Around supper my Dad would whistle when the food was ready. Dad could whistle louder than anyone I knew, I swear you could hear him three blocks away. So one of my friends would poke me in the ribs and say 'your dad's calling you' and I'd go eat.
Afterwards we kids had to clean up ( my sisters still ask why they had to wash and dry and I didn't...I don't reply...( why it was I had to get on the roof and clean out the gutters or why I had to crawl under the house every fall and light the pilot light and they didn't ...but you know)...
We could stay outside after dark if we were near the street light which was fine cause it was too hot when we had no A/C but at 9:30 Mom would make me come in and go to bed, but I would listen to my transistor radio until the room cooled off via the giant window fan....Ha the crazy stuff I heard on that radio...
As a bride, I lived abroad and long before easy/quick communications as we have today...I could call my folks to once a week *report*...and If I called between 5 and 5:15p any day of the week, the phone would get picked up on the first ring, b/c they were always at the dinner table during that time. Until dad passed, I know, mom always had the meal on the table. It was a religion with her.
As kids, we knew to be home by 5.
“Dinner was always between 5 p and 5:15p ....you better be on time.”
“Around supper my Dad would whistle when the food was ready. Dad could whistle louder than anyone I knew, I swear you could hear him three blocks away. So one of my friends would poke me in the ribs and say ‘your dad’s calling you’ and I’d go eat.”
My friends and I would either be playing back in the swamp, or baseball in someone’s yard (or the street), or after dark some sort of hide and seek type game. Could always tell when it was dinner time for my one friend, or time for him to get home and ready for bed, because his mom would ring a bell that could be heard at the farthest reaches of our play area. That was Todd Beamer’s mom, lol!