July 1, 2023

Thanks to all of you who added outstanding recommendations to my summer reading blog post. As always, your comments make the post come alive, and I’m grateful. I’ve already read two of the recommendations (On the Road, and The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid), and I’m working on a third (Dirt). I’ve included the expanded list at the bottom of this post for those of you who read the post before all of the additions.

One of the many funny yet wistful parts of Bryson’s Thunderbolt Kid focuses on inventions in the fifties and sixties. TV deserves special mention, as it changed everything. In 1950, virtually no households had a TV. By 1952, over one third had them, and it wasn’t long before a majority of homes were entertained by a box. Staying inside became a lot more popular. And then Bryson describes the equally great invention of the TV Dinner, introduced to America in 1954 – “the best bad food ever produced.” He loved them. I loved the idea of them, but it truly was bad food. In four short years, we lost the focus on being outdoors, the role of cooking was dramatically diminished, and then, as Bryson writes, “Some other innovative genius produced special folding trays that you could eat from while watching television, and that was the last time any child – indeed any male human being – sat at a dining room table voluntarily.”

TV did indeed change everything.

Some of my memories of TV include getting up early to watch cartoons on Saturday morning. I ran downstairs, flipped on some lights, turned the TV on, and waited. Before 6:00 AM, the only thing I saw was a test pattern with a picture of a compass-like something and a Native American person. You too can experience my early Saturday mornings as a kid with this awesome YouTube video. (To get the full experience, make sure your sound is on!) Then, just before 6:00, the Star Spangled Banner would play, followed by the boring farm report featuring weather and commodity prices, then came the cartoons! Good living! Another TV memory – my brother Pat reminded me of a rule our Dad had. He would find all four of his kids staring at the TV, and would ask us what we were watching. If we didn’t know (and sometimes we didn’t), he turned the TV off and sent us outside for the rest of the day. Pretty good rule, actually.

Eating dinner in front of the TV was frowned upon in our house. Possibly because the family dinner at our table was important, but also because we could not be trusted. Well, my brother Bill could not. Once, we were going to watch some show or miniseries on TV as a family, and Mom made the bad decision to serve her famous spaghetti Bolognese. (Here’s the recipe.) Bill, who was probably 7 at the time, decided to act like he was tripping as he came into the TV room, then he actually tripped and literally threw his spaghetti, the red sauce, and the plate against the wall. Mom and Dad were apoplectic. We had to act like it wasn’t funny, but damn, it was really funny. We all think it’s hilarious now, even Mom and Dad. Time heals.

Eating dinner at the table has always been important to me as a dad. I mentioned it as one of my 61 Life Lessons. It’s a time to slow down, have a conversation, connect with each other, and hopefully enjoy some excellent food together. I would say we order in once every two weeks, and go out to dinner about the same. So as a family, we tend to cook dinner and sit down at the table at least six nights a week. I love it, and I admit, I’m a bit of a pain in the ass about it. I do get eye rolls for expecting everyone to be at the table the minute dinner is ready. Come on people – dinner should be eaten when it’s perfectly ready! It makes me lovable. Kind of.

I played golf last week with three guys who share my love of the dinner table. In fact, they take that passion to a whole new level and they are actually making a living out of it. Like Bill Bryson and me, they believe the table is a lost part of our culture. We are in too big of a hurry, and we all have too many distractions. They are a remarkably talented bunch – two of them are sommeliers and all three are high level chefs. They are using their skills to bring back the American dinner table, one high level experience at a time. They fly around the country, hunting, fishing, and gathering in their destination, and using their bounty to figure out their menu. They then set up a beautiful outdoor dining environment, cook everything over an open flame, and serve spectacular wines to go with the meal. They seek to create an environment that develops appreciation for local food and local beauty, while fostering an atmosphere of togetherness, meaningful conversation, and eye to eye contact. It sounds amazing. My friend Cathy would call their dinners a “mountaintop experience.” While the artistic level of presentation in our home may not compare at all to theirs, when we prepare a dinner for our friends, our food is very good, the conversation is outstanding, our wine is significantly less expensive (but still excellent) and I’m guessing our meals cost way less per person than the one my new golfing buddies serve. Still if I ever get an invite to a Kiawe Outdoor event, I am immediately RSVPing with an enthusiastic YES!

Last thought – Now that Jill and I are empty nesters, we do eat some of our meals in front of the TV, and yes, we eat on those god-forsaken TV trays. With just the two of us, the table can seem oversized. We are frequent users of the remote control, and we pause often to talk – sometimes about what we are watching, sometimes about our day, sometimes about whatever comes to mind. I’m not sure what to think of this new development. I’m trying to be flexible and open-minded. But I relish any opportunity to eat outside, dine with friends, and be that rare American who actually wants to sit at the table each night with family and friends.

A toast – To the table!

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My Summer Reading List Recommendations 

• Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood (Trevor Noah)
• Educated: A Memoir (Tara Westover)
• The Lacuna (Barbara Kingsolver)
• Where the Crawdads Sing (Delia Owens)
• Less: A Novel (Andrew Sean Greer)
• Kitchen Confidential (Anthony Bourdain)
• News of the World (Paulette Jiles)
• Golf in the Kingdom  (Michael Murphy)
• Hillbilly Elegy  (J.D. Vance)
• The Wright Brothers  (David McCullough)
• Sapiens: A Brief History of Mankind (Yuval Noah Harari)
• The Swerve: How the World Became Modern  (Stephen Greenblatt)
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Robert Pirsig)
• Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)The Swerve: How the World Became Modern (Stephen Greenblatt)
• The Long Walk to Freedom (The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela)
• Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival (Laura Hildebrand)
• Fall of Giants / Winter of the World / Edge of Eternity (Century Trilogy by Ken Follett)
• The Lincoln Lawyer (Michael Connelly)
• Steve Jobs (Walter Isaacson)
• Truman (David McCullough)
• Undaunted Courage (Stephen Ambrose)
• Demon Copperhead (Barbara Kingsolver)
• Anything by Pat Conroy (The Water is Wide, The Prince of Tides, The Lords of Discipline, The Great Santini)
• Breakfast with Buddha (Roland Murullo)

Books recommended by readers (Thank you – I look forward to reading them!)

• Cloud Cuckoo Land   (Anthony Doerr)
• Circe (Madeline Miller)
• The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Milan Kundera) 
• Dune (Frank Herbert) (I’ve read it twice now)
• The Island of Sea Women  (Lisa See)
• The Night Circus (Erin Morganstern) (Yes! I loved this book!)
• The Rook (Daniel O’Malley)
• The Sparrow (Mary Doria Russell)
• Midnight in Broad Daylight (Pamela Rotner Sakamoto)
• 12 Rules for Life (Jordan Peterman)
• Lessons in Chemistry (Bonnie Garmus)
• Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (Gabrielle Zevin)
• Horse (Geraldine Brooks)
• Lincoln Highway (Amor Towles) (Agreed – a great book, as is A Gentleman in Moscow by the same author)
• Skipping Christmas (John Grisham)
• The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid (Bill Bryson)
• The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace (Jeff Hobbs) (This was a favorite of two readers)
• A Short History of Nearly Everything (Bill Bryson) (This is an amazing book – well worth the time. Don’t be intimidated by the title – it’s a fun read.)
• Travels with Charley: In Search of America (John Steinbeck) (Agreed – a classic and a perfect summer book)
• Last of the Breed (Louis L’Amour)
• Dirt (Bill Buford)
• A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving) (Totally agree! Yes, John Irving is crazy, and yes, this is a wonderful book worth reading and re-reading.)
• The Tender Bar: A Memoir (JR Moehringer)
• On the Road (Jack Keruoac)
• The Dharma Bums (Jack Keruoac)
• Lessons in Chemistry (Bonnie Garmus)
• The Personal Librarian (Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray)