My brother brought up this related subject....having guests over and how couches might influence a situation (his intention to get new living room furniture). In Alabama, this type of purchase leads off into different directions....especially if you were to buy a funny-looking couch with a deer/bear design in the landscape.
I contemplated conversation in Alabama now, versus the 1960s/1970s.
In those days, folks tended to come over after work, or on a Sunday.
Typical chat topics from fifty years ago? The weather, NCAA football, some recent episode of the Virginian TV series, road paving schedule for next summer, school bus accidents, so-and-so being sent off to a mental facility in Montgomery, more ticks than usual, hunting episodes gone wrong (usually involving alcohol), a fired Baptist minister from the local area, some local guy going to Daytona Beach for the race, or so-and-so flying off from Huntsville to New York City.
So, if you go and ask folks now....in 2021....the chat topics are vastly different: Covid, the weather, corruption in NCAA football, some reality TV series that is deemed awful fake, meth-heads, police raids, so-and-so's wife who has gone to alcohol rehab, houses broken into and robbed, women's immodest attire, Trump (either for or against), juveniles kicked out of school, some teacher who appears to be an unidentified gender (not male or female), Chinese products in the house which seem to fail within six months of purchase, and so-and-so who flew from Huntsville to the Philippines who seems content there and will never return.
I read a piece from a guy last year (Covid era) who noted that he felt more content that guests weren't visiting him more often and lessening the dramatic or trashy talk in his life.
Back in 2016, I read some guy's chatter about ill feelings with relatives that would stop by and let him know it was ok with Jesus if he didn't vote for Trump. They seemed to show up more frequently as election day approach....with increasing amount of hype to avoid voting Trump. He felt relief after the 2016 election, while the relatives were in some uneasy state of mind....like they'd emerged from their car in the middle of the Amazon jungle.
In some ways, I'm glad I don't have to face this type of social problem. I'd have to proclaim when the relative entered the house or sat at the front porch....you got 30 minutes of chatter time, and there's a list of forbidden subjects (like I don't really care about gender situations, NCAA football, script design of Star Wars, this puppet Ernie being gay, NFL football in a failing state of existence, scantily-clad women with $10k worth of plastic surgical stuff done, or so-and-so's cousin who sits in county-jail with nine charges).
If you just want to talk over famous Greek philosophers, science stuff, baseball before the home-run era, travels, what the professor should have built to get Gilligan off the island, or UFOs? Just have a seat, and I'll fetch you a ice tea. We can sit for a while.
