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Over these many years that I have been writing this column, I'm still amazed at what topics garner the most responses from readers. Maybe it shouldn't surprise me. After all, we all have to eat.
Yes, it's food. Whether it was a story about what people were cooking and baking while stuck at home during the pandemic or the most recent column on popular places to dine in Wheeling from previous decades, I received comments from far and wide.
Perhaps it's because we are a food-rich country. We have more than we need but not everyone has the means to obtain proper nourishment. The free breakfasts and lunches provided to our public school students is one example of dealing with that issue.
Another is the many free food pantries in the Ohio Valley. Churches, soup kitchens and generous business owners also are helping to fill that void. No one should go hungry here in the land of generosity.
Few if any of the local panhandlers display signs suggesting they would work for food. That's because they know they can eat freely and amply at several charitable food programs. They are unlike those poor souls during the Great Depression who would work for food to feed their families and did so when jobs were available.
Sharing a meal with family and friends is as important today, maybe more so, than when those first pilgrims broke bread with Native Americans. We need those no-screens, no-cellphone times when food is consumed between bits of face-to-face conversations. It's become a lost art.
The family dining table has been replaced by quick bites of food in the car on the way to our kids' events; or sitting on the living room couch with a plate of food in front of us as we watch the nightly news. Dining room tables appear to be obsolete in many households, only serving to hold unread mail or bowls of fake fruit.
I am of a generation that was called to dinner at 6 p.m. (don't be late) and sat around a long kitchen table to eat a home-cooked meal. My mother's prized round oak dining table was available for special occasions such as birthday celebrations or drop-in dinner guests who were always welcomed.
It was never about the plate of food in front of us. It was more about the fact we had enough to eat and were fortunate enough to not go to bed hungry.
As for my most recent column about local places to eat that readers have recalled, I will share a few of those sent to me. Here are some of the places readers recall: the White Front; Candy Kitchen, Spaghetti Village; Lambro's; Joe's Grill; Pete and Marie's; Trophy Club; Colonel's Sausage; Sam's Drive-In; Rose Bowl; Hazel's Coffee Shop; Calvert Restaurant; the Acorn; Huch's; Yale Restaurant; Cater Brothers; Catholic Women's League; Masonic Cathedral; Elk's Club; Royal Restaurant; McLure Hotel; Apollo Restaurant; Golden Chopsticks; Dutch Haven; Bridge Hotel and Tavern; Mattie's Tea Room; G.C. Murphy and all the other five and dime stores that operated lunch counters.
And now, I put to bed the topic of restaurants of yesteryears and ask you all to patronize those places still here in the Ohio Valley. Happy eating at home and out and about!
Heather Ziegler can be reached via email at hziegler@theintelligencer.net.