The Fork and the Spoon

One thing I like to do with my daughter, Anne, is go out to dinner on Saturday evenings after church. It has become somewhat of a routine that I think she also enjoys.

This evening after the service, we went to one of our standard Saturday dinner restaurants, a particular steak house. We had a server with whom we were not acquainted, so she did not pay very good attention to us and we wound up playfully talking to each other for the entire meal. (No! Not that!)

Near the end of the meal, I mentioned to Anne that she knew some things that most people do not, simply because of her experiences growing up with me as her mother. Well, of course she wanted to know what she knew that most people do not, and I gladly informed her of the one that was tickling my mind.

"For example," I cited. "Most people do not know how to set a full place-setting."

She looked at me with raised eyebrows as I continued, " Do you remember when your aunt [name removed to protect identity] came over and put the forks and spoons in each others places?" I paused as she recollected, then continued, "In fact, I bet most of the servers in this restaurant don't know how to set a full, proper place-setting."

Anne thought about that for a moment. I could tell from the look on her face that I had made an impression, so I said nothing more until she spoke. When she did, it was a question.

"Do you remember if you serve from the left and take from the right? Or do you serve from the right and take from the left?"

My immediate instinct said serve from left and take from right, but as I gave my answer, she was already saying, "because you pour the drink from the right -- otherwise you would have to reach over the person to pour his drink -- and you wouldn't want to do that. It would be awkward."

We had a long debate over this absolutely useless topic, dragging our waitress into it, having her ask all the other servers in the restaurant, and eventually using my cell phone for an appeal to the authority of my mother. When we finally had the answer (serve from the left and take from the right), the store manager came over to our table to settle the issue. (Shockingly, my mother is correct.)

Contentedly finished with that topic, we waited for our check to arrive. . . then Anne asked, "Does the dessert fork go over or under the coffee spoon?" We began the new debate by reciting the names, functions and placings of all the pieces of silverware outside of a dinner plate.