped, ara then
he told them to go on back TO their copy
books and samplers and not bother tncir
heads about style. That settled the dinner
question within my time, and now we are
all resigned to it.
IT really like it. not so much because or
the dinner, but because of what follows
| I'D of ri n.y
evening, and that supper is something
worth your while, l tell you old Aunt
Mandy, who has been with the family since
before 1 was born, just lays herself QUO on
supper. as that is gran paps favorite meal.
She will have boiled ham and scrambled
eggs. or broled beefsteak, or old-fasnioned
stewed hash, and in the summer time'
broiled spring chicken three times week
Then she will have hot mullins, or waffieS
or hot biscuit with always the corn bread
for gran pap He has his corn bread three
times a day, rain or shine. Then, there VIII
| be preserves and fine coffee. L tell You
those 7 o'clock supperS are something TO
linper over You ought to see the fellows
who come to the girls stacking up to
one of those SupperS.
, .Anybody who is in the house when the
sumner bell rings-they don't send around
word that supper is served IN gran papS
house but Aunt Mandy gets out by the
dining room door and rings the supper bell
| long and loud-anybody who Is IN the mousse
gran'pap and Aunt Liza at the head or
the procession, and gran'pap stands until
they are all seated. whereupon he makes a
| bow to Aunt Liza and the company ana
sits himself. Then, there Immediately is
something doing in the eating hne-
Custom Still Prevails.
..You would be surprised to know in how
many families these old customs still pre-
va;, in Washington While the town has
grown I'D and out, pushing a line of fine
residences, occupied by rich and fashion
able people, ahead of the shifting tide of
nop,Ilation there are scores of fine old
homes left behind-kind of dropped out OF
! the scramble, to speak. and resting In
| their dignity amidst uncongenfal surround
| ings solitary and scornful.
I'm all of those old homes you will find
some relic of the times that are gone in the
way of family custom. The homes or that
character are very much alike They have
white marble mantelpieces. with cheerful
| open fires blazing in the parlors. Upstairs
| there will be room occupied by some an
| cient member of the family, where a little
| fire burns in the fireplace every morning
and evening, to drive away the dampness,
summer and winter.
| I'm some of the places, as in ours, the
| interiors have been gradually transformed,
due to the efforts of the girls. They pa
! tiently worked until they showed all the
\ old horsehair furniture up in the attic, got
/ the hideous vases off the mantelpiece and
| substituted brass bedsteads for the elab-
] crate structures that were there when
| gran'pap was a boy, and put in modern
plumbing.
| these changes. His room is the most mod
ern one in the house. and believe he would
| let 1t be furnished in white and gold II the
girls would propose it. He is quite struck
| on the modern furnishings, and has an
/ electric light over his bed. by which to
! read himself to sleep. And yet he insists