Chewsday: Food interview with Mimi

 This is an interview I did with my "Mimi" Dorothy Queenan (age 94) in 2010 as research for a paper on food. Keep in mind that although I am somewhat obsessed with the farm-to-table movement, my Grandmother has never heard of such a thing, has no clue who Micheal Pollan is, thinks "foodie" is a slang term for snacks, and is 20 years older than Wendell Berry...now try to tell me healthy eating and conscious nutritional choices are a fad! These are her exact words from a cell phone recording (imagine several loving sighs and giggles, and the warmest/wrinkliest old voice ever). -Molly 

Q: Does Fast Food have an effect on the society?

A: I think if it is abused it definitely does and they might have a weight problem. It can effect a well balance diet because fried foods are not good to eat all of the time. You always need meat, potatoes, a vegetable (greens), and fruit. It effects your family. The way to relate to your family is around the dining table. Discussion time is important, it is not a time to complain but to enjoy and be around a table. With fast food you don’t get any pluses your just filling a gap in your diet. It is fast and easy but it hurts you in the end. Growing up I had a nicely set table. Everyday my mom would leave me a note: “Peel the Potatoes and set the table”. I had nice dishes and nice silverware and without my mom how would I have known how to set a pretty table? Some of that is lost with fast food. You lose the gathering. Fast food is like eating off of the stove! If you grow up that way then that is what you do when your older and that is what you will teach your children. Eating at the dinner table with other people is how you learn your manners, dress nicely, and you behave appropriately in society. People have left the kitchen table! People act inappropriately because they are not learning their manners at the table. You’re grandfather’s father worked on the railroad so he didn’t have the family gatherings like I did growing up. It makes a difference as you grow. It is important to sit down and have a pleasant meal! People are not having the surrounding family influence and it was unheard of to eat on the fly – you sat down to the table and you ate! 

Photos by Molly at Woodland Farm