I was taught (and retaught) table manners as a child. I suspect you had them driven into your noggin as well.
Chew with your mouth closed,
Lest your food fall out all over the place
don’t talk with your mouth full,
Deploy your entrenching tools correctly (aka hold your silverware correctly)
Okay
Okay
No
And a myriad of others such as no elbows on the table (although I later learned that even Emily Post said it was appropriate to place your elbows on the table for conversations between courses when there were no plates on the table), no reaching across the table, take small bites, keep your food on your plate…etc..
They all seem so logical now. I still follow these rules but as I’ve aged I’ve noticed something a bit alarming: the food has begun to migrate from my plate against my will. This is most embarrassing in fancy restaurants, where the waiter comes by to sweep up any debris between courses with what used to look liker a miniature broom and dustpan but has evolved into a sleek pencil shaped instrument called a ‘table crumber’ which is far more discreet.
But at home I now notice that I need to wipe up the table or counter surfaces after every meal, not for sanitary purposes but rather for the esthetics as there seem always to be crumbs and/or other remains of the day that need to be dispatched. And that’s not all, often some detritus from the meal takes a suicidal leap to the floor which then requires either an unscheduled brooming or vacuuming.
I don’t know what to blame: have my table manners lapsed so terribly over the years as to create this debris field? Is it because both our table and counter seating is at “bar height” and the adrenalin rush created by a leap to freedom is too great to resist? In restaurants I can blame increased serving sizes crowding the plate but at home that’s definitely not an issue as our serving sizes have greatly diminished with time.
So I don’t know: are my newfound slovenly habits due to reduced dexterity due to age and arthritis? Is it distracted dining? I confess to using my tablet at table to peruse the Wall Street Journal these days, in lieu of a real newspaper. Or has the whole world just gotten a lot crummier? I’ll go with the later.
I blame the Artisan Bread movement: I never had all these crusty, crummy problems when we used Wonder Bread. Plus, since I’ve started using artisan bread we no longer have a never ending supply of snow socks.
If you’re old enough to understand this, and remember when Wonder Bread sold 2/45 cents, you might have an issue with this much crummier world too.
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