Someone's in the Kitchen with Dinah...

OK, so do we really know who was in the kitchen with Dinah and why they were strumming on a banjo when they should have been helping her cook dinner? As a child, I would sing along to the song and never give the lyrics a second thought, only now as an adult, do I think about the deeper meanings of both folk songs and stories. Some of them are certainly not what we would write about today. 

Not sure why but today's writing prompt made me think of this song (which is now playing on a loop in my head...don't you just hate it when that happens?!). Perhaps thinking of a kitchen, and who does most of the cooking in it, makes me slow down and remember all of the happy (and sad) times we spend in our kitchens. I don't know about your family but in ours whenever there was a happy occasion or a crisis, someone headed for the kitchen to put on the kettle or a pot of coffee as the women in the group slowly followed. The kitchen of my childhood was pretty much the domain of women. Was this sexist? Was is the men who relegated us to the kitchen? The answer, for me at least, is I don't think so. there always seemed to be things we women (and girls) wanted to talk about without the prying ears of husbands, fathers and brothers. This was the place of laughter and tears and no fear of judgement no matter what we needed to share. Yes, the kitchen was certainly the center of our home and it was the same at all of our cousins homes as well. 

Things have certainly changed over the years with families being busier and rarely having the time to sit down together at the dinner table. We all seem to be running a million miles a minute and hurting our health with take-out food, not to mention the damage to our wallets from the cost. I wish there was a simple solution, that we could just snap our fingers and things would slow down a bit, but now it seems even when we are home we allow our work life to sneak in. How many of us put away our smart phones in the evening...even for a little while? And we all talk about it. My Facebook feed is littered with posts from people who are celebrating their upcoming trips to "no cell reception" areas, just so they can disconnect and enjoy their solitude or connect with the people who are there, right in front of them.

Sorry about today's post being all over the place, seems that my mind is wondering of late, filled with thoughts of everything I need to get done in the next two weeks. It is a funny time of the year to be moving on to something new. I usually think of the fall as a time of settling in, nesting, and getting ready for the holidays. Instead, I am packing up nine years worth of memories and making travel plans. It is going to be an exciting few weeks.