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SEARCH MY WASHINGTON COUNTY PENNSYLVANIA WEBSITES
History of and Other Families (o_f) from
The City and County of Washington Pennsylvania
Enhance your genealogy research about families in Little Washington, Washington County PA
using newspaper articles, birth, death, marriage, notices, obituaries (often with cemeteries
named), probates, deeds, surname finds, family trees, family histories, reunions and other information.
Site Search or Page Search (Ctl Key+F) easily finds items of interest.
Index to Washington County Celebrations in Newspaper Notices
The family along with its guests have traditionally gathered around the table to share a meal and time
together. Regardless of whether set in the kitchen (as most were up until the
late 1800s), or in a separate space called a dining room, members of the
family and friends have joined together to celebrate, give thanks, share food
and drinks alongside stories of daily life and unusual community events.
 Whether an ordinary day or special occasion,
food has been the focal point of all get-togethers. A child learns very
early from celebrations of his birthdays set up at the family dinner table.
When she reaches her 16th birthday, the event becomes her "Sweet 16"
celebration, with cake and ice cream following a family meal. Families
also acknowledge high school and college graduations with a family When he
becomes a young adult and propose to his girlfriend, the family gives their
engagement a meal within the party atmosphere. After weddings, the meal
once held in the family home has now enlarged to a "reception" held
at a public venue, but this follows the traditions of celebrating important
events. Family meals, as pot-luck or small buffets, have also traditionally
followed even deaths and funerals. As such, the sharing of nourishment
and family story-telling have brought families closer during major life
events.
Though the 1950s introduced families to "the TV dinner", families
still gathered around the television, just as they once gathered around the
radio after dinner. The scene of sharing moved from around the dinner
table to around the living room, often with children sitting on the floor to eat
in front of a console floor model TV. Adults used folding metal trays,
such as shown to the left, to hold their meal and drinks, while kids balanced
their TV dinners on their laps. While programming was on and since shows
only aired once, families experienced a decrease in talking and story-telling
while eating, and because TV dinners required little preparation, serving, or
clean-up, the only interactions might have been to collect the dinner trays and
glasses during a commercial and hurry back to watch the rest of the
program.
Though banquet halls permit  large numbers of friends and extended family
members to attend important events, these do not promote conversations and
story-telling, especially if the venue and get together includes music and
dancing. Families become separated to groups of 8 to 12 persons per table, as
smaller constellations with the larger celebration. Though tables are
often very close together, this does not tend to bring tables into each other's
conversations. Instead, the crowding becomes an annoyance and obstacle to
sharing family stories across these smaller constellations.
All in all, I look back nostalgically to the "family meal" held
around the dinner table, where all had opportunities to participate or listen in
to the conversations. It is there children gained their first lessons in
story telling, whether about neighborhood and community events, or personal and
family news. As you browse the newspaper notices of Celebrations
or other Major Events, or the McDonald
PA Notices section, try to imagine the family get-togethers and how people
shared important mlestones and family events with each other.
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