SC - big spice question

[LrdRas@aol.com]

david friedman wrote:
> 
> Now back in the old days, when I was cooking feasts, the head cook had to
> come in the day before to clean up the kitchen, then come into the kitchen
> the morning of the feast because it hadn't been cleaned in years, then make
> sure not to make any mess at all while cooking the feast (single handed, of
> course--kitchen help hadn't been invented yet), then spend all night
> cleaning up the terrible mess the cooks had made, then come back the next
> morning because ...   .

You 'ad kitchens??? That was luxury!

Now when I was a lad, we 'ad it toogh. We 'ad to arrive at event site
nine years before servin' feast, carve stone pits for boilin', locate
enough smooth river stoones to keep our 'aunch of aurochs (mastodon in
soommer) boilin' fer the thirty hours of simmerin' required to make it
tender. An' all the while, oor territorial screamin' at us, an' gettin'
all likkered up an' layin about wi' brooken mead bottle...Yes, we 'ad it toogh.

We then 'ad to fit the chips of stone back together an' make the site
look as if there 'ad never been a cooking place there. Of course since
fire 'adn't been invented yet, the 'ole exercise was moot. An' we didn't
complain...we looved it! Now if you tell all this to the young kids
today, they just wouldn't believe you!

Seriously, though...certainly there are circumstances that would make it
necessary for the head cook or the cooks in general to stay and clean
up, but those circumstances should really be avoided, and it's part of
the autocrat's job to see to it that there's at least a couple of people
who haven't been doing back-breaking physical labor all day relegated to
the job. Yes, sometimes a group is simply too small to have enough
people for all the work, but there's no reason some of the people
attending the event from other groups (I assume there are some) couldn't
help out.

I've been seeing a disturbing trend developing over the years, in which
people who attend an event feel they paid for the privelege, and act
more or less as if they're in a restaurant or hotel. Now I'm not
claiming Old-Timerhood (tm) by any means, but I remember when it was
customary for just about everyone to check in at the troll, ask for the
autocrat or kitchener, see if there was anything that needed doing
before getting into garb. Then again after changing into mundane
clothes, before leaving. Some people would bring (and some still do)
"grubby" garb specifically for such jobs as pot-scrubbing.

Have we lost our roots and our sense of being part of a community in
which we all (as in all attending) are putting on an event?

My Viceroy (who functions more or less as a Baron, so I won't have to go
into what a Viceroy actually is in the SCA) is also a Master of the
Pelican, and has some proteges, who are essentially retainers and
Pelicans-in-training. He has contrived a swearing-in ceremony something
like the one used in the East when a knight takes a squire: in this case
he has another protege stand next to him, carrying a bowl of warm sudsy
water and a towel. He asks the candidate if they are willing to be his
protege, explains what that will mean, and then seals the contract by
placing the new protege's hands in the bowl of suds, saying, "Let this
be the first of _many_ tubs of dishwater you will put your hands into,
in my service." This is always good for a laugh, but no one misses the
serious side of what, for the people involved, has very serious meaning.
      
Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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