Progressive Dinner Parties

Tommy Towery

LHS '64

This week's article might remind you of an event in the past that hasn't been remembered for a long time.

This week I return to sharing the contents from my journal and the comments made in my book "A Million Tomorrows...Memories of the Class of '64." Although not specifically "Lee" related, some of the attendees were. In retrospect, the idea of progressive dinner parties seemed to be a dying social encounter, you rarely hear about anyone hosting or attending one today. 

What’s A Progressive Dinner? A progressive dinner is a dinner party that takes place in several different homes. Each course is served at a different location, ideally one within walking distance or a short drive away (or even within a single apartment building). The group leisurely moves from place to place until the meal is over. Not only does the change of scenery keep things interesting, it also makes entertaining less expensive because the cost of the food is divided up among the hosts. This type of party is especially popular during the holidays when people’s houses are all decked out and ready for guests. Progressive dinners can be elaborate affairs that include multiple hors d’oeuvres and main dishes. Or they can be as simple as a three-course meal. The trick is to find multiple locations that are close enough together and decide on a menu that feels cohesive. 

December 15, 1963

Tonight our Westminster Fellowship group had a Progressive Dinner.  We started at one house with appetizers, then on to another house for the salad, then the main course, then the desert.  We finally got finished at about 9:00 P.M.

The biggest activity of the day was the progressive dinner held by the Central Presbyterian Church's youth group.  It was the first one of those events that I had ever attended and I thought it was a great idea.  It was one big party, held at three or four different places.  My house was not one of the houses which the group visited.  We had neither the room nor enough food for the entire crowd.  If I had been selected to feed them all, I would have had to take them over to the Rebel Inn where my grandmother worked and fed them hamburgers.  I couldn't afford that either.

The church group was made up of about 15 or so high school students.  Most of them went to Huntsville High, but a few of us had transferred to Lee.  It was the typical clean-cut group you would expect to find in a church-related activity.  Of all the groups in which I was involved during high school, this one was the straightest.  It was even straighter than the Scout group.

We were not really into church activities as much as you would expect.  The activities were more designed to help teenagers understand themselves than to understand God.  Usually the programs were "anti" things that teenagers did.  There were programs against smoking and drinking and stealing.  We never had an anti-drug program.  There were no drug problems to speak of.  It would be left to the groups later in the decade to have to worry about those types of problems.  Other programs that we had covered friendships, courting, and helping others.

On this night, the program was eating.  That was something all teenagers could relate to.  We ate in shifts.  The houses where I visited that night were not the same type of house as mine.  Most of them were big houses in nice neighborhoods and inhabited by real families.  There were mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters.  By that time in my life, my home family was my grandmother and myself.  It would be a few years before I lived in a family like the ones we visited on our eating frenzy.

It will be intersting to see if any of you can share your stories about the last (or any special) progressive dinner you attended.

The Wayback Machine

"Mashed Potato Time "

Dee Dee Sharp

1962

Looking for food songs to go along with this week's topic, I came upon this one.

"Mashed Potato Time" is a 1962 single written by Kal Mann and Bernie Lowe, and performed by Dee Dee Sharp, with backing vocals by the Orlons, on her debut album It's Mashed Potato Time. The song refers to the Mashed Potato dance move, which was a fad.

The song reached No. 1 on the Cashbox Top 100 and Billboard R&B charts in 1962, as well as No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It reached number 2 on the New Zealand lever hit paradcharts. It was kept from the No. 1 spot by "Soldier Boy" by The Shirelles. Billboard ranked it as the No. 3 song for 1962. It became a gold record. 

It's probably not going to happen, but perhaps some of you might remember attending progressive dinners in your past. If so, please consider sharing your thoughts with your classmates.

Last Week's Questions, Answers, And Comments

Joel Weinbaum, LHS ‘64, "Sometime in the mid-Fifties an older brother had bought a battery powered portable radio about the size of a woman’s purse. Batteries then were not rechargeable, and like many of us were too broke to buy new batteries, including the 67 volt battery that touching the terminals with a wet finger and your tongue could give you a heck of a jolt. As I recall the radio contained small vacuum tubes. Nearly ten years later while on R&R in Japan a dilemma arose choosing a tube-type stereo amplifier vs the new transistor type. How would you repair a transistor type once back  home. 60 years later…what’s a vacuum tube."

Jim Bannister,  LHS ‘66, "I still have one of those little portable TV sets. It is somewhere in the basement. Bought it in Japan in 1972. I also bought a 21-inch Sony Trinitron color TV. Great set but you needed two men and a boy to lift it."