One Weekend

This is the first weekend in a loooong time, that we have nothing going on at all. No trips to my hometown, no Boy Scout camping trips, training, fund-raisers, or other activities. An actual weekend were we can sleep in and do whatever we want.

Last night, we made fondue for supper. We found an electric fondue pot at Goodwill on Thursday night, for $1.99, perfect condition, all parts present and in the original packaging ala 1982. Oh, what trip down memory lane...

Back in the day (I use this term because once you hit 30, everything you did as a child was at least 20 years ago, so it qualifies as "back in the day"). As I was saying, Back in the Day, my parents, my sister Nan, and I would have "fondue nights" every once in awhile. It was exciting to my sister and I, for several reasons. For one thing, we got to stay up late and eat chips and drink pop, but the biggest reason was that my dad would move the TV to where we could see it from the kitchen table.

We would linger over the dinner table, spearing chunks of steak or little smokies, and frying them in the oil which Mom heated in the electric pan. I always wanted the fork with the white dot on the end of the handle. We'd wait patiently for the meat to fry, then would blot off the grease on a napkin, letting it cool while we put in another piece. Mom would put the Western dressing in coffee cups, and we'd dip the meat in the dressing, and we'd swear it was the best thing we'd ever tasted. Mostly, though, it was time with our parents that made it so fun.

That's why my eyes got teary when I saw that little fondue pot. I immediately had visions of my son and I talking (not arguing), and sharing a piece of my childhood while eating ridiculous little bits of meat dipped in Western Dressing.

My son said it sounded fun, so we rented a movie last night, and went to the grocery store where I frantically tried to remember exactly what we used to eat on those nights (hey, it was Back in the Day, and I'm getting OLD).

You know how you build things up in your mind to the point where reality can never match it?

We got home, and immediately my son turned on the GameCube.

"Hey, I thought we were going to do the fondue-thing," I said. He mumbled something about playing just while the oil heated. Part of doing this was that he was going to help get things ready. But, I shrugged my shoulders, and started getting things ready.

20 minutes later...

"Okay, oil's ready, french fries are done, time for dinner," I called. He went to put in the movie while I stood at the table and tried to hurry him along.

He did not like the little smokies, thought the western dressing was awful, liked cooking the steak, and in the end, finished eating really quickly and was back in front of the TV in ten minutes.

I sat and finished eating by myself, idly spearing the bits of steak that were left, frying them, and eating them on my own.

All these years, I wondered why my family had stopped our fondue nights (beyond the addition of the twins and my baby sister). I'm sure there came a night when we no longer wanted to participate, and were too impatient to spend an entire evening with our parents and sisters.

Will I try again? Of course I will.

But next time, maybe I'll invite my parents, too.