by bronzefist 101 Replies latest jw friends
Some was, some wasn't depending on your taste.
The only time I helped with food service at a D.C. was in Greensboro N.C.
I really don't remember what I did at the time.
C.A.'s were a different story. At the Grantville Assembly Hall my father was one of the cooks and I got drafted to make pizza.
It wasn't that bad as there were always young sisters who wanted to help.
I always found the food to be very good for the most part.
However - I am still totally puzzled by the Watchtower logic on this: So what if they collected sales tax and remitted it to the government? This is forbidden by some weird sense of religious rights that they have?
There is a financial cost to collecting and remitting sales taxes and preparing the information returns required by the various jurisdictions. Sales tax is a revenue for the states, not the federal government here in the USA. Each state has its own filing requirements, and the costs of administration (collection and remittance and information return preparation for each state) were something the Watchtower was simply too cheap to shoulder.
Most if not all Watchtower decisions can be traced to a financial motive.
144001, again I think you are probably right.
Of course, the Society itself would probably not have gotten it's hands dirty with any tax collection - they would have just pushed it off onto the "publishers" who did the retail sales. The WTBTS is wholesale!
After all, the whole literature sales thing was a scam from day one. It was in actuality paid for by the publishers themselves - I don't know anybody, pioneers included, who ever got as much money back from the public as they spent at the literature counter. Most of the magazines ended up in car trunks, to be finally cleaned out and burned or thrown away.
In the old days, it was considered a serious infraction of the rules to "give away" the literature (which is exactly what they are doing now, it seems -). You would get a serious talking to about how this was valuable spiritual food and we should be faithful in extracting it's proper price, so as not to undermine the worldwide work.
But, back to the food service - isn't it just a little ironic that this (group assembly with food service) was one one of the few truly scriptural aspects of the JW life? Jesus with the loaves & fishes, comments on feasts, the last supper, etc.? Oh well, just toss it on the trash heap - we can't be bothered by governmental regulations.
However - I am still totally puzzled by the Watchtower logic on this: So what if they collected sales tax and remitted it to the government?
I can understand their not wanting to do the extra work. I resented it when Canada brought in the goods and services tax (GST). Prior to that my service oriented business was not required to collect tax. Once I had to start collecting taxes, I had an increase of overhead and work, but no renumeration for it. I became one of millions of the government's unpaid tax collecters.
W
What sticks with me the most is Yankee Stadium, in about 300 degress of heat, sticking to those horrible plastic flip chairs; and the bathroom smell used to make me want to puke.
Anybody around then -- 70s and 80s at Yankee Stadium???
From the first assembly we attended, probably in 1940, my father and us older kids worked in the kitchen at the local assemblies. We would arrive early and start preparations. I don't remember a kitchen in St. Louis in 1941, but my parents worked in a "refreshment stand" and us kids were on our own. We attended all the big conventions from that time on.
I was married for the three big New York Yankee Stadium assemblies. We did not work there. I do remember the long bathroom lines though. In 1953 we had a son and my husband took him to the men's bathrooms which were easy, no lines, but in 1958 we had a daughter too and it got to the point that my husband took her to the men's too because she could not wait in the long lines at her age (4).
My husband was in food service at the CA in California for most of our married life, including being cafeteria servant. He was CS for the big Rose Bowl Assembly for the Spanish. Although the DO tried to discourage us from catering to the Mexican taste, Joe made beans and rice and converted the breakfast scrambled eggs to huevos rancheros. The DO found out about it and told him to feed them the same things that the English-speaking assembly was serving. Joe was a little incensed that he was so insensitive. Our kids, a son and 3 daughters, were raised working in the kitchen from the time they were able. I understand that just before we left they made a rule about you had to be 14 before you could work. Joe was not a professional cook, but the food he made was outstanding. We always had fried chicken, mashed potatoes (sometimes from scratch) salad and canned veggies which he seasoned with butter. On sundays we had roast beef. All our breakfasts were with the eggs to order and our kids learned how to flip eggs for over easy. At the Long Beach Assembly back in the 60s we rolled thousands of enchiladas, until Joe got the ideas to chop up the tortillas and "invented" enchilada pie. We all had a great time and I think that working together was the best bonding time we had. When else does an elder have time to be with his family? It was the best time of our JW life.
Velta
Casper our circuit assemblies had a table aside from the cafeteria Line that offered, snack foods, like sandwiches, potato chips, pizza, icecream etc, usually in the same area as the cafeteria but not as crowded and no line ups usually/ I opted for these when I was a teenager. That was in Ontario Canada. Everything changed not long after I left the Borg.
Velvet
CASPER, Eliveleth reminded me what the snack tables were called. REFRESHMENT STANDs!!!!
Thanks Velvet...
As far as I know, we never had such at our Assemblies or DC.
I wish we had, sounds like it would have been a nice alternative, especially if the regular lines were too long.
There used to be some vending machines at the DC, but of course we were not allowed to use them...
Cas
Didn't the hot food program end when the phoney "donation arrangement" for the literature start? I always thought the stampede to fill your home library with "free" literature had something to do with closing down the hot food program.
brzfst
LOL at the Shasta ad!
I remember the good Spanish chicken and yellow rice meals on Saturdays and on Sunday it was usually macaroni with ground beef, carrots and peas. I think they also had pizza squares, but I cant be certain. I remember the soft serve ice cream, those were the highlight for me. For breakfast it was usually pancakes, egg muffins or grilled white cheese on smashed hot dog buns. For some reason I liked those and whenever I crave grilled cheese I'll put it on a hot dog bun. Comforting I guess. When they did away with the hot meals, they served these guava pastries that I liked and I used to like the chicken pattie sandwiches too, but you had to run to get them because they would finish really fast.
