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Show PRESTON PORATH 24,2001 right. Oh, an interesting thing too is we used to be able to change the menu occasionally- bake something different than was on the menu. The chief commissary steward would publish a monthly menu listing of what you'd bake on this day, and you'd serve this pastry or that pie or whatever. So one day out at sea we had pumpkin pie on the menu. It was stormy, and we went to the chief and tried to get him to change it. Well, the cooks had been complaining that we could change the menu and they couldn't. They had to cook what was on the menu. So he said, "Pumpkin pies are on the menu; you will bake pumpkin pie." Well, we baked in sheet tins, not in pie tins so we made the pie crust and filled the tin, put the filling in the crust, put it in the oven to bake. Of course, ship tossed and turned, so most of the pie filling came out in the oven. We spent two days cleaning the ovens after that. But after that the chief let us change the menu. BEC: Yeah, when he got his cooked pie shell ... PRE: BEC: PRE: Yeah, his cooked pie shell with a little brown, or black. .. Yeah, right. But we didn't have to bake for the officers. They had their own mess cooks. But they used to come down occasionally and ask us, "Won't you bake for us? Sometimes the stuff we get upstairs isn't too good." But Greek would say no. He wouldn't do it, so we didn't have to, and never did. And Pop Allen said the same thing. After Greek was transferred they came back down again. Pop Allen said, "No. According to regulations you have your own." Of course, the officers had their own mess boys. They all had colored mess boys who cleaned their quarters. They were actually, I guess you'd say, stewards for the officers. They slept in their own quarters. BEC: Hum, that's interesting. 54 |
