I may have been watching too many episodes of “Ancient Aliens.” I am wondering what humans will be like in the far, far distant future. I predict that humans will no longer have voice boxes. Instead they will have a texting device installed in their hand at birth. Fingers will be elongated and pointed at the tips, better to text with other humans.
Many are bemoaning the lack of dinner table conversations and blaming this on cell phones. Actually, this problem started long, long ago with a very lo- tech device called the tv tray. It happened when I was in grade school, and made all the kids very happy. The trays were not expensive and easily assembled! A person just had to stand up the folding legs and snap the tray on top. Now families could all eat together in front of the tv. Kids had been begging to do this since the invention of tv but parents complained about spillage and stains on upholstered furniture. Now we had the novel idea of the tv tray. They could be made of metal or wood to fit your decor and were considered the height of sophistication.
Along with the trays came the tv dinner. It came in an aluminum tray with different sections for each food group. Some kids didn’t like their food portions touching each other. It was similar to, but smaller than, the trays in the school cafeteria. The meals were cheap, and mothers loved them. No more planning and cooking dinner. No more clean-up and washing dishes. Each person could have whatever they wanted to eat whether it be fried chicken, meatloaf, mac and cheese or whatever. No more liver and onions doused with ketchup. Kids loved them because they got to eat in front of the tv. Even though the whole family was eating in the same room, no one talked because they wanted to hear the program. PERFECT!
Of course my mother soon caught on that no one was telling her about their school day, friends, or homework. By seventh grade the trays were stored in the basement and the family was eating and talking at the kitchen table. All good things must come to an end. My mother never had to quiz her daughters about anything. We all talked at once because we each considered what happened to each one of us was the most important. My poor brother who was the baby of the family claimed he never learned to talk until he was 18 because he never had a chance until he left home for college. What a whiner!
Skip ahead to when each family member had a tv in their room and ate on their bed with only the sound of chewing and the tv program making any noise. Blessed silence. So the cell phone is not the only culprit that caused the demise of dinner table conversations. It however delivered the death blow. At the beginning, people talked on their cell phones or left voice messages. Eventually that was considered silly, and texting began to take over as the standard of “conversation.” I liked the sounds of the voices of my family and friends. I liked the vocal intonations better than an emotional icon. I was in the minority. I would watch friends and family eating at tables at a restaurant, ignoring each other entirely, playing games or texting on their phones. So much for human contact. That phone is the “boss of the owner.” It expects that humans be available to it 24 hours a day. Humans have become willing slaves to their phones. They do not take a holiday from it or take it a vacation without being at its beck and call.
I used to fear that computers and e-mail would end personal interaction. I thought cell phones were simply a convenience to serve mankind. You could use them when you were shopping and didn’t know what brand of mustard to buy. You could use them to order meal delivery kits. You could use them to inform others that you would be late. I was wrong! Technology is addictive. Users have become so dependent on it; they can’t give it up. If machines take over the world, humans will be so grateful. Perhaps hacking will replace weapons of mass destruction. Hacking of elections and financial institutions will be just another video game!
This recipe is a comfort food that requires no technology but a regular oven. It is from a family cookbook. Printed cookbooks are a quaint look at our past before Google.
Storhoff Stuffing and Chicken Casserole
Spray a 9×13 pan with Pam.
Cut 6 skinless, boneless chicken breast in pieces and place them in the pan.
Put l package of Swiss cheese slices on top of the chicken.
Whisk l can cream of chicken soup and l can cream of celery soup together and pour over cheese slices.
Sprinkle 1 pk. Stove Top Stuffing over the soups.
Drizzle 1/4 cup melted butter over the stuffing mix.
Bake at 350 degrees for 2 hours. Serves 8.
Leave a Reply