Y'all remember way back when people sat around the dinner table and talked forever?

In the world we live in today, most of us do not live the Norman Rockwell image of family mealtime where people stayed at the table long after dinner was finished. We think of "Blue Bloods" Sunday evenings as a fantasy created by the New York screenwriters.

Maybe, just maybe, Thanksgiving or Friendsgiving meal can be time to turn off phones, set football games to record and simply sit at the table after eating rather than rushing to clean up the kitchen. This becomes a time to share memories that make our heritage. Sit there at least as long as it took the cooks to prepare the meal. Well, maybe half as long. Most of the time, the tales are just short blurbs about things from the past ...y'all remember when…? And that reminds me…

I asked readers to let me know of any table tales that are often repeated at big mealtimes, and here are some I thought you would enjoy – and inspire you to jot your own down.

TALK ABOUT GRANDMA

"My Bigmama had 27 grandchildren, so we were always fighting for her affection and attention, even as adults. In her latter years, she had dementia. At a family gathering, one of my brothers prepared her plate with all of her favorite foods and delivered it to her in front of us siblings. She got so excited and exclaimed, 'You are the sweetest! You are always so wonderful and so good to me!' My brother stuck out his chest and smiled at us all right about the time my Bigmama turned and said, 'Who was that man?'"
— Kathy Stastka, educator, real estate broker

"Sunday dinner was the highlight of the week at my Grandma's house. My family lived across the street from her, and we gathered around the table right after we got home from church. Many Sundays, Grandma included out of town visitors and single men from the church. I remember in particular a time when the number of guests totaled 13. My grandma was very superstitious, and that Sunday she did not sit down for she believed that it was bad luck to have 13 people gathered at the table!"

— Libby Hall, author of forthcoming "Tales from Wilcox County"

TALK ABOUT THE FOOD

"Y'all remember the time that Mama had a Band-aid on a finger while cooking dinner? She mixed the ambrosia with her hands but did not realize she had lost the Band-aid until way later. Still wonder who ate that Band-aid. So, when we eat ambrosia, someone always says, 'Check it for Band-aids.'"

— Paul Outlaw, New York artist

"When I was 5 years old, my mother took my sisters and me to meet our new step-grandmother. We knew to be on our best behavior. At the end of dinner, I was served a piece of sweet potato pie. After my first bite, I announced, 'This tastes just like shoe polish!' In the uproar that followed, she and I became best friends for life.'"
— The Rev. Albert Kennington, Episcopal priest

I imagine that anytime Albert is served sweet potato pie, he is asked if it tastes like shoe polish. And everyone yells, "How do you know how shoe polish tastes?"

"These mashed potatoes are delicious, but I wish y'all could have tasted the first ones your mom made. She blended the potatoes until they were liquid, then she made gravy that you could stand a spoon up in. So we had a mounded scoop of gravy with soupy potatoes poured over it. None have ever tasted better to me."
— Norman Franks, Peggy's husband of 50 years

TALK ABOUT FAUX PAS

"I brought a new boyfriend to Sunday dinner. My sister made the comment, 'Have y'all seen those new rubber shoes called Ducks? They are the ugliest things I have ever seen.' My friend's face went white as he looked under the table, causing us all to look under the table to see he was wearing Ducks! Now, at every family meal, there is some comment that makes us all look under the table."
— Jessica Inlow, teacher at Stapleton and Pine Grove schools

"Y'all remember the time Dad was preaching in a Sunday evening service in a church in Alabama, and he was emphasizing the wealth of the people in the USA compared to other countries? To help convince the congregation, he quoted statistics of how much food Americans consume compared to other world areas. And to clinch that particular point, with increased volume and fist pounding the pulpit, he declared, 'Americans are eating themselves to death!' As he paused for effect with the sanctuary engulfed in silence, Mom burped!"
— Wesley Eby, editor of "National Nazarene News," author, Winter Haven, Florida

"Y'all remember when I pinched Aunt Edith's plump little cheeks and said, 'You look just like a little Cabbage Patch doll!' She huffed up and said, 'Those are the most gosh awful things I have ever seen'"

— Amanda Outlaw, everybody's best friend, Spanish Fort

TALK ABOUT TRADITIONAL MEMORIES

"My dad's family would go into this routine after dinner while drinking their hot coffee poured into their saucers:

'I have dined sufficiently.'

'Say you went fishing?'

'I have eaten plenty.'

'And you caught twenty?'

'Oh, poor soul.'

'And broke your pole?'"
— LaDonna White, retired educator

Speaking of fishermen ...

"Papa was one of the most successful fisherman in our family. He was always successful in bringing home a good catch. He was always so happy to tell a good fish story, whether it be from shrimping, floundering or rod fishing. One evening, he came home with a funny look on his face. We were all anxious to hear his latest fish story. We could not believe it when he told us that day, he returned home empty handed. As he was casting his line for a big catch, a pelican snatched his bait on the hook and stole his bait line and rod. Papa never recovered the bait, nor line and not even the rod. The pelican had the best fish story of the day."
— Judge Tim Russell, former mayor of Foley and probate judge of Baldwin County

"I saw an old student today at the dump. He was working in the corrections department work release program. He saw me, ran across mounds of trash and embraced me in a bear hug, 'Coach Outlaw, I am so glad to see you. I want you to know you are the reason I am all that I am today!'"
— Parry Outlaw, football coach, educator and my husband

"At every meal, there is the inevitable pause in conversation. Mom always says, 'Well, it is either on the hour, 20 minutes after or 20 minutes 'til — give or take 10 minutes.' Everyone bursts out laughing because there are no more minutes left in the hour."

"Y'all remember the time that Aunt Gladys ran over a man's feet in Jackson, and then she backed up to see what she ran over and ran over them again?"
— Linor Thomas, Fairhope teacher

"A story about my dad: Y'all remember the time we turned the corner at Fairhope Pharmacy and your brother Patrick rolled out the door of the moving car onto the sidewalk on the way to Easter mass? Your mom screamed for me to stop the car and scoop up Patrick so we wouldn't be late."
— Amy Ford Molineaux, daughter of Commissioner Mike Ford, DAR regent

"Y'all remember when Dan brought home a snake from his classroom to keep over the holidays with his teacher's permission, and the varmint escaped from its container while still in the car? And we couldn't find the creature? Dad, with his ophidiophobia (extreme fear of snakes), refused to drive that vehicle for a decade (slight hyperbole). "P.S. – We never did find that elusive reptile!"
— Wes Eby, another one from my seventh-grade teacher

Speaking of snakes...

"Y'all remember the time Dad had a snake in a brown paper bag and it got out? When Mom found it, she chopped it up and made a sandwich for Dad's lunch the next day packed in the same paper sack with a little round hole in the bottom."
— Jackie Sands Brill, farmer, researcher, family memory-maker, Soddy Daisy, Tennessee

Of course, no column about family meals is complete without reference to Leslie Anne Tarabella's "Exploding Hushpuppies." If you haven't read it, you should laugh yourself silly through it.

And saving the best for last ... from your Gulf Coast Media editor, Kayla Green:

"In celebrating Jewish holidays, our flagship family dish that finds itself on any gathering table it's allowed is matzoh ball soup. Our family recipe is simple, but that's what makes it familiar. The key to getting the matzoh balls to their ultimate fluffy potential is to restrain from over-stirring the batter. Whenever someone new tries it, my dad, who devours the chicken-based soup every time despite his multi-decade pescatarian diet, armed with his analysis of three generations of women cooking this soup, proclaims that I, his eldest and only daughter, have the 'best balls.'"

Here's wishing you a fun-filled meal of fish, matzoh ball soup, hushpuppies, gravy with blended potatoes and sweet potato pie that tastes like shoe polish.

I know stories are told around your table. On second thought, don't completely leave your phone behind this year. Try setting it on record and tape your dinner conversation. Better than the scriptwriters of "Blue Bloods," I guarantee. Why don't you have it transcribed and present it as a gift to family and friends? What a treasure that would be indeed: stories are the glue that binds us to family and friends. Save them.