A few weeks back, Dan Ana and I attended a friend's wedding in the nearby town of St. Leo.
We hadn't met Luke before, but Jessi Callens is the eldest of nine, her parents close friends of Dan and Helen, my in-laws.
The Callens have a true homestead by Minneota. They raise all kinds of animals on their 26-acre farm, grow all their own food, embrace the values of rural living, devoutly love the Church, and just enjoy an old-fashioned farm life.
The wedding was a testimony to their way of life. And so different from the weddings Dan and I had attended before.
We celebrated the nuptial Mass in the beautiful country church. True to form, the men in the wedding party all wore bolero ties, and several wore jeans, but in their defence they were black jeans. Jessi wore her aunt's wedding dress. It fit perfectly.
The Mass itself was beautiful and reverant. Jessi's sisters sang in the choir loft while Helen played the organ.
Afterwards, the whole troop gathered in the basement of the church for dinner (or supper, they call lunch dinner out here). On each decorated table sat 2 bottles of homemade fruit wine. On our table, we sampled sweet apple, and elderberry wine. I didn't care for the elderberry. But the sweet apple complemented the supper cooked by the several friends in the church kitchen. We feasted on roast beef sandiches, potatoes au gratin, and a host of different salads. The cake was one of the best I've tasted, and was homemade that morning by one of the relatives of the couple.
There was plenty of space in the basement for the dace without moving any tables. Jessi's family took out their instruments and played tune after tune of their own style of country music. Everyone danced, especially the kids! There must've been a good thirty children dancing and swaying and wrestling around to the beat. Ana was one of them. And Dan and I had a splendid time watching her interact with all the children. One little boy, Kyle McKeown, who is about six years old, took her out to dance with her. It was very sweet. But poor Ana didn't know how, and just watched Kyle's fancy footwork with awe.
By the time it was eight o'clock, the dance was only a half hour old. But, we had to whisk Ana home before her carriage turned into a pumpkin. Within minutes of driving back home, she was fast asleep in her car seat.
Dan and I agreed it was one of the best weddings we had been to, full of homegrown fun.
4 comments:
Jason & I have had the arguement, well discussion, about the lunch/dinner/supper thing. I agree that it's lunch and dinner, not dinner then supper. When you go out to restaurants, it's not a dinner menu at noon, it's lunch, right? Somethin' 'bout words 'round these parts!! Gotta love the conversations though! ;)
We have had more than one mix-up at this house. Not between me and Dan, but mostly with his folks. I try to remember to call it dinner and supper, but it doesn't always work. Ack.
Solidarity between lunch suppers!
I think it's really a farm thing. "Dinner" refers to a main meal. "Supper" and "lunch" connote a smaller meal of some sort (course, if you read How to Talk Minnesotan you'll learn that around here "a little lunch" still constitutes a hefty meal in its own right...).
City folk (and town folk too) are away from home during the day and so eat their main family meal in the evening. Hence, "dinner".
Farm folk are home during the day and so eat their main family meal at noon. Hence, "dinner".
So, whatever lifestyle you're used to, you use that terminology.
These days, I'm unique in that I get two dinners each day. During the day, at my parents' house, I get "dinner", and then when I go home to Joy, I get "dinner" again. Very good for the tummy. Not so good for the weight...
I'm two days behind but here's my two cents.
In my family (being city-folk, mind you), all evening meals Monday through Saturday would generally be called DINNER with mid-day meals on those days being LUNCH; however, on Sundays, the mid-day meal was always called DINNER while the evening meal was called SUPPER. This was because of what Dan was referring to - we always had our 'big' meal after church on Sundays. To add to the confusion, my mom would occasionally refer to a mid-week evening meal as SUPPER if she didn't feel she was making a 'big' meal. So to me, the words supper and dinner are interchangable for an evening meal; except on Sundays, when the words lunch and dinner mean the same thing.
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