The Party Posse’s destination — Under the Influence
It has been far too long since we last hopped on the Party Posse train. The last time was in July — for shame! Here we go, single file now and keep your hands inside the cart at all times. If you missed the previous party let me explain what we’re doing.
I thought it would be fun to take the VIP Lounge to someone else’s site. As you know, the VIP Lounge is my comment section. My peeps are fun! We have a party daily and I like the idea of having a progressive party on the internet. Hence the Party Posse.
Head on over to the guest pad, read the post and leave a thoughtful comment (none of this “Great post” stuff.)
Hopefully we can leave up to 15 comments; at last count she had five — let’s get her up to 20, minimum. I know you’ll make me proud on this trip.
Today we are visiting Under the Influence written by a chick named Jo who has an awesome ponytail. Check out her profile pic halfway down in the right-hand column. There’s some serious follicular joy going on there. (That is a ponytail, right Jo?)
In the post Where do you sit? Jo wanted to know what chair you sit in at the Thanksgiving table. This is such an awesome question rife with power struggles and intrigue.
It’s really too good to pass up.
So Jo is married to MG (Motorcycle Guy) and Jo grew up in a family with no power struggles. MG grew up like I did — the head of the table is, and ever shall be, the power seat.
I really cannot relate to Jo’s childhood; that seems so wild to me. Anyway, here’s an abbreviated excerpt from her post.
There were no “power” seats at the table in my family. For the holidays in my family, when you have 30 people in a home that was not necessarily meant for 30 people, you were just damn glad you got a seat. And you were thankful to be with 30 people who you (most of the time) like. No one cared who sat where, you just tried to find a seat near your favorite family member.
In MG’s family, there is a power/status seat — the head of the table. It appears they take this very seriously.
Over Thanksgiving, CJ (their youngest son) tried to sit at the head of the table. I told him he had to move because we needed him in a different seat, being the littlest and all. My MIL shouted out, “Yes, I think the two grandfathers should sit at the heads of the table.”
I was a little confused at first. Based on MG’s past explanation of all this to me, about the “man of the house” and all, HE should have been at the head with ME at the the other end… I then said, “Oh no, this is OUR house and MG and I are sitting at the heads of the table.”
Honestly, I didn’t care where anyone sat. Something about another person giving away “important” seats IN MY HOUSE just didn’t sit right.
This is so interesting to me because my dad truly had control issues. And he definitely took over the head of the table, no one even tried to sit in his seat. My mom sat in the seat next to him, which was the seat closest to the kitchen. She was the one who popped up and down catering to the rest of the family.
Surprisingly the seat across the table from the power seat — I suppose the second-in-command seat — had no importance in our house. I can’t even tell you who sat there. It was just another seat open for whoever got there.
I never sat in either chair. I was on the bench along the side of the table and that was fine with me.
In our house today we do not have assigned seats. There are five of us at an oval table and my husband and I tend to sit on the sides. One of the end chairs (the one furthest from the kitchen) remains open and the chair on the other end — the “power chair” — has a rotating clientele. Usually one of the girls sit there but no one really loves that seat.
The seat we all seem to like is the one on the right-hand side of the power chair. But no one fights over it.
We save the big fights for the remote.
Tags: Things that mystify me
