The Franco-American Kitchen

1
The Franco-American Kitchen
2

• The kitchen is arguably the most important room
  to past generations of Francos. It is where the
  entire family, or even extended family meets at
  days end and enjoys each others company and the
  bountiful meal at hand. The atmosphere is always
  festive, no matter the occasion and the memories
  are always clear in the mind.

3

• My father Norman Poulin grew up in the area of
  Augusta known as Sand Hill. This was a
  neighborhood that forty years ago was almost 100
  Franco and mostly made of tenement buildings. My
  father had an older sister and a younger sister.
  While not being dirt poor, the family didnt have
  a whole lot of money and what they did have
  strictly went to household necessities. Food was
  obviously the big one here. My father would go
  onto say that regardless of how his day was at
  school, coming home to a home cooked meal made it
  all worth it.

4

• By no means was the kitchen only for eating. From
  back in my dads time and still going on today,
  many games were played in the kitchen. It didnt
  matter if it was a Monday or Friday, youd see
  classic games like gin rummy and cribbage at the
  table.

5

• Although any night could be a festivity in
  itself, the holidays were clearly the most.
  During Thanksgiving or Christmas, the meals were
  bigger, the songs were sung louder and laughs
  lasted even longer. And these events were never
  in the living room. They always had to take place
  in the kitchen.

6

• My Pépère had a different outlook on the kitchen.
  It was a place of relaxation for him. He said I
  woke up each day at 230 and came home around 5.
  My bowl of spaghetti with a salad or meat and
  potatoes was all I thought about. I cant blame
  him at all for thinking this was and I was
  personally glad to hear a different perspective
  on the kitchen.

7

• My aunt Lisa said to me that the kitchen was
  home. At first I was puzzled but she later
  elaborated that the kitchen was the one where
  everything and everyone came together. Whether it
  is was supper on Wednesday or brunch on Sunday
  with her COUNTLESS aunts and uncles. She would
  also say that the living room was merely a place
  to wind down and get ready for bed. Id have to
  say thats quite the contrast now.

8

• The kitchen has unfortunately lost a lot of
  allure in the modern day. In my generation today
  the festivities still exist, but exclusively for
  holidays and birthdays now. In my family we all
  eat together, but it is in the living room with
  MSNBC or ESPN on. The role of family is still
  very important in this day and age, but the
  intimacy factor has definitely gone away. We
  still enjoy a hearty meal and each others
  presence but things are not the same. My Mémère
• says that this is so because most Franco
  households arent in the dire straights as they
  were in my day. In my time what we had was much
  more appreciated and was never taken for granted.
  In fact, we celebrated all the things we had.

9

• It is unlikely that todays generation can
  recapture the intimacy that the kitchen once
  possessed. In our technological society that
  would be too optimistic. The best thing to do is
  use the oral history we have presented to us by
  our elders and always keep it in mind. With that
  we can still have our own kitchens.