[Sca-cooks] Re: Arghhhh feast Service

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Barbara Dodge wrote:

> I may be a little late in posing this question, but it sounds to me that the
> by the wording (shown below), the indevidual arranging service has people
> that are only willing to serve high table.  Am I mis interpreting the
> statement?

Well, there might be a little more to the situation than either we or
Jadwiga have been told, but that sounds about right.

There _are_ people in the SCA who act as if serving a table is demeaning
(this is above and beyond the idea that people don't necessarily like to
interrupt their conversation or general socializing to serve at a feast,
even for a single course, or at least not at every event they attend,
which I consider understandable viewpoints).

I remember a couple of years ago, having an unusually long and animated
discussion with a fellow diner at our table, and not really getting much
chance to notice, or comment on, how fellow household members made sure
food just appeared on my plate. I realized that people were just taking
care of me because whatever it was I was doing was important to me, and,
as it turned out, this was done by a squire and his lady who felt that
this is what the gentleman's knight would want him to do. Once I
realized this, I was a bit embarrassed. As this was one of those "please
send a server from each table" kind of events, I rose to serve my table
the next course, and nominated a fellow diner who had also spent the
previous portion of the feast on his duff, to assist me.

He really seemed unhappy with the idea, even when I pointed out how
others at our table had done so well serving the both of us. (He seemed
to feel that as they had done so well, they should continue.) Finally he
  said something to the effect that it was unseemly for a noble to serve
(okay, he was a comparative newbie), and I lifted my laurel medallion
and told him, "What a noble does is, by definition, noble."

Yeah, rather a generalization, perhaps, but how often, these days, does
one get to pass on a genuinely good lesson learned from Duke Aonghais?

Adamantius
--
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com

"It was so blatant that Roger threw at him.  Clemens gets away with
things that get other people thrown out of games.  As long as they
let him get away with it, it's going  to continue." -- Joe Torre, 9/98