Hrmph!
In the United States, people are supposed to either abstain from meat or do some other form of penance.
How does that "some other form of penance" work?
American Catholics will pay about as much attention to abstaining from meat as they do current guidance.
I’ve not eaten meat on Friday but a couple of times in my life. We always had fried fish on Fridays. It was a tradition in my family. When I became Catholic I told the RCIA class that it would not be hard for me to just eat fish on Fridays because I had already been doing it basically all my life. Not long before she died I asked my mother why she always cooked fish on Fridays and she because she liked fish! She goes on to say that fish was about the only food that anyone in the Bible ate so that was another good reason to eat fish. Fried fish, mostly catfish or flounder, hushpuppies and cole slaw, and of course with a big pitcher of ice tea to wash it all down with. Mama always had to have coffee with her fish. The only time she would drink coffee in the afternoon is when she ate fish. Breakfast sometimes was catfish and grits.