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8. Social Gatherings and Activities
- University Press of Mississippi
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C H A P T E R 8 Social Gatherings and Activities African- and Anglo-Americantraditions would remain separate if not for social interaction, for it links beliefs and provides a context for their use and understanding. Social activities like holiday celebrations and family reunions offer appropriate contexts for the reinforcement of cultural values. Other practices, like neighborlyvisiting and Sundaydinners, connectgenerations to traditional values and integrate regional groups. As with other aspects of Piedmont folklife, these social activities have changed through time, but they continue to offer public and private situations in which Upstate values and beliefs are reinforced or redefined. InformalCelebrations S U N D A Y D I N N E R The foundation of all other family-related activities is Sundayafternoon dinner at an older relative's home. "You looked forward to Sundaydinner more than you did any other day of the week," Patricia Vaughn recalled. Willimon and Cabell explained why: "Sunday dinner in the South ... was an institution, a weekly family reunion with a traditional politesse equal to that of a summit meeting. It never occurred to you not to go to your grandmother's if you lived within riding, walking, or shouting distance. Nobody told you whereto sit at dinner; the order waspredestined longago and you followed it. ... Everyone finally assembled after dinner on the wrap-around front porch. . . . Sunday dinner established the rules when you'd passed from childhood to adulthood, passed on family stories, entertained you, and introduced you to unbelievable culinary delights." 105 io6 Carolina Piedmont Country As if to emphasize further the vital link between food and family, John Morland observed that in Kent, neighbors rarely invited each other over for meals, but relatives always did. This allowed families to intensify their history as it was shared and reinforced, Maggie Nameth related: "You'd hear a lot of family stories when you were sitting around talking And you learned a lot about your family, good and bad, that never was printed but was just passed along, by word of mouth." These Sunday visits followed a well-established protocol dictating the social relationships between genders and agecategories. Asbefitting proper southern attitudes toward ladies, the genders never mixed during these visits, as Helen Quinnell noted: "Oh, Lord, no! ... Weather permitting, the men sat out on the porch and the women sat in the living room." Typically, children could eat only after all the other adults; this often created acute food shortages, as Arthur Masters remembered: "The best part would be picked over when they got to eat." His wife added, "They'd get the chicken neck and feet!" With the arrival of special guests such as the preacher, this meant more appropriate table manners and less available food. Wechildren "always had to stay back till he got through eating," an African-American womangrumbled. At times it "looked like he wasgoing to eat up everything!" Several informants felt that Sunday dinners no longer had the ceremonial importance that they once held because change had come imperceptibly . Gladys Taylor knew ofa neighbor lady who used to have almost twenty family members over for Sunday dinner; when her daughter died, the tradition transformed: "All of a sudden we realized that they were going out to eat on Sunday. . . . Those things are just past, and you don't realize what's happening. All of a sudden you don't do it any more." On the other hand, many area residents still try to gather with relatives several times a month. After Sundayservices, manyUpstate families return home to a meal with a smaller and more easily managed circle of relatives than in previous generations. Other families, still dressed from church, might eat out in local restaurants, bustling with after-church crowds on Sunday afternoons. Robert Chambers and his family "go out for chicken, either Kentucky Fried or Hardees, once in a while, on Sunday afternoons." Sunday dinners simultaneously connect several fundamental Upstate traditions and behaviors. These gatherings allow the passing on of family stories as well as the regular consolidation of kin, thus reinforcing the southern value of family solidarity. Foods and food preparation strengthen earlier practices while providing a comfortableforum for experimentation to create newones. Finally, such dinners, often sandwiched between morning and evening church services, tie generations of family members to religious values as well. [3.90.242.249] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 16:15 GMT) Social Gatheringsand Activities 107 F A M I L Y R E U N I O N S Besides...