Do you ever...

[RichardJacobs]

Use a knife and fork to eat your food? Or using your fingers?

[Jules]

Not if I'm eating soup

[A_B]

Knife and fork most of the time.

My dad used to eat his Sunday dinner with his fingers though. We ate off our knees growing up, so had to bring our own plate into the front room from the kitchen. It was a case of last one back into the front room had the middle seat on the couch with no arm room. He'd sit down without a knife and fork loads of time rushing for the best chair near the fire, so he'd eat it with his fingers rather than lose the chair.

Soup, he'd just drink straight from the bowl. He's never been very civilised.

[Jules]

[RichardJacobs]

Any more?

What do you mean about the middle seat with no arm room?

[A_B]

Any more?

What do you mean about the middle seat with no arm room?

The middle seat on a settee meant you were hitting elbows with the people either side of you while you were trying to eat, so not the best seat to have.

My mum would shout 'dinner' and we'd all run and push to try to be the first in the kitchen, my dad included, so we didn't end up coming back to the middle seat. The best seat was by the fire, so that was always the aim. My mum usually got that though because she'd be holding her plate running into the front room while shouting dinner most of the time, so she had a head start. I remember once she's forgotten her knife and fork, so put her dinner on the chair to save it, but one of my sisters didn't realise and just saw the chair free and ran and sat in it, straight on top of my mum's dinner.

Sometimes we'd try to second guess when she was going to shout dinner by standing with one eye around the door frame into the kitchen, just to get a head start, but my mum would shout at us if she saw us.

[RichardJacobs]

The middle seat on a settee meant you were hitting elbows with the people either side of you while you were trying to eat, so not the best seat to have.

My mum would shout 'dinner' and we'd all run and push to try to be the first in the kitchen, my dad included, so we didn't end up coming back to the middle seat. The best seat was by the fire, so that was always the aim. My mum usually got that though because she'd be holding her plate running into the front room while shouting dinner most of the time, so she had a head start. I remember once she's forgotten her knife and fork, so put her dinner on the chair to save it, but one of my sisters didn't realise and just saw the chair free and ran and sat in it, straight on top of my mum's dinner.

Sometimes we'd try to second guess when she was going to shout dinner by standing with one eye around the door frame into the kitchen, just to get a head start, but my mum would shout at us if she saw us.

How often you got the middle seat, what was it like eating dinner without having an armrest?

[A_B]

How often you got the middle seat, what was it like eating dinner without having an armrest?

I never got the middle seat, it was nearly always my dad or my oldest sister. There would be arguments if it was my dad and nobody would move for him, so he'd make sure the two at either side suffered by eating with both his elbows up and out.

[RichardJacobs]

I never got the middle seat, it was nearly always my dad or my oldest sister. There would be arguments if it was my dad and nobody would move for him, so he'd make sure the two at either side suffered by eating with both his elbows up and out.

I'd eat on the floor instead

[A_B]

I'd eat on the floor instead

That's what I started doing when I got older. When we started dating, it was only polite to let the guest have a seat. They didn't know the routine, so without fail they'd end up in the middle seat and have this smug face staring at them.