Earl and I just returned from a church supper, the kind where the ladies of the congregation do all the cooking and everyone else does all the eating. We were guests of someone who works with Earl, and it was a novel experience for us.
Not that we haven’t attended church in our lifetime or gone to a church fund raising function. But we don’t do it often.
The pastor had everyone file into the sanctuary and sit down. He informed us that this particular church dinner was first held in 1939. That’s before I was born, so I imagined the membership had the process organized fairly well. The pastor then led us in a thanksgiving prayer before dismissing us to the fellowship hall in groups of about thirty. Fortunately, Earl’s friend’s group was among the first to line up for the dinner.
It was a Thanksgiving dress rehearsal, with the exception that chicken was substituted for turkey. But the mashed potatoes, dressing, gravy, corn, rolls, cranberry sauce, pickles, coleslaw, and a bevy of desserts could have made any Turkey Day proud. It wasn’t fancy, but it was filling.
After filing through a buffet line, we sat at long tables, the kind where you can really only talk with those sitting directly across from you or next to you. We didn’t know anybody on either side, but by the time dinner was over we’d learned something about each person in our little circle. This couple winters in Florida; that one just lost his job, this one just returned from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Pleasant enough table talk.
The entire meal took about forty-five minutes, as the tables had to be re-set for the next seating and the one after that. Which means the church discourages people from sitting for hours and turns the tables over three times in the course of the evening. At eight dollars a meal, I’d say that’s pretty organized.
Leave a Reply