Dishes

How did this start? At the kitchen table in Pico Rivera, whenever one of my brothers or I belched during a meal, instead of "excuse me" we would say "dishes." I recall being there for the inception, and that it was an act both of defiance and compliance, a kind of compromise or recognition of stalemate. I also remember that it was finally accepted as a reasonable entry into the record of corrective manners. But that I can't recall its origins is troubling me. Memory being what it is--I am not a digital recorder--I have the stories I tell myself to comprise a version of reality. I don't have reality in my head. I have known this for some time, but I don't completely believe it.