That 1970s television show gave me a glimpse inside a great family. And John Boy’s summation at the end of the show notwithstanding, some of the most poignant lessons came at the dinner table.

It was striking to see the entire Walton clan squeezed in around what looked like a giant picnic table in an open area off the kitchen. Grandma and Grandpa Walton were always handy to smack wandering hands and give hugs on the sly.

The teenagers, filled with angst even in those simpler times, were as likely to excuse themselves from the dinner table as they were to eat a full meal.

And John Walton, the family’s father, played so well by Ralph Waite, was almost always the calm one in the center of the storm.

It would be a lie to say that life around the Whitfield home is as simple and fun-loving as the Walton family’s, and you can bet I’m rarely as calm and unruffled as John Walton, but dinnertime is still a treasured experience. As our children get older and life gets busier, those family dinners grow fewer and further between.

It makes them almost more enjoyable.

It’s a place where the furious pace of the day grinds quickly to a halt. The television is off. The radio is off. The computer is in the other room. There’s nothing else to do but look at each other and talk. And conversation is never in short supply around our house.

We have had serious discussions around our dinner table about topics ranging from the death penalty and the philosophy behind year-round schools to racism and history. We’ve played word games. We’ve planned our weeks and we’ve caught up on who’s talking to whom at school. (That’s today’s catchphrase for who likes whom, in case you’re not totally up to speed on your teentalk.)

And, we’ve had gigglefests in which one funny comment leads to another and another until all thoughts of actually eating the food on the table goes right out the window.

Wherever the conversation leads us, we’re happy to go because it’s a great opportunity to keep our fingers on the pulse of our children’s lives. It lets us know what’s important to them and it helps us immeasurably as we try to give guidance to them as they grapple with the issues they face on a daily basis.

One day our children will grow up and move out of the house. It will be tempting for Becky and I to move our evening meal into the living room and eat it as we watch “Jeopardy” or some other insipid television show.

But I hope we’ll avoid that temptation and keep our appointed time each night at the dinner table.

It will be like dating again, perhaps, when a few minutes of conversation slyly stretches into hours.

And the dinner table will continue to be my favorite place of all when I just want to visit and catch up.