My dad was in the Army when I was born. I was born at Ft.Lee Army hospital in Virginia.
Growing up, we had assigned seats at the kitchen table. We had assigned plates, cups, and glasses. We were not allowed to talk. I talked once and was backhanded across the kitchen. Same thing when the news or football was on. That was nap time for us. No noise. No interruptions.
To this day, and I’m 69, I can’t eat at a kitchen table and football puts me to sleep. LOL
That sounds unusually strict!
We always sat in the same place at the kitchen table. I never thought of them as ‘assigned’ but I guess they were. We had assigned napkins too. LOL