Why can’t the British eat or drink anything unless they place a table cloth on the table first?
07.06.2025 05:09
Like many newlyweds of the immediate post-war period my parents began their married life in 1946 with Utility furniture and the Utility mark (pictured) was very familiar to me. The utility scheme
was devised to make the best possible use of scarce resources but it wasn’t rubbish by any means. It was made of domestic timbers like oak, elm or beech, no nonsense with Ikea plastic-veneered chipboard, and was rationed for sale to newlyweds setting up first homes. In the days of severe austerity you treasured this bonus and protected it.
Later on, after we’d moved south, we had dining room furniture – table, chairs and a sideboard – in teak which demanded equal care and respect, and it was these that were passed on to me when I got married and ventured out on my own. It didn’t take me long for me and me partner to realise that we didn’t have to do things the way our parents did, and in the early days at least we had less space than our parents ever had, and all that dining furniture got in the way. So we stopped taking meals formally except for special occasions or for guests. A tray on the lap did just fine. And so it did for the people around us.
I’m sure there are families that still do the formal family meals, but in our time-challenged age with many families keeping different hours, individual self-service meals are now pretty much the norm most of the time. And even for special occasions, you’re much more likely to see placemats rather than a full tablecloth.
That was true up to a point about my parents and grandparents. Meals, even breakfast at weekends, were semi-formal family occasions with the whole family seated round a be-tableclothed table, each in her/his place with cutlery laid out properly. It was often the job of me and my sister to set the table for a meal. The cloth was there for protection, these were wooden tables.
Weeeeeeeell!