SC - After feast

[S.Albert]

Greetings:

I've been trying to keep up with all the comments about cooking and
cleaning up (we have an event and small feast for 40 this weekend), and I
should be cooking, but the comments are so interesting. We all have
stories, good and bad.

Sometimes, service can be fun. Many years ago I was at a small coronet in
an isolated shire, and hadn't been able to volunteer in the kitchen (they
had it under control), or serve (they tapped a local household plus a few
experienced servers from other areas). My moment came after the feast, long
after. The cooks had cooked their brains out all day and were dead tired,
so they had all agreed to 'just leave everything' and do it in the morning.
There were three long counters (at least 10 feet long each) covered with
dishes: cooking pots to silverware.

I waited until I was done chatting with friends and things settled down
(the event was held in a lodge where we all stayed), and rolled up my
sleeves and started in. There is a certain satisfaction in creating order
out of chaos. I cleared a corner, putting the dishes to soak, then cleaned
the area. I then washed and rinsed the dishes and put them back on the
counter -- squeaky clean. I made it almost all the way around before I
overloaded the gabage disposal. I got it cleaned out, but couldn't find the
reset button. I had much satisfaction the next morning hearing the the
shire crew coming up, expecting to have to clean everything to prepare
breakfast, find (almost) everything clean.

I did have help on and off. People would see what I was doing and help out
for 15-30 minutes; or friends would just keep me company. But by the last
ten feet I was on my own. There is something zen in working on a task like
that, sort of like chopping wood.

I tell that story to all the new members in my barony. Partly because it
gives me pleasure to remember how I managed to help the new friends I'd
made that weekend, and partly to instill in them that doing scut work can
be satisfying not only for its own rewards but because it can be very
appreciated.

Sure, lots of us have found ourselves doing cleanup as well as cooking from
time to time. But how nice it is to have willing hands doing the hard work
after feast, while you as Head Cookcan -- finally -- sit down and direct
the activities (or attend to your personal packing). I've done both, and
when there are enough people around to tell me to sit down and let them do
it, I let them, with copious thanks. I have the added benefit that I can,
if it's a pattern on their part, give them official reward in the future.

My 10 cents worth (I rambled more than 2 cents worth, I'd afraid).

Morgana

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Morgana yr Oerfa, Baroness      *     Sharron Albert
Winter's Gate/Oertha/West       *     morgana at gci.net
Per saltire gules and sable,    *     Babylon 5/science fiction
in pale two mullets and         *     (astrology/tarot)
in fess an increscent           *     I saw nothing unusual in the teacher's
and a decrescent argent.        *          lounge. --Bart Simpson
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *    


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