Sunday drives

This is a reflection piece on the good old days when the family ate together, played games together after work and into the evening and developed pet projects for Saturday in between local sports.

Sunday was the day of worship. It was also the day for parents to take the family for a ride, look at a neighborhood and decide if, one day, they could afford their dream place.

Those were the days when realtors had their listings in their pockets, called pocket listings. The realtor was the first one to note whether one was the type of person to settle into a neighborhood and whether or not you could be credit worthy for the local bank to take a chance on you and your family.

Ultimately, the Sunday drives would cut out the house hunting and develop into a place to go for lunch.

In Boston there was Locke-Ober, The Ritz-Carlton and The Algonquin Club.

On the outskirts of Boston was the old Towne Lyne House in Lynnfield, The Red Coach Grille in Saugus, The Longfellow’s Wayside Inn in Sudbury and The Publick House in Sturbridge.

There’s also The Old Mill in Westminster, The Wiggins Tavern at the Hotel Northampton, The Lord Jeff Inn in Amherst and The Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge.

In the old days, there was The (original) Williams Inn in Williamstown, owned by the Treadway family, which also owned The Lord Jeff.

Again, these were many of the favorites in the commonwealth. There is another list of places for out of state dinning.

While these come to mind, this past Sunday, my wife, Chris, and I took a trip to West Brookfield and ate at the Salem Cross Inn, a well known place in central Massachusetts. Good food, good service and well worthy of the drive.

It was an opportunity to not only dress for church, but to gather members of the extended family – as on holidays – and celebrate their good fortunes, the children’s developments and awards and/or just sitting at a table, mindful that good manners are important.

Today, some of the old named restaurants are closed. Fine dining that requires a coat and tie for men is not enforced today, while many restaurants today charge premium prices for their meals and service without the overlap of a dress code.

Yes, years ago the family was well-dressed, the car was washed and clean and the manners were polished.

There is nothing wrong with a Sunday drive and there is nothing wrong with bringing the family to one of our main historic restaurants.

As spring approaches, this may be a good time to re-regulate Sunday as a day of family and a special outing to be enjoyed.

Posted by George C. Jordan III on March 14, 2013. Filed under Opinion,View from the Tower. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry