The Cellar / Suppertime

**Posted by xoxoxoBruce** 9/19/2023 6:20 pm

Older folks often used supper time as a reference to work from.
It gets confusing when talking with people living a fer piece away.

**Posted by toranokaze** 10/10/2023 6:48 pm

I can't imagine eating before 7

**Posted by griff** 10/11/2023 6:01 am

Dinner is lunch.
We usually eat supper by 6. We're not night owls.

**Posted by fargon** 10/11/2023 7:39 am

griff wrote:
Dinner is lunch.
We usually eat supper by 6. We're not night owls.

I couldn't imagine eating after 6.

**Posted by glatt** 10/11/2023 8:35 am

I'm glad this thread got revived. I hadn't seen it. Fascinating data.

It makes me want to dive in. The chart shows starting, peak, and finishing time, So it seems to be also showing how long we take to eat dinner. Except, that can't be right. I seldom take longer than half an hour to eat dinner. Only if it's a special event and you are trying to slow down and be present for the event might I take longer. And yet this chart is showing the meals last 2 or 3 hours. So I think instead it's an approximation of the data as a curve of all folks in that state. and the "Peak" is just when most people eat dinner, rather than the moment during eating when you are cramming lots of food into your pie hole.

Another curiosity I have is what might cause the differences between states? Where is each state located within their time zone?

There's the city versus rural question, and Washington DC tells us that folks in the city are busy and eat later. Must be the commuting time.

What about after dinner events? In my experience here, I've found that there are lots of meetings and events scheduled in the evening. Normally at 7PM, which is a little early, or more usually at 7:30PM. If somebody schedules a meeting at 6PM, they better be offering pizza at the meeting.

We usually eat around 6 or 6:30, but that's only if my wife has been working on preparing something and dinner is in the works, If she hasn't, and I'm somehow responsible for getting food in front of us, then dinner might not be until 7:30 and we will be hangry.

**Posted by glatt** 10/11/2023 8:57 am

This also makes me think of meeting times.

I haven't seen this discussed too much anywhere, but the times that meetings are scheduled can be used to shape the demographics of the group that feels welcome at the meeting, or is able to even attend the meeting.

We have various groups at my church, and one group that insists it is open to all and welcomes everyone is somehow only comprised of old ladies. They seem surprised, but they meet on Wednesdays at 1:30 pm.

If you are holding a meeting about early childhood education or daycare, it's got to be on a weekend in the late morning. Can't be in the early evening, because those parents of little ones are putting their kids to bed. Can't be in the afternoon, because that's gonna be somebody's nap time. So Sunday after the service is best.

Want a bunch of teenagers? Best time is dinner time during the week with pizza provided. It's after the school activities and before homework.

Want to snag the gainfully employed men? Believe it or not, 8am coffee offered on Saturday morning will get a lot of them to show up. Would probably work for women too.

Want to keep anyone out? Just have the gathering for one of the times that don't work well for them.

**Posted by xoxoxoBruce** 10/14/2023 3:50 pm

glatt, I think the finishing denotes when most everyone in that state is finished no matter when they started, but that's just my guess, it could be the late starting time folks are finishing.

My father got off work at 4:30 and would usually get home 4:50. He wanted supper on the table at 5, not 5:10, not 5:05. and 95% of the time it was.
Currently my life as a ne'er-do-well is pretty erratic. Some days I don't wake until 10 am after a late night, so breakfast and lunch are pushed back. But even if I have lunch at 3:30 pm around 5:00 I get the feeling it's time for supper.
It's not possible I'm actually hungry, just a habit from my youth... and that's a hell of a long time ago.