The Head Table usually got better food and drinks when I was in-residence.
What comes to mind is the utter audacity of the NC Limb Leader MVD who once came to our area and asked our loving Branch Coordinator, "Where are the mints?" To the Branch Leader's credit, MVD "somehow managed" to play a tape for us without having mints to munch on! Pretty lame, too, to make one visit a year and then play a tape rather than teach. What a maroon, what a loser!
And yes, I would still say that to him because he is in a Geer spinoff...
Yeah.. I remember the 93 special.. food started out ok, but as the week went on, they started serving mystery meat and gravy.. I thought it tasted lke filet of old shoe, a friend commented on how it remarkably resembled dried liver..
I thought, "didn't we PAY for this?"
At the time, I thought that just PERHAPS they had mismanaged the thing to the extent they would run into the red if they continued to put out good meals..
I imagine someone will chime in about the Indiana campus.. they raised chickens, all kinds of stuff that ended up exclusively on the mogster's table.
Well, the head table got REAL salt and pepper while the rest of the tables got sea salt, kelp, and cayenne pepper. (as if black pepper and cayenne pepper were interchangeable!)
The head table also got coffee and sweet/plain iced tea or hot tea while everyone else got water.
But as far as the actual food at HQ or Emporia or Indiana on normal days, I don't recall any time as a head-table gal that they got different food from what everyone else was eating... not there in the main hall. Now, what they got at home was another story. They got whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted!! End of story.
And everyone got "special" food during events. They usually didn't serve guests "fruit soup" for breakfast or yogurt and braun bars in their sack suppers!! That was reserved for us in-rez simpletons who ate whatever they placed in front of us (well, sort of). One of the best times I can remember was when the corps went on Light-Bearers and we college program duffers were left alone on campus. We were told to use up all the leftovers in the kitchen. We ate like kings that week!!
I really don't remember the food from any on-campus events being especially bad or good. Of course, having recently lived there I was probably still used to it. I do remember the food supplied at the WIBP in the 90s was terrible!! Here we were paying TOP dollar for the fanciest of hotels, and had to pay for a pre-set meal package that way too expensive and offered just about nothing in return. Even the big BBQ/Dance food wasn't that great as I recall. Everyone was upset!! And the leadership was like: well, you should expect to pay more in a big city and if you cannot afford it you should be coming -- not that we really had a choice about attending...
I remember LCM saying that his Dr. Pepper habit was more like six a day.
At the time, I was considering applying for the corpse program and LCM decided that if he could give up his Dr. Pepper habit
(due to his training to be the dancing prez), then the people who smoked and wanted in the corpse could of course give up smoking.
Can't remember if that edict from on high applied to all the in-rez corpse or not.
And I remember thinking that it was much easier to give up drinking soda than to give up smoking. But hey, the moggie had spoken,
so I made a half hearted attempt to quit, then decided to go College Division instead. Thank God, because that was the year everything started falling apart.
The year I was at Emporia, our meal plan was, supposedly, put together by the guy who trained craiggers for AOS.
But to me, the meals didn't seem to be that high in quality or that sound nutritionally, especially for someone in athletic training.
And, there never seemed to be enough food. I could not figure out how some of the men got by on those meager portions.
But, craiggers personal trainer had spoken, and so it was thusly.
Of course, the personal trainer (can't remember his name) was supposed to be in the College Division - none of us ever saw him in a class - either first or second year.
And, I know this will shock everyone, he was not required to live in the dorms on campus - he got to live off campus - in his own apartment.
You see, that way he wouldn't have to associate with the hoi polloi or eat the food served to us at his behest.
Every moment that I spent at Emporia, I was famished. My normal food intake was cut in half and I was running 2 miles a day...besides everything else. At the end of the year, I had lost over 30 lbs.
7 Up is the only beverage suitable for human consumption. Taken in small savory doses it will lift the spirit, heal the innards and bring enlightened understanding to the consumer. But I digress...
Sounds like The Athlete had to kick that turkey cold.
Emporia food - bad history all the way around. It's first year Ermal Owens set up the food service and it was pretty poor, border line institutional quality. Weird splotches of strange mixtures spooned on to plates with thin slices of "meat", and watery peaches on the side, that kind of thing. Mr. Athlete himself was the one who finally complained and got it turned around a little for a time anyway, I heard.
7 Up is the only beverage suitable for human consumption. Taken in small savory doses it will lift the spirit, heal the innards and bring enlightened understanding to the consumer. But I digress...
Sounds like The Athlete had to kick that turkey cold.
Emporia food - bad history all the way around. It's first year Ermal Owens set up the food service and it was pretty poor, border line institutional quality. Weird splotches of strange mixtures spooned on to plates with thin slices of "meat", and watery peaches on the side, that kind of thing. Mr. Athlete himself was the one who finally complained and got it turned around a little for a time anyway, I heard.
That Dr Pepper jones though - bad cha-cha.
Hey Socks didn't they hire the lady from town that used to do the food service for the old College of Emporia for awhile that first year. Talk about border line institutional quality, You got mystery meat? , We had peanut butter sandwiches excuse me sandwich and some soup with some vegetable matter dragged through it for coloring. We used to go into the Country Kitchen for meals. I remember working with HE Wierwille one day and after working hard ,and that was an understatement He refused to serve the meal after looking at what they made. He called the Pizza Hut which at the time was one of the few places to eat there and booked the party room. We all trucked down the street and had an evening of pizza and beer.
Could be, not sure where it came from Whitedove although that would fit the profile. I only had a brief brush with it but it looked like the kind of cafeteria food you hear endless jokes about. It was a two edged sword by the sound of it - portions were small, a blessing or a curse.
Well, the head table got REAL salt and pepper while the rest of the tables got sea salt, kelp, and cayenne pepper. (as if black pepper and cayenne pepper were interchangeable!)
The head table also got coffee and sweet/plain iced tea or hot tea while everyone else got water.
I hate to sound like one of those old folks who says, "I walked 10 miles to school in my bare feet, uphill both ways," but wow, you guys got sea salt?!? And water?!? When we were in residence (78-79 and 80-81) and on staff (82-86) we never got salt of any kind, and we sure as heck didn't get any water with our meals.
Now that I'm older, I try to avoid eating much regular table salt and usually use just a little sea salt for cooking. I also understand your food digests better if you don't drink anything with meals, but having nothing to drink was hard for me to take (I was going to say swallow, but that was too easy). :)
Ham, I've seen you make that comment about raising chickens, etc., at the Indy campus that only went on the MOG's table. That wasn't my experience. We all ate whatever was raised/grown on the farm. I also didn't see anyone other than Craig (ewwww, onions) or Earl B. (allergic to mushrooms) getting any special food at meals in the dining room, either at Rome City or HQ. When did you see that change?
Actually, our first year in residence they fed us too well! Plenty of good food, and lots of homemade bread! In fact, last year I talked with one of the people responsible for all that good food...thanks, Willie T!! The food got much worse our last year. At HQ it varied, from really tasty to "What the heck is that?!?"
hi everybody!..........my first year in-rez, betty bowen ran the kitchen at hq, and, a "rank unbeliever", eileen hitchen, was the chief cook.............we ate great food, every day, with plenty of it available!.......except for the 3 times we endured the full three week long, grace bliss administered colon-cleanse torture..er, 'skuse me, program,....we ate quite well......we also enjoyed organically grown meats and vegetables and fruits from the kipp farm, which was run by a tremendous fellow named ira hearne...........we butchered and cleaned pigs, cattle, chicken, and sheep, and we ate good meat at least once-a-day, 7 days a week.........we also had fish several times a month..........we had our fair share of granola, figpep, and other healthy grains and veggies, which i called "rabbit" or "bird" food.............there were plenty of burgers, pizza and sometimes even beer!!.......all the trustees and all the staff ate at least lunch together with the in-rez corps every day, and many times joined us for supper too, .....always in the brc basement, in which we all fit comfortably back then.........there were often bacon, homefries, and scrambled egg breakfasts, with real coffee and apple cider, etc.,......sometimes pancakes and syrup with fresh berries............and there were actually several meals we all looked forward to, like eileen's homemade enchiladas, dripping with cheese and stuffed to the hilt with chicken, or pork, or ground beef with terrific refried beans and sour cream!........and there were usually abundant seconds and thirds available..........the food was the same during our second year too, again all in the basement of the brc.........
however, the food at emporia was horrendous from day one, when it opened for in-rez corps training in august, 1975.....people were literally made sick by that garbage they served.........it seemed the food never improved there during the entire time it was open!........initially, the food at both indiana campus and gunnison was comparable to what was served at hq when we ate in the brc.............once the osc dining room and kitchen opened for "business", the quality and volume of food served at hq depreciated noticably!........it was nowhere near what betty and eileen came up with, and the increase in the number of people eating at hq also took all the fun out of mealtimes.........oftentimes, i'd get in "trouble" at the various campuses for starting food fights or rebelling in other ways to the boring and unappetizing legalism of host and hostessing, singing really stupid songs, and other forms of religious tradition enforced by moynihan, jenkinson and others who were more budget concsious than people conscious at their respective campuses.............i really felt badly for you folks who were stuck at emporia for any length of time.........and, since i left in 1986, i am not at all familia® with how yukky the food got as the doofus from okie and his administration took everything to the negative and unhealthy extremes i read about here at the spot as reported by the twi gulag survivors!...........sure glad i was out before the physical food got as bad as the spiritual diet twi shoved down people's throats!................................peace.
Ham, I've seen you make that comment about raising chickens, etc., at the Indy campus that only went on the MOG's table. That wasn't my experience. We all ate whatever was raised/grown on the farm. I also didn't see anyone other than Craig (ewwww, onions) or Earl B. (allergic to mushrooms) getting any special food at meals in the dining room, either at Rome City or HQ. When did you see that change?
I remembered this post by Watered Garden, on this link
At RC it was worse. More garden, more ignorance and added to the mix were chickens, beef cattle, and pigs! Every six weeks a hapless WC had to drive to the Rome City post office to pick up an order of baby chicks, which replaced the six week old chickens that had been slaughtered. I don't believe the WC were required to butcher the hogs or pigs, at least not while we were around.
One would have thought that with all the harvesting and slaughtering going on we would have feasted on fried chicken, chicken fricassee, chicken this, that and the other thing, interspersed with a few filet mignon and the finest roasted pork loin in Indiana. But no! When I inquired about the destination of all the goodies, I was given some mumbled explanation that the Man of God liked to entertain his friends with barbecues and such, so all the beef and most of the other stuff, including the hard-grown produce, was shipped to New Knoxville. I heartily thought that His Majesty should come over and help with the harvest, not to mention the chicken slaughters hissownself, being the primary example of godliness on this earth for this day and time and hour. As powerful as he was, surely he could have bloodlessly slain 600 chickens with his own believing!
God being merciful, we never had to participate in the chicken slaughter or anything else murderous. Feeding the little boogers was bad enough. One time I did have to drive to the post office to pick up several cartons of little peeps, however. It was absolute murder getting them back to campus; they peeped incessantly, didn't exactly smell like Chanel No. 5, and I felt bad for their eventual terrifying demise and ultimate end at the MOG's dinner table.
We may have had chicken a time or two in the three months I was there. I know I've posted before after making salsa in huge batches without garlic or onions because the MOG hated both. I suggested we make him his own little batch and then make REAL salsa for the rest of us, and this idea was met with a combination of horror and righteous indignation. If LCM hates garlic and onions, then you need to line up your thinking with that of the MOGFODAT.
We did have turkey and all for Thanksgiving. However, to my way of thinking, the food, while not always tasteless, was simply calorically and nutritionally inadequate when compared to the amount of physical labor and the exercise program required. A bowl of homemade tomato soup and perhaps 3-4 crackers, with butter allowed, was a lunch for those who would spend the next four hours without a break working cleaning the already immaculate insides of the buildings, pulling weeds from the flower beds, mucking out the cow barn, harvesting vegetables, chasing kids, and do all the manual labor required of the situation we were in. I think most of us burned more calories than we consumed. The growing teens were always hungry. Even a large bowl of unflavored millet or barley looked like manna from heaven to those kids. The hosts and hostesses were allowed to pass around the food one time, carefully assuring that no one took very much for their initial serving. If in fact there were seconds, they could, at their discretion, offer seconds. That was it. IF the host or hostess fell into a conversation and didn't notice empty plates and hungry eyes staring at the food bowls, s/he might well send the bowls back half full without passing them around the second time. And God help anyone who dared ask, a la Oliver Twist, "May I have some more, please?" That was not done, ever.
Finally, WC magnanimously allowed the food bowls to be taken back to the carts and then at a signal, anyone who was still hungry could go check them out and bring back to the table any scraps they found.
The reason this was so absolutely outrageous was that that was very fertile ground, they grew a LOT of stuff, and for the most part, portions were meager indeed. Plus the fact that they grew food at the Kipp Farm also. Plus the fact that children need to drink milk so their teeth and bones will grow properly. FWC drank water. We were allowed to have water at the table. We were allowed to have coffee pots in our rooms to make coffee at our own expense. (I think I had a headache most of the time I was there). However, there was usually no time to make or enjoy coffee.
I lost two dress sizes in three months. Maybe this was a good thing. The physical stuff was rigorous, especially when you were consuming about 1000 calories a day and burning about twice that.
I am absolutely convinced that the stress that was put upon us by FWC and by the people in leadership the year after we left, combined with a horrible, horrible untreated flu-like illness I contracted while in Rome City, weakened my body to the point I became a type 1 insulin dependent diabetic.
I remember when our family was trying to get into the corps we heard the food stories...."they won't let you put milk on your cereal." :blink: How would us kids survive? Perhaps the family corps had it a little better, because not only did I get my milk and cereal, but I have fairly good memories of corps food. Mmmm.... shepherd's pie.
There are the exceptions of course. Fifteen bean soup would be at the top I think. Chip R was that your idea? What were you thinking? Fruit soup was another one. They were so bad that when we played basketball and someone shot an air-ball instead of yelling "BRICK" we would yell "FRUIT SOUP"!
They actually had kids putting fig pep on their cereal (familia) instead of milk for a while, as it was deemed more healthful and nutritious. This was back in "the day." When I was there, I'm pretty sure on the occasions we had cereal we had milk to go with it. I guess I'm contradicting myself in a way, but what I do NOT recall is kids getting 12 oz or so glasses of milk at a meal.
In fact, in some circles there were folks who came along and said that cow's milk is a very healthful and nutritious food source only if you are the calf of that cow. Human children and adults must receive their calcium nutrition from other sources, such as organically grown, healthful nourishing raw dark green leafy vegetables, such as spinach or the ever-popular Swiss chard.
The last woman who blatted this at me had visible rotten teeth. Wonder if she ever made the connection?
I remember that we at Emporia put apple juice on our familia. Outside of the yogurt I dont remember ever seeing any dairy products except the occassional cheese on something. Mostly we ate vegetarian style as his hinney Rev. Fart was a vegan...or so he said. But I caught him eating beef hamburgers on more than one occassion.
We didnt have salt on the tables either, we had something akin to Mrs D@sh, does anyone remember the name of that stuff? I was pretty happy when I got assigned to the kitchen. The hours were long and early but they had real salt in the kitchen. :)
I remember that we at Emporia put apple juice on our familia. Outside of the yogurt I dont remember ever seeing any dairy products except the occassional cheese on something. Mostly we ate vegetarian style as his hinney Rev. Fart was a vegan...or so he said. But I caught him eating beef hamburgers on more than one occassion.
We didnt have salt on the tables either, we had something akin to Mrs D@sh, does anyone remember the name of that stuff? I was pretty happy when I got assigned to the kitchen. The hours were long and early but they had real salt in the kitchen. :)
Spike does contain salt, but there is a low sodium Spike. I'm pretty sure it was there when I was. There were also during different eras Vegesal, kelp (stinks), Spike, cayenne, everything but salt and pepper as we knew it in our real lives.
It was HQ in the late 80s that had the Sea Salt...
Sorry for the confusion!
Of course, I LOVED Mr. Benni's wheat, folks!! I was really sorry to find out they didn't use it at HQ and I would gladly pay top dollar for it now if I had a clue how to get some (if the family even still produces it).
Only slightly changing the subject here... In Fellowlaborers of Ohio we were supposed to eat the inedible and enjoy every healthful and nutritious bite. This included amazing crap like wilted mustard greens or Swiss Chard, which may well be the most evil vegetables on earth.
There was a restaurant called Friendly's in town at that time and after such a meal, and a few hours of working cleaning the BRC as the building next to the limb leader's home was called, or working in the garden, we would drive home and go to our twig, and a few of us would end up at Friendly's eating real food for a change. I was reproved for this in the beginning, but promptly replied that the exalted branch coordinator was there, too, slurping up hamburgers and ice cream like the rest of us peons.
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DogLover
The Head Table usually got better food and drinks when I was in-residence.
What comes to mind is the utter audacity of the NC Limb Leader MVD who once came to our area and asked our loving Branch Coordinator, "Where are the mints?" To the Branch Leader's credit, MVD "somehow managed" to play a tape for us without having mints to munch on! Pretty lame, too, to make one visit a year and then play a tape rather than teach. What a maroon, what a loser!
And yes, I would still say that to him because he is in a Geer spinoff...
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Ham
Yeah.. I remember the 93 special.. food started out ok, but as the week went on, they started serving mystery meat and gravy.. I thought it tasted lke filet of old shoe, a friend commented on how it remarkably resembled dried liver..
I thought, "didn't we PAY for this?"
At the time, I thought that just PERHAPS they had mismanaged the thing to the extent they would run into the red if they continued to put out good meals..
I imagine someone will chime in about the Indiana campus.. they raised chickens, all kinds of stuff that ended up exclusively on the mogster's table.
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TheHighWay
Well, the head table got REAL salt and pepper while the rest of the tables got sea salt, kelp, and cayenne pepper. (as if black pepper and cayenne pepper were interchangeable!)
The head table also got coffee and sweet/plain iced tea or hot tea while everyone else got water.
But as far as the actual food at HQ or Emporia or Indiana on normal days, I don't recall any time as a head-table gal that they got different food from what everyone else was eating... not there in the main hall. Now, what they got at home was another story. They got whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted!! End of story.
And everyone got "special" food during events. They usually didn't serve guests "fruit soup" for breakfast or yogurt and braun bars in their sack suppers!! That was reserved for us in-rez simpletons who ate whatever they placed in front of us (well, sort of). One of the best times I can remember was when the corps went on Light-Bearers and we college program duffers were left alone on campus. We were told to use up all the leftovers in the kitchen. We ate like kings that week!!
I really don't remember the food from any on-campus events being especially bad or good. Of course, having recently lived there I was probably still used to it. I do remember the food supplied at the WIBP in the 90s was terrible!! Here we were paying TOP dollar for the fanciest of hotels, and had to pay for a pre-set meal package that way too expensive and offered just about nothing in return. Even the big BBQ/Dance food wasn't that great as I recall. Everyone was upset!! And the leadership was like: well, you should expect to pay more in a big city and if you cannot afford it you should be coming -- not that we really had a choice about attending...
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bfh
I remember LCM saying that his Dr. Pepper habit was more like six a day.
At the time, I was considering applying for the corpse program and LCM decided that if he could give up his Dr. Pepper habit
(due to his training to be the dancing prez), then the people who smoked and wanted in the corpse could of course give up smoking.
Can't remember if that edict from on high applied to all the in-rez corpse or not.
And I remember thinking that it was much easier to give up drinking soda than to give up smoking. But hey, the moggie had spoken,
so I made a half hearted attempt to quit, then decided to go College Division instead. Thank God, because that was the year everything started falling apart.
The year I was at Emporia, our meal plan was, supposedly, put together by the guy who trained craiggers for AOS.
But to me, the meals didn't seem to be that high in quality or that sound nutritionally, especially for someone in athletic training.
And, there never seemed to be enough food. I could not figure out how some of the men got by on those meager portions.
But, craiggers personal trainer had spoken, and so it was thusly.
Of course, the personal trainer (can't remember his name) was supposed to be in the College Division - none of us ever saw him in a class - either first or second year.
And, I know this will shock everyone, he was not required to live in the dorms on campus - he got to live off campus - in his own apartment.
You see, that way he wouldn't have to associate with the hoi polloi or eat the food served to us at his behest.
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excathedra
what a bunch of azzes
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GrouchoMarxJr
Every moment that I spent at Emporia, I was famished. My normal food intake was cut in half and I was running 2 miles a day...besides everything else. At the end of the year, I had lost over 30 lbs.
As I recall...the food really sucked.
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cheranne
I don't know why you guys put up with such a fool like LCM,he had more problems than all of twi put together and he
actually thought drinking dr. pepper was a big no no..so
he could be a dancing queen! Thats just sad.
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bfh
Actually, it was craigger's personal trainer that put the kibosh on the Dr. Pepper.
(And craigger's - he suffered, oh how he suffered without his fix of Dr. Pepper.)
See, LCM had to have a personal trainer to get him in shape for AOS,
just like John Travolta had a personal trainer (and Sly Stallone) to help him get in shape for Stayin' Alive.
Can't let the worldly folk outdo the MOG, don't cha know.
But, Travolta must have had a much better trainer.
LCM in AOS is nowhere near as ripped as Travola in Stayin' Alive!
NOT. EVEN. CLOSE.
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bfh
So, there must have been complaints about the food (or lack thereof) at Emporia, because we all got a little talking to.
I think it must have been at lunch, but who knows, I don't remember.
Both LCM and his personal trainer guy were there. Craig did a little rant on how we should be thankful that
he had been magnanimous enough to make it possible for his trainer guy to be at Emporia.
And the trainer guy took time out from his busy life to come plan our meals.
And we should be thankful that we were being accorded his knowledge about the human body and food...blah, blah, blah.
Then the personal trainer guy gave a little speech, the arrogance rolling off of him in nauseating waves.
He said he took time out from his busy schedule every week - Every Week - and discussed the meal plans in detail with the kitchen head honcho.
And that it was all properly balanced nutrition...yada, yada, yada.
So, from then on, the Way Corps suffered in silence and starvation,
and the College folks went into town for food and smokes.
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socks
Sugar shock!
4 to six glasses of Dr Pepper a day. Man.
7 Up is the only beverage suitable for human consumption. Taken in small savory doses it will lift the spirit, heal the innards and bring enlightened understanding to the consumer. But I digress...
Sounds like The Athlete had to kick that turkey cold.
Emporia food - bad history all the way around. It's first year Ermal Owens set up the food service and it was pretty poor, border line institutional quality. Weird splotches of strange mixtures spooned on to plates with thin slices of "meat", and watery peaches on the side, that kind of thing. Mr. Athlete himself was the one who finally complained and got it turned around a little for a time anyway, I heard.
That Dr Pepper jones though - bad cha-cha.
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WhiteDove
Hey Socks didn't they hire the lady from town that used to do the food service for the old College of Emporia for awhile that first year. Talk about border line institutional quality, You got mystery meat? , We had peanut butter sandwiches excuse me sandwich and some soup with some vegetable matter dragged through it for coloring. We used to go into the Country Kitchen for meals. I remember working with HE Wierwille one day and after working hard ,and that was an understatement He refused to serve the meal after looking at what they made. He called the Pizza Hut which at the time was one of the few places to eat there and booked the party room. We all trucked down the street and had an evening of pizza and beer.
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socks
Could be, not sure where it came from Whitedove although that would fit the profile. I only had a brief brush with it but it looked like the kind of cafeteria food you hear endless jokes about. It was a two edged sword by the sound of it - portions were small, a blessing or a curse.
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Linda Z
I hate to sound like one of those old folks who says, "I walked 10 miles to school in my bare feet, uphill both ways," but wow, you guys got sea salt?!? And water?!? When we were in residence (78-79 and 80-81) and on staff (82-86) we never got salt of any kind, and we sure as heck didn't get any water with our meals.
Now that I'm older, I try to avoid eating much regular table salt and usually use just a little sea salt for cooking. I also understand your food digests better if you don't drink anything with meals, but having nothing to drink was hard for me to take (I was going to say swallow, but that was too easy). :)
Ham, I've seen you make that comment about raising chickens, etc., at the Indy campus that only went on the MOG's table. That wasn't my experience. We all ate whatever was raised/grown on the farm. I also didn't see anyone other than Craig (ewwww, onions) or Earl B. (allergic to mushrooms) getting any special food at meals in the dining room, either at Rome City or HQ. When did you see that change?
Actually, our first year in residence they fed us too well! Plenty of good food, and lots of homemade bread! In fact, last year I talked with one of the people responsible for all that good food...thanks, Willie T!! The food got much worse our last year. At HQ it varied, from really tasty to "What the heck is that?!?"
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DontWorryBeHappy
hi everybody!..........my first year in-rez, betty bowen ran the kitchen at hq, and, a "rank unbeliever", eileen hitchen, was the chief cook.............we ate great food, every day, with plenty of it available!.......except for the 3 times we endured the full three week long, grace bliss administered colon-cleanse torture..er, 'skuse me, program,....we ate quite well......we also enjoyed organically grown meats and vegetables and fruits from the kipp farm, which was run by a tremendous fellow named ira hearne...........we butchered and cleaned pigs, cattle, chicken, and sheep, and we ate good meat at least once-a-day, 7 days a week.........we also had fish several times a month..........we had our fair share of granola, figpep, and other healthy grains and veggies, which i called "rabbit" or "bird" food.............there were plenty of burgers, pizza and sometimes even beer!!.......all the trustees and all the staff ate at least lunch together with the in-rez corps every day, and many times joined us for supper too, .....always in the brc basement, in which we all fit comfortably back then.........there were often bacon, homefries, and scrambled egg breakfasts, with real coffee and apple cider, etc.,......sometimes pancakes and syrup with fresh berries............and there were actually several meals we all looked forward to, like eileen's homemade enchiladas, dripping with cheese and stuffed to the hilt with chicken, or pork, or ground beef with terrific refried beans and sour cream!........and there were usually abundant seconds and thirds available..........the food was the same during our second year too, again all in the basement of the brc.........
however, the food at emporia was horrendous from day one, when it opened for in-rez corps training in august, 1975.....people were literally made sick by that garbage they served.........it seemed the food never improved there during the entire time it was open!........initially, the food at both indiana campus and gunnison was comparable to what was served at hq when we ate in the brc.............once the osc dining room and kitchen opened for "business", the quality and volume of food served at hq depreciated noticably!........it was nowhere near what betty and eileen came up with, and the increase in the number of people eating at hq also took all the fun out of mealtimes.........oftentimes, i'd get in "trouble" at the various campuses for starting food fights or rebelling in other ways to the boring and unappetizing legalism of host and hostessing, singing really stupid songs, and other forms of religious tradition enforced by moynihan, jenkinson and others who were more budget concsious than people conscious at their respective campuses.............i really felt badly for you folks who were stuck at emporia for any length of time.........and, since i left in 1986, i am not at all familia® with how yukky the food got as the doofus from okie and his administration took everything to the negative and unhealthy extremes i read about here at the spot as reported by the twi gulag survivors!...........sure glad i was out before the physical food got as bad as the spiritual diet twi shoved down people's throats!................................peace.
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Ham
Perhaps after you were there..
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Watered Garden
We may have had chicken a time or two in the three months I was there. I know I've posted before after making salsa in huge batches without garlic or onions because the MOG hated both. I suggested we make him his own little batch and then make REAL salsa for the rest of us, and this idea was met with a combination of horror and righteous indignation. If LCM hates garlic and onions, then you need to line up your thinking with that of the MOGFODAT.
We did have turkey and all for Thanksgiving. However, to my way of thinking, the food, while not always tasteless, was simply calorically and nutritionally inadequate when compared to the amount of physical labor and the exercise program required. A bowl of homemade tomato soup and perhaps 3-4 crackers, with butter allowed, was a lunch for those who would spend the next four hours without a break working cleaning the already immaculate insides of the buildings, pulling weeds from the flower beds, mucking out the cow barn, harvesting vegetables, chasing kids, and do all the manual labor required of the situation we were in. I think most of us burned more calories than we consumed. The growing teens were always hungry. Even a large bowl of unflavored millet or barley looked like manna from heaven to those kids. The hosts and hostesses were allowed to pass around the food one time, carefully assuring that no one took very much for their initial serving. If in fact there were seconds, they could, at their discretion, offer seconds. That was it. IF the host or hostess fell into a conversation and didn't notice empty plates and hungry eyes staring at the food bowls, s/he might well send the bowls back half full without passing them around the second time. And God help anyone who dared ask, a la Oliver Twist, "May I have some more, please?" That was not done, ever.
Finally, WC magnanimously allowed the food bowls to be taken back to the carts and then at a signal, anyone who was still hungry could go check them out and bring back to the table any scraps they found.
The reason this was so absolutely outrageous was that that was very fertile ground, they grew a LOT of stuff, and for the most part, portions were meager indeed. Plus the fact that they grew food at the Kipp Farm also. Plus the fact that children need to drink milk so their teeth and bones will grow properly. FWC drank water. We were allowed to have water at the table. We were allowed to have coffee pots in our rooms to make coffee at our own expense. (I think I had a headache most of the time I was there). However, there was usually no time to make or enjoy coffee.
I lost two dress sizes in three months. Maybe this was a good thing. The physical stuff was rigorous, especially when you were consuming about 1000 calories a day and burning about twice that.
I am absolutely convinced that the stress that was put upon us by FWC and by the people in leadership the year after we left, combined with a horrible, horrible untreated flu-like illness I contracted while in Rome City, weakened my body to the point I became a type 1 insulin dependent diabetic.
WG
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lindyhopper
I remember when our family was trying to get into the corps we heard the food stories...."they won't let you put milk on your cereal." :blink: How would us kids survive? Perhaps the family corps had it a little better, because not only did I get my milk and cereal, but I have fairly good memories of corps food. Mmmm.... shepherd's pie.
There are the exceptions of course. Fifteen bean soup would be at the top I think. Chip R was that your idea? What were you thinking? Fruit soup was another one. They were so bad that when we played basketball and someone shot an air-ball instead of yelling "BRICK" we would yell "FRUIT SOUP"!
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Watered Garden
They actually had kids putting fig pep on their cereal (familia) instead of milk for a while, as it was deemed more healthful and nutritious. This was back in "the day." When I was there, I'm pretty sure on the occasions we had cereal we had milk to go with it. I guess I'm contradicting myself in a way, but what I do NOT recall is kids getting 12 oz or so glasses of milk at a meal.
In fact, in some circles there were folks who came along and said that cow's milk is a very healthful and nutritious food source only if you are the calf of that cow. Human children and adults must receive their calcium nutrition from other sources, such as organically grown, healthful nourishing raw dark green leafy vegetables, such as spinach or the ever-popular Swiss chard.
The last woman who blatted this at me had visible rotten teeth. Wonder if she ever made the connection?
WG
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Eyesopen
I remember that we at Emporia put apple juice on our familia. Outside of the yogurt I dont remember ever seeing any dairy products except the occassional cheese on something. Mostly we ate vegetarian style as his hinney Rev. Fart was a vegan...or so he said. But I caught him eating beef hamburgers on more than one occassion.
We didnt have salt on the tables either, we had something akin to Mrs D@sh, does anyone remember the name of that stuff? I was pretty happy when I got assigned to the kitchen. The hours were long and early but they had real salt in the kitchen. :)
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WhiteDove
They had Spike for some years.
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Watered Garden
Spike does contain salt, but there is a low sodium Spike. I'm pretty sure it was there when I was. There were also during different eras Vegesal, kelp (stinks), Spike, cayenne, everything but salt and pepper as we knew it in our real lives.
WG
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TheHighWay
Oh, heck yeah! I forgot about Spike at Emporia!!
It was HQ in the late 80s that had the Sea Salt...
Sorry for the confusion!
Of course, I LOVED Mr. Benni's wheat, folks!! I was really sorry to find out they didn't use it at HQ and I would gladly pay top dollar for it now if I had a clue how to get some (if the family even still produces it).
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Watered Garden
Only slightly changing the subject here... In Fellowlaborers of Ohio we were supposed to eat the inedible and enjoy every healthful and nutritious bite. This included amazing crap like wilted mustard greens or Swiss Chard, which may well be the most evil vegetables on earth.
There was a restaurant called Friendly's in town at that time and after such a meal, and a few hours of working cleaning the BRC as the building next to the limb leader's home was called, or working in the garden, we would drive home and go to our twig, and a few of us would end up at Friendly's eating real food for a change. I was reproved for this in the beginning, but promptly replied that the exalted branch coordinator was there, too, slurping up hamburgers and ice cream like the rest of us peons.
WG
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frank123lol
At the Dallas 98 ac special the breakfast was so bad that martindale promised he would talk to the hotel,Next morning it was better
Evenings were the best as we went to local resturants.Que?
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