Lunch

Things have different tags in different regions of the country. In the threadworld, the exact same quilt block could have one name in Kansas and an alias in Maine. I've witnessed arguments, polite though passive-aggressive, over the real title of the Bachelor's Puzzle or Dove in the Window. [Rule of thumb: People who argue over names of blocks are 95% more likely to dither about judges' critiques at quilt shows.] Quilting is a life-long learning process, and no one person will ever be the Lintmaster. Perhaps that is why quilting draws such diverse people – it's an opportunity to learn something new about what you may have already learned before. Fons and Porter* delight in uncovering such regional bywords; they are the seams that connect quilters to one another, worldwide.

An unexpected turn of words befell me when I moved to a rural community. I taught at Turkey Valley Community Schools, which literally sits in the middle of a cornfield. I was out of the loop on the most basic, everyday terms, and some of them confound me even now. I was outnumbered in my slant, thus making me look uninformed. I was fodder in the teacher's lounge, not to mention the classroom.

In southeast Iowa, the land of my birth, there were three meals a day. We started things off with breakfast. At noon, during the week and on Saturdays, we had lunch. In the evening, we had supper. On Sundays at noon, we had dinner, and if it were a Christmas or New Year's meal during the week at noon, it was likewise dinner. If you ate between meals, it was a snack. Somewhere in my junior high school years, the term “brunch” was introduced. We found it very clever, and a way of avoiding all the hoopla involved in grabbing breakfast before church and preparing a big dinner after church.

Not so in the five towns that comprise the Turkey Valley School District. I think we're okay on the breakfast thing, but from there it all unravels. At noon, regardless of the day of the week, it is dinner. We are talking dinner with all the trimmings, just like on Sunday! Meat, potatoes, gravy. Dinner! Then, about 4:30 or 5:00, depending, lunch is served. It's lunch, like we have at noon -- a sandwich, chips, some fruit, a coupla cookies. But we aren't done yet. Somewhere around 8:00 P.M. (at NIGHT!) is supper. I never did get a handle on what was served then, because my mind stopped at trying to understand the concept. I'm not sure about the snack issue, either. I think farmers are just too busy to snack, depending solely on the chance to load up during the four meals they schedule in each day.

When I was teaching full-time and taking graduate classes, my connection with community events was whatever was printed in the twice-weekly Decorah Newspapers. I'd read about this meeting or that gathering. Seems like noon was the most common time to meet, because they always gave credit to whomever served lunch. Sometimes I'd see the names of other working women, and figured they weren't working under a Master Contract like I was, and could get away for a midday meeting. “Lunch was served after the meeting.”

I joined the quilt guild sometime in 1996 or 1997. The earlier months had been a whirl of learning and re-learning the names of quilt blocks, and comparison shopping for the best rulers, rotary cutters, mats, not to mention schmoozing with shop owners. Guild was just another leg of the journey. These women were so welcoming, and the genuine warmth of their goodwill was appreciated. I was new; they were virtuosos. The program chair assigned the meeting I was to serve lunch. I didn't get it – the meetings were always at 7:00 p.m., and we'd all just finished supper.

“Whadaya mean, 'lunch'?”

“When the meeting is over, we have lunch.”

“But it's 8:30 by then. Don't you mean, we have a 'snack'?”

“Oh, it's usually just something sweet. Some of us like fruit, or veggies and dip. Just a little lunch.”

“You mean 'snack', right?”

“No, lunch. Cheese and crackers are a safe choice. (pause) I guess you could call it a snack, but it's lunch.”

This simply did not compute, even in northeast Iowa parlance. Was this the elusive “supper” I'd heard about? If it was, wouldn't she have called it “supper”? It's not that I didn't hear her say “lunch” four times, it's just that it didn't fit. I was offering her my term: snack. She didn't say, “What's that?”, so obviously she had a definition for snack. What she was telling me is the term for a snack after an evening meeting is “lunch”. I have since learned that a snack after an afternoon meeting is “lunch”, too. No wonder there were all those “lunches” written about in the paper.

I have come to accept that “lunch” is sometimes code for “snack”. I don't understand it, but I yield to the wisdom of my community. My duty as a relater of Midwestern quilt lore must include information about the term “lunch”. If you have further questions, don't look at me. I've told you all I know.


*(Marianne)Fons and (Liz)Porter are two of my favorite quilters. In my early quilting days, I wouldn't miss them on IPTV because they are so thorough. One Saturday, Hubba walked by as I was watching Sew Many Quilts, the name of their program in 1996. “Oh, there's my old high school classmate. I'd heard she had a program on IPTV.” Liz Porter graduated from high school with Hubba, and I'd known her folks for years! Talk about humble... not one word of bragging from Ilene and Doc about their successful daughter! That's not why Fons & Porter are my favorites, though. It's their expertly produced how-to/do-it-yourself quilt show on IPTV, now called Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting. Check out their website! http://www.fonsandporter.com/


Copyright © 4/11/2005 Kari E.O. Burns