Text 2073, 68 rader
Skriven 2008-02-09 17:25:00 av JOAN MACDIARMID (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av DALE SHIPP
Ärende: Dads
============
 Hi, Dale,

 DS> You remind me of a topic I have been thinking about.   I wonder at
 DS> how the role of cooking has perhaps changed over the years.    I
 DS> grant that this echo is by no means an "average" sample of American
 DS> (or any other) culture.   However, what I most often hear here when
 DS> people speak of it is "my mom was a xxxx cook", and rarely hear that
 DS> the dads were ever involved in the cooking.     For the participants
 DS> in this echo, there are many males who do some or even all of the
 DS> cooking [with one noted exception:-}} ].

 Reminds me of my Dad whining he would starve with Mom and
 me making an emergency trip to Michigan for family
 business (a funeral, as I recall). "I can't cook!"
 he wailed. Then I reminded him he'd been a short-order
 cook at Kewpies in Lansing for several years in college!
 He survived, though I think he ate out some.

 Hey, I just remembered, Dad did have one cooking duty!
 He was the one who mashed the potatoes after mom peeled
 and cooked them! Same for mashed winter squash dishes.
 He had the strong arm, and did a very nice job of
 whipping them up nice and smooth. A non-cooking job
 was that he kept the knives in excellent sharpness
 without ever damaging the blades. He (an engineer)
 also helped keep the small appliances running, rewiring
 the coffee percolators and an ancient waffle iron and
 a few toasters over and over.

 Now my Uncle Dave (Mom's next-younger brother) did like
 to cook. I heard he would spend all weekend putting
 casseroles and stuff together for the family to eat
 during the week. Aunt Dee did work at least some of
 the time, so his contributions filled a need. But he
 also earned some extra cash catering dinners at the
 Elks Lodge and dreamed of trying his own restaurant
 (never did) so he was teetering on the edge of semi-pro.
 I remember he had his second wife enlisted as sous-chef
 doing prep work later in life; she seemed to enjoy it.

 DS> So -- having made that observation, what do the rest of you think?
 DS> Is society changing with respect to the gender roles in the kitchen?
 DS> Or is it just that this echo is a non-typical sample?

 Hard to say! My brother is sort of expected to help
 with the shopping, cooking and washing up, even though
 he is working full-time and often overtime as a lawyer
 while his wife is a full-time homemaker. I think he
 takes care of some of the simpler details. like whipping
 out the Stovetop Stuffing or warming the jarred gravy.
 He definitely does the dishes, though this is more
 loading the automatic dishwasher and running it. I know
 a grad student couple that seem to share kitchen duties,
 but eat out or takeout a lot because both are so busy, he
 finishing his research here and lecturing at another
 University, she in surgical residency. He visited another
 male grad student last week for supper (wife out of
 town on a rare week off) and said the Indian fellow
 was an excellent cook, though the chutney blew his
 head off after a few bites! But for your question,
 single guys don't count...they almost have to cook!

 Joan MacDiarmid


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