Hot Food at the DCs past...What was it like?

by bronzefist 101 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  SnakesInTheTower

  I have a lot of good memories working in food service. If I had been paying attention, I probably would have been married to some nice little dub sister by now (this according to a fellow fader dub who told me I was blind back then).... of course, it also means I probably would still be slaving for the Borg... ah the tradeoffs...heh heh

  I remember, though not being an MS or elder at different points, I was almost always the first one at the Assembly Hall and starting to prep the kitchen and refreshment stands...I had a routine...we even had a separate ice cream area...soft serve and maybe scoop (hard) ice cream for awhile. One year, I remember that we had some leftover (real) strawberry topping...someone had left it out too long...that Sunday after lunch, as we were cleaning up...we "Discovered" our strawberry topping was.....ummm....fermented...yep. ..there were 3 of us and we sure did eat the entire container of alcoholic strawberry topping....dont remember the assembly, but the topping was excellent...

  Another year, and I may have told this story before, I was working literature depot across the parking lot. Assembly hall overseer was gone that weekend, a committee brother was filling in,,,,didnt know the first thing about food service (or the intricacies of running an assembly hall). Another brother (Joe for the purpose of the story) and I were working the depot, there was an assembly going on..so I told him..hey...go get us a couple of bowls of ice cream..... Joe came back with no ice cream and a funny look on his face...this was the Saturday of a one-day SAD....he said "{Snakes}, the ice cream machine was emptied...looks like they tried to clean it..." I went over and checked...someone had emptied the machine...instead of leaving it on and full for the other side of the circuit coming in on Sunday....problem is...they had not pulled the machines apart...nor had they run sanitizer through them....

  so when the other brother helping me came over...we pulled out one of the spigots..sure enough....things had already started growing in the machine...we told the committee brother (lets call him Idiot)...who at first did not believe us (we were early 20s if I recall)...he told us, just put it back together and fill the machine with soft serve!!!! Joe and I knew what would happen if that were allowed...apparently Idiot Committee Brother didnt know anything about the 2 soft serve machines... so Joe (who had some experience in his family's restaurant with the machines) and I (who had both helped in assembling, dissassembling, and sanitizing these particular machines)...we spent about 6 hours taking the machines apart, carefully noting how the parts went...cleaned and sanitized them, and finally, finally got the machines together about 10pm... Imagine the food poisoning if they had dumped soft serve in those machines the next day! ::gag::

  I remember the hot burritos...I never did get the hot meals on trays...I think I was scrounging for tickets on the floor to get what food I could get (and I think that is why I started volunteering in food service..to be able to eat)

  Anyone remember the hot hot district assemblies in Springfield, Illinois at the racetrack (horse race that is)? One summer, sometime in the 1970s...it was very very hot..I think this was a 5 day...I dont remember going to a 7 or 8 day... 100+ degrees..flies big as saucers from the nearby stables and livestock areas.... I had the best job in the food tent...my job was to reach into these huge steel drums full of ice and get canned sodas and hand them to the servers.... dont remember much else about those assemblies....except the orchestra...and the time the drama on Noah got rained on...classic line "I have never seen it rain before" (as Noah was reaching out, arms outstreched to the sky, laughing his ass off as he was soaking wet, rain pouring down on him)

  Or the 1978 International at the old Busch Stadium in St. Louis, MO (the one where the brothers erected a a big globe on a tower in the outfield...120 degrees on the field...nothing like men in suits, women in nice dresses and heels, walking across flaming hot Astroturf! Except for the yellow field service bags, I dont remember anything else about that convention...

  some memories are good..but they need to remain where they are...in the past...no new memories needed... besides, the GB has sucked all the fun out of the conventions...

  Snakes ()
• 

  Casper

  grilled white cheese on smashed hot dog buns

  Now that was different...

  ---

  We always made pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, biscuits and gravy for breakfast.

  Lunch was usually : baked chicken, instant mashed potatoes, green beans (with a bucket of left over bacon grease poured in ), coleslaw and a slice of white bread.

  The usual pies and soft serve ice cream for dessert...

  We didn't get very creative... lol

  Cas
• 

  Ex-smoker

  I liked the chicked patties they were yummie
• 

  PopeOfEruke

  When I was a kid, the main hot meals were served on those military metal style trays with the indents for each dish. Like you see on old M*A*S*H episodes.

  Often the dessert would spill over and run into the main meal! Yum!

  Was still good though!

  Pope
• 

  CoonDawg

  I remember the hot food at the DC's. Speaking of the last 1978 International convention in St. Louis, I remember being a little kid and getting lost in that mob. I also remember helping in the food service with my dad. Hey, it beat going in service.

  Our Circut Assemblies there, after they built the Assembly Hall, they had really good hot food. We had a kitchen dedicated to it. We also had a brother in our circuit who was a French pastry cheff. He would make the best stuff for a little pastry counter. One of his cinnamon butterflies with a cup of soft serve on it was fantastic.

  After they cut out the food program, I guess I wasn't a very good dub because I always went out to lunch. The last assembly, my lunch was at Bennigan's Irish Pub where I had a really good Reuben sandwich on rye and at least 3 pints of Newcastle's brown ale. Made the afternoon session (cut short by mutual agreement with my wife) reasonably tolerable.
• 

  Jankyn

  (Showing my age) The international convention in BC in 1969 had the huge, trestle tables in one of the "cafeterias" (actually, a tent set up on a parking lot). I was 9, and my mother was wrangling me, my 8-year-old brother, and my baby brother (who was still in diapers). There was no way she could feed us all at once, and I was trying to be patient, buuuuut... Then a brother from Africa (there was a group of them, all wearing their "traditional" garb, to the delight of the rest of the conventioneers--brightly colored dashikis) scooped me up and held me so that I could eat my breakfast. Of course, I was too entranced by him to eat much, but of course my mother pointed out that it was how "wonderful the Truth is" that a guy from Africa would stop to help a woman feed her kids. I wonder now if he was hoping for an American wife with a citizenship ticket? Ah, well. It was fun. The conversion to cold food in the late 70s-early 80s was a bummer. One of the fondest memories I have is of the snacks at the summer assemblies, like sno-cones (shaved ice with sickly-sweet coloring squirted on them). But the best of all: a half-cantaloupe, with the center scooped out and a scoop of vanilla ice cream inserted. I suspect that people were having waaaay too much fun at assemblies back in the day. Frankly, the stories of you folks from the 80s and 90s are depressing. I didn't mind assemblies at all. Jankyn
• 

  juni

  It truly was a food "love fest" back in the "old days". As Blondie said, you could choose "fast food" or a full homecooked meal. That was breakfast, lunch and dinner. The programs used to run for five days and go into the evening hours thus the need for serving dinner.

  I remember the tickets were in one dollar sheets broke down in 10 cent individual tickets. Fresh fruit bags were delicious. Shasta was the only soda pop. I believe the puddings and Danish were always an option too.

  Home cooked meals were also served at the circuit assemblies for awhile. Actually because one of the brothers at the hall I attended had professional chef abilities our circuit enjoyed delicious meals for some time. The assembly hall in Janesville, WI (which by the way the WORLDLY Lloyd and Jane Petit family helped build little known fact I believe) had a beautiful, full service kitchen which eventually was closed down.

  Juni
• 

  Witness 007

  At our Assembly hall they had a resturant quality kitchen and the food was great...Pioneers got free convention food tickets {$20}...thank you Jehovah for the free support.........it cost us $80 dollars in fuel to get there...damn it!
• 

  bluesbreaker59

  I remember LOVING the DC food, I'd always eat a hoagie, and a couple swiss miss puddings and typically chips and I was a rebel and I'd find a pop machine to buy a Mountain Dew when the "guards" weren't looking. I also remember getting constipated at nearly every DC because of that horrid food. I remember my family would have me leave the session early to go stand "near" the food stand, and then get food for them. I remember the running people who would knock you down to get to the food. I remember, getting really, REALLY sick at a circuit assembly because I ate too much of that "warmed up" stuff as a kid. I threw up all over the hall way and fell down to my knees. My dad who was an attendant saw me, and picked me up and sat with me outside, along with a few of his friends. They actually were all concerned about me, and never told me to go back and sit down.
• 

  james_woods

  I just had a thought after watching this thread go four pages: Here it is -

  This "food at assemblies" issue might well be a key point to use in helping faltering witnesses (at least ones who can remember it) see the light.

  What I am seeing is that a lot of us, who really have very little good to say about anything the Society ever did, look back with nostalgia at the very reasonable provision to try and have good food at low cost proveded for the brothers and sisters at the assembly. It could even be considered kind of scriptural, in a way - stories of feasts etc. in the bible itself.

  What with the way to the heart is many times the stomach, wonder if this little issue could possibly transcend "generation" or NGO/UN or 1975 or such for a lot of fading witnesses?