Case study & observation- social outings

The Sanford's invited us and several others over for a BBQ. This is not something new. It happens once a month. They're fun: loud Spanish music, cheap beer, and good food. Conversation varies, but it's all good.

As I mentioned in the previous post, Agent S and family invited me and my family over for dinner last night. I couldn't help but compare the differences in a middle class social outing like last night with a poverty class one like today.

First, as stated here, the poverty culture is best observed like a "foreign" culture (assuming that those reading this are not from the poverty culture). There is nothing wrong in what they do...just different. Here are a couple of my comparative observations from today:

1) Time - at Agent S's house, we were asked to come between 5:30 and 6p. So, being polite, we came between 5:30-6p. At the Sanfords, we've almost learned that there never really is a scheduled "time" to eat. Although the target was 2p (so we were told), we've learned over the years that we start heading over when we can smell the BBQ cooking. And that can be anywhere between noon and midnight. Today, I think we actually ate around 4:30...

2) Leadership - at Agent S's there was a clear-cut leadership role (either a head-of-household and/or head-of-kitchen) to start the meal with either a prayer, seating instruction, and/or serving instruction, etc. At the Sanford's, it's like "hey, there's a big bucket of cooked meat sitting by the grill". Then I reach in with my bare hands and start feasting. No real "start" time or instruction, except maybe Frieda Sanford yelling "food's ready!" around 4:30. No real instruction or anything.

Again, just as I stated in the August 05 post, neither way is "wrong". Just different.