> Believe it or not, my favourite memory vis a vis the cafeteria was > when, for a month or so, they instituted "Family Dining".
OMG family dining! I had forgotten all about that. We are in serious rocking chair mode in the rest home today aren't we? For me, predictably, the dining hall experience was a serious social time. The laser-like eyes of whatever hottie was on my radar in between relationships through the sneeze guards at the troughs! I remember locking eyes with Melinda Love over the granola tray as one of the experiences I can say was my realization of Mother Divine! The only google info I could find on her is here: http://www.mountvernonandfairway.de/mike.htm --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "shempmcgurk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "curtisdeltablues" > <curtisdeltablues@> wrote: > > > > <snip> Remember the chocolate milk > > > > dispenser? > > > > > > Yeah, wasn't that right next to the cigarette machine, just down > the > > > hall from the Coke dispenser? > > > > That 1975 MIU class was such a funny motley crew, mostly non > teachers. > > They even fed us roast beef one lunch to make us feel comfortable. > > They had chicken and fish pretty regularly. > > > > Chicken and fish were at least once a week. > > The roast beef resulted, actually, from Maharishi's visit that school > year when the MIU doctor at the time ("the Greek Doctor", as > Maharishi called him...he was Greek-American but I forget his name) > complained to Maharishi that some of the students "came from a > tradition of eating meat". And Maharishi's response? "Tradition is > a good thing". > > And, presto! Roast beef about a week later. > > But my memory is that this lasted only a month or so, never to rear > its head again. > > > > > > > > > > > Those big stainless steel > > elementary school milk units with whole, skim and chocolate! Huge > > vats of peanut butter till they instilled the peanut phobia! (dulls > > the mind dontca know!) > > > > Then things started to shift. By the next year they were replacing > > the vending machine candies around campus with "healthy" snacks and > > the coke machines started disappearing. I don't know when they > > dropped meat, this was so pre Ayur Veda. > > > > For institutional food I have to give it pretty high marks. The > > international themes were a cool thing and opened me up to different > > styles of world food. Of course it was all dumbed down versions > > without many original ingredients from the countries, but it was a > > neat idea and I think it influenced my seriously omnivorous palate > today. > > > > > Believe it or not, my favourite memory vis a vis the cafeteria was > when, for a month or so, they instituted "Family Dining". When > people entered the dining area, they were seated at tables in groups > of, I think, 6 or 8, and then one of the people would go off to the > kitchen and bring back that table's food in stainless steel > containers, from which the whole table ate. > > Once the energy crisis hit, the experiment was stopped as being too > expensive from an energy point of view, but I remember it as the best > eating experience in the Movement. Why? Because the energy level > really came down from a very high-pitched "every man for himself at > the trough" vibet to "calm, settled, civilized dining" which most > certainly had an effect on both digestion and my experience of eating. > > I have had the fantasy since then that if I were ever to become rich > and would donate money to MIU that the first thing I would give money > for would be to reinstitute family dining (I am assuming it was never > reinstituted? I could, of course, be wrong...). > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > I don't remember that at all, Curtis. I wish I did, it would > have > > > been one bright spot in an otherwise pretty awful culinary > > > experience. I thought that's when they were starting their "milk > is > > > bad for you" campaign. > > > > > > Remember the time the toaster oven caught on fire? > > > > We were kinda excitement starved weren't we? > > > > > > > > > > > > The halcyon days when we thought our cheeks glowed with > > > > ojas > > > > > > Isn't that near San Diego? > > > > Excellent! > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > instead of youth? > > > > > > Sal > > > > > >
