SC - First Feast and Feast Cleanup

[Margo Hablutzel]

	> > My most recent feast had a cut off of one hundred people. Then
it became a
	> > Royal Progress event, and there was a LOT of pressure to up the
ante to 150.
	> > I resisted, we DID up it to 104, to make things even. Towards
the beginning
	> > of serving, there was another request from the Event Steward to
feed an
	> > additional thirty people, which I again had to refuse, as
everything was
	> > planned for eight people to a table and thirteen tables.
	> 
	> You mean, evil, rotten man, you!
	> 
	> You couldn't even accomodate your autocrat for a Royal Progress
event
	> when asked AT THE BEGINNING OF SERVICE to feed  THIRTY EXTRA
PEOPLE?!?!?!?!?!?

	} Actually, in this particular instance, I would have been tempted
to say,
	} "sure - and which people would you suggest I cut the portions of?"
I don't
	} think that would have gone over very well, eh?

I agree with Maedb on this one - and I had it happen.  By the cook, no less.
This was in a group where I used to live, where we typically fed 200 or so
(limited by size of hall and hoopskirts).  I was autocrat, and we had the
usual map of the hall up so people could sign up to sit with friends,
households, whatever.  It was a well-attended event and we had more people
wanting to eat supper than we had places in the hall.

Heading into the time for feast, the cook heard that we had a waiting list.
She came out to argue that there was plenty of food and everybody should be
let in.  I pointed out that we were somewhat limited by the size of the
hall, but she said it would be unkind to our guests to turn anyone away, so
we scrounged tables and chairs, added spaces in the hall and to the map, and
announced that anyone who wished could find a place.

THEN the cook came back and announced that due to a miscount of the serving
trays, we would have to remove several tables as there was nothing with
which to serve them.  Things got a tad testy at this point, as we had just
ADDED a couple of tables at her direction.  She said we could just move
people around; I said we could not as we didn't know who was sitting with
whom for which reason, and ALL the places were filled.  Removing tables
meant evicting diners at that point.  I said we could expand and serve tens
instead of eights (we used trestle tables, so it was a matter of moving
cloths and ribbons to mark the serving areas); she said no, but I forget why
we were stuck with serving eights.  Finally I got her to understand that she
would simply have to find some other way to serve the meal, and that we were
going to have it for so many tables (I believe 26 or 30) of eight each, and
we could not change that.

Led to some bad feelings in the group, unfortunately; I was willing to let
it pass as the antics of an inexperienced cook, but she managed to talk the
seneschal into believing that it had been all my fault for being unyielding.
Now, he did get some forgiveness as his habit was to strip into skivvies and
wash dishes after feast, and he encouraged the other fighters in the group
to do so, and because the kitchens were small this relegated the females to
sorting and packing the dried items, and admiring the work crew.

I have a number of times been faced with similarly stripped-down work crews,
frequently in Northshield, and most recently at Coronation in the Barony of
Three Rivers (Calontir), where no less than the Baron himself was one of the
first to strip and go to when the majority of the kitchen crew apparently
vanished leaving the place dirty after the meal (but that's another, LONG
story, and I do not have all the details).

I've also been in a crew that was asked to shush as our singing and
storytelling carried over into court.  And one VERY unhappy time was left
alone to clean a kitchen after a grueling exhibitionary meal, only to have a
single person offer to help - who then walked about in circles talking at
me, all my attempts to get him to actually work or even just hush for a few
minutes to no avail, until I threw him out and slammed the door.
Regrettably, just as court, at the other end of the building, hit a
particularly hushed moment.  *SIGH*

I much prefer the semi-naked men and singing.

                                                                      ---=
Morgan



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	           |/ margolh at nortelnetworks.com <mailto:margolh at nt.com>  *
Hablutzel at compuserve.com <mailto:Hablutzel at compuserve.com> 
	                      Morgan Cain * Steppes, Ansteorra


	                     May God have mercy on my enemies
	                     For they shall certainly need it.

	      For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism.

                I intend to live forever -- so far, so good!
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