Bethel meals

by Alligator Wisdom 43 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  RichieRich

  When i went to bethel about a year and a half ago, we all got to eat in the cafeteria. The food was acceptable, about what you'd expect from your neighborhood golden corral or K&S.

  I got kind of pissed off, because after everything was served, if someone wanted seconds, they couldnt be passed ACROSS the table, rather they had to be passed AROUND.

  Also one kid, who was like 2 years older than me, (would've been 18 / 19 at the time) almost upset himself because he got to meet the guy from one of the videos the WT puts out.

  I was thoroughly unimpressed.
• 

  daniel-p

  WERE THERE ANY SPECIAL DIETARY NEEDS AT BETHEL?

  Yes, at Wallkill we had quite a few older ones with special dietary needs. The kitchen was aware of this and would always make some alternate foods available for them, but if course it was the waiter's job to make sure it got to them. Most of them were in the "D" res. dining hall - which was a smaller room with about 5-10 tables. Most of the old folks lived in the "D" res. so all they had to do was take the elveator downstairs. Then there were those in the infirmary also in the "D," who would get a tray delivered to them, sans anything they couldn't eat while making sure they got enough other stuff.

  I got kind of pissed off, because after everything was served, if someone wanted seconds, they couldnt be passed ACROSS the table, rather they had to be passed AROUND.

  Maybe they were playing it up that day for you guests, but normally, once its been passed around once, it's a free-for-all for whoever wants seconds or thirds or whatever.

  cutlery lay out was done with a specially made ruler to ensure conformity

  i kid you not

  The new waiters sometimes use that - but once you get the hang of it you can just eyeball it. Looks a lot better than silverware just scattered across the table! Seriously though... I don't see why people are so fascinated with these stupid little details. If anything shows the JW's for what they are, its the WT teachings (blood doctrine, education, 1914, etc), not the fact that they are highly organized at their headquarters. I am by no means a WT apologist - anyone can see that by my record - but I will present the facts as they are without spinning them to support what I think. Bethel is/was a relatively harmless place, albiet with a lot of stupid rules and traditions, but you gotta understand, some old fruits have been there 50 years, and sadly its just about the only thing they know, or have as a home. For thousands of people its home, and when you have that many people living and working in such close contact, you have to have rules and traditions to keep order (specially the JW kind of order). I eventually left because I could see I just wasn't fitting in, but a close relative of mine has been there over ten years because they love it and thrive under those conditions.
• 

  Alligator Wisdom

  daniel-p said : Seriously though... I don't see why people are so fascinated with these stupid little details.

  Perhaps we can go on and on with insignificant details and it wouldn't really matter. Most likely 99.9% of us were never in Bethel as a resident. Perhaps many of us were just visitors and only a handful of visitors actually got to eat with the Bethel family. Being an "outsider", if you will pardon the term, gave us a totally different perspective of the meal arrangement than one would ever think of. For those who had the opportunity to live at Bethel, than everything would one day seem just the norm as any resident would have to conform/understand/deal with their new environment. But you'll have to admit that it probably took a little getting used to, right?

  Maybe many of us posted what seemed odd or peculiar from our viewpoint. Come over to my house for dinner one day and you'll probably note something different/uncommon/or even eccentric by the way my family does things too. At Bethel it just enlarges the proportions of such.

  Yes, I have several friends in Bethel homes all over the world and I dined in over 11 different branch facilities. And yes, they are extremely organized with the meals. That throws me off "kilter" as I tend to dine at a leisurely pace, in private or public. But I do agree that the Branch facilities will have to enforce some sort of rule guideline or have to keep certain traditions in place in order to accomodate that many people in that amount of time every single day.

  Alligator Wisdom (aka Brother NOT Exerting Vigorously by WTS standards)
• 

  Finally-Free

  I ate at the Canadian bethel many times. I liked the food, and there was plenty of it. Standing for the second prayer was a pain in the ass, but you soon learn to take a big mouthful of food just before getting up. Then you can keep chewing your food and ignore the prayer.

  I really hate to break my rhythm when I'm eating.

  W
• 

  badboy

  SPECIALLY DESIGNED RULER!

  YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS, WOMAN!
• 

  daniel-p

  SPECIALLY DESIGNED RULER!

  Please don't pretend this is a big deal. In any formal or semi-formal setting it is not uncommon to use them in order to make sure everyone has equal space at tha table and there is enough room. Plus it makes things look arranged and nice. Bethel did not design the "specially designed ruler" to arrange placesettings, believe me.

  In my brief career waiting on Bethel tables, I never even saw anyone use it, although there was one in the storage room. There are just a handful of measurements you remember, for instance: the plates are set a finger's width over the edge of the table, with the fork tucked under on the left and the knife and spoon on the right. The smaller plate is set at about 10 or 11 o'clock right next to the large plate. The glass is set on the right at about 2 o'clock. The first plate starting clockwise from the table head is set just about where you can feel the leg of the table, and that gets you started. Once you have the proper spacing, you can go round the entire table, plates first, then arranging all the silverware and glasses, then the butter dish and a few other things in the middle, and make sure the tablecloth isn't wrinkled, if you're using one. During the meal, the table head has the responsibility of placing any empty dishes on the left corner of the table, beside him. I pick it up, refill it from some larger pans, or just replace it with another prepared dish, always placing it on the right, whereupon he passes it down to who ever wanted it. If the same dish comes back again, I refill it a little less, unless there is some special request.

  Really, folks, this is pretty mundane stuff, but if you get a kick out of it, there's a lot more where it came from.
• 

  badboy

  TELL US MORE!

  TELL US MORE!
• 

  daniel-p

  Mmm, OK, not sure if you're joking... but anyway, yea serving tables sucked. I mean in some sense it was OK, but most of th time it sucked because it was sort of a boy's club where almost everyone was 19 or 20 years old. After you serve breakfast you get to serve yourself in a small dining room away from the main dining hall, where they had a few TV's up on the wall like everywhere else. Except the waiters could have gave a rat's ass about the daily text, because we had to listen in as we ate, meaning that our total "morning worship" time was about cut in half of what everyone else had. And, of course, eating breakfast is infinitely more important than listening to Barber going on about Catholics and baggy pants, so the program (played back on the CCTV system for a second round) was basically drowned out by our eating and chatting. At first, I was all pissed off because I really wanted to listen to the program, so I was all glaring at the other boys and nudging them to keep quiet. I was completely ignored, and good thing I was, because I would have made a fool of myself, since I didn't realize this was the only time we had to eat.

  So we ate then got back to our chores of cleaning up the tables, running the dishwashing machines, carting stuff in and out of the kitchen, etc. That wasn't ny only job at Wallkill, I also worked in the kitchen for a while, the commisarry, and the food warehouse.
• 

  badboy

  ITS GOOD TO HEAR MORE!
• 

  tijkmo

  At first, I was all pissed off because I really wanted to listen to the program, so I was all glaring at the other boys and nudging them to keep quiet

  rofl

  man i can so relate to that