Stories from the Stringam Family Ranches of Southern Alberta

From the 50s and 60s to today . . .



Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Political Bananas

I've been reading about the politics being played out in some organizations in the modern world.
Even churches have their internal power struggles and vying for position.
It reminds me of our church suppers.
Maybe I should explain . . .
In the sixties, we had Church Socials.
Big pot luck dinners.
For any and all occasions.
Christmas.
Easter.
New Years.
Fall.
Thursday.
They were fun.
Everyone would show up with their large families and a huge dish – or dishes - of something delicious to share.
The food would be arranged on a long series of tables. Everyone would load a plate. And the visiting would begin.
Good food.
Good friends.
It was a wonderful way to spend an afternoon or evening.
Invariably, there would be someone’s Grandma’s recipe for home-fried chicken.
And many, many incarnations of potato/meat casseroles.
Salads by the creative and colourful dozens.
Home-made rolls just begging for a large dollop of freshly churned butter.
And desserts of enough variety and inevitable tastiness, to make decision-making difficult to impossible.
But there was one draw back.
As with all pot lucks, the first in line got the most choices.
Made quickly to avoid ‘pot luck crush’. 
What is ‘Pot Luck Crush’? Imagine a river, dammed by a small obstruction. Pressure builds. Finally, the obstruction is yelled at by some starving individual and threatened with oblivion.
Pot Luck Crush.
My cousin, Reed was usually the first in line.
He had made an art of choosing – and heaping - quickly.
His favourites were the salads.
I should mention here, that two of the most popular salad dishes were the green jello salad.
With shredded carrots.
And the yellow jello salad.
With sliced bananas.
The carrots in the carrot salad tended to be suspended throughout.
The bananas, however, inevitably rose to the top.
And that’s where Reed came in. He could deftly and expertly – and quickly - scrape the entire layer of bananas from the salad.
Then move happily on to the rest of the offered dishes.
His actions weren’t popular. Usually, from further back in the line, there would be a howl of protest.
Reed would just grin. The you-should-have-tried-harder-to-be-first-in-line grin.
The rest of the assembly would be stuck with banana-less salad.
Or what amounted to plain lemon jello.
But the sheer volume of other dishes soon silenced any further protest.
And before long, everyone was happily munching.
Until the next time.
When Reed would again slip deftly and expertly to the front of the line.
Yes. Even in the sixties, we had church politics.
The difference was that they were fought over bananas.
Hmm . . . 
Maybe not so different after all.

10 comments:

  1. Someone should have figured out not to put the banana salad out until after Reed went through the line!

    ReplyDelete
  2. That would have driven me nuts. Reed probably should have been put at the END of the line, LOL!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lucky I was too young to notice. I would definitely have said something. Or several somethings.

      Delete
  3. Oh how I remember the ever present jello salad...ours usually with small marshmallows floating on the top. We too had the "large eater" at the front of the line and moaning followers.

    I do suppose thay politics is all about the greedy need for attention fueled by the promise of what you might get if you ever reach the front of the line. :)

    Be well.

    b+

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jello salad? I have heard of it, but it isn't served here. With or without bananas.
    Love the link to politics. And would like to limit their haul to bananas.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Can't you just see it? Banana payments for banana politicians?!

      Delete
  5. I have the solution. place a layer of bananas and cover with cooled jello, leave until beginning to set. Add another layer of bananas, cover with cooled jello, leave until beginning to set firm enough to hold the bananas in place. Continue thusly until the bowl is filled with bananas suspended in jello layers. it could take a while and you will have to make new batches of jello because each batch will set while waiting to be poured over bananas, but you can feed the excess to the kids and make a multi coloured multi flavoured banana-jello salad. Lemon, lime, raspberry...

    ReplyDelete

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