From: Deb Morrow (corzines@SIU.EDU)
Date: Tue Jun 27 2000 - 10:43:43 CDT
Maybe table manners aren't taught in most households these
days, but for one week, or a long weekend, or any other Scouting
event, the boys (and sometimes leaders) need to be given basic
lessons.
1) Hats off when you enter the dining hall, or another inside
eating space (HATS DO NOT GET PUT ON THE
TABLES OR FOOD PREPARATION AREAS -- can
you see this might have been a pet peeve this past week?)
2) No combing or brushing of hair (or mustache) in the
dining hall or eating area.
3) Hands are to be washed on the palm-side (and also
the back-side -- imagine, there's two sides to a hand!).
3) Wait until everyone is at the table and some sort of
grace or silence is maintained. If a general grace is given
(as at a dining hall), then just wait until everyone is seated.
4) No eating with your mouth full (you have to remember
all those questions you're dying to ask).
5) Ask for pitchers and platters and condiments, don't reach
across someone else's eating space (Question for the
day, do the boys know the word "Condiment"?)
6) Forearms on the table? Okay if there's room. Elbows on
the table? Definitely not.
7) Please ask to be excused when you wish to leave -- also
using the words "please," "thank you," and "excuse me"
makes for a wonderful meal.
8) Leaders should set the example.
If you haven't been able to tell, our troop just came back from a
wonderful, wet week at Camp Drake near Danville IL, where the
boys had a great time, the food was good, and the staff were
terrific. Each boy was asleep by 10pm, so tired were they! This
was a camp where the staff ran evening activities, and the troop
leaders were encouraged to join in the fun -- not as our troop has
otherwise experienced it when there were activities for the evening,
but the troop leadership had to arrange all of it. Our boys had
swimming and boating fun, hikes, games, and a bunch of merit badges
(completed and partials) for the week.
http://www.prairienet.org/bsatroop104/Prairielands/drake/
Oh, and they also learned manners, probably only for the week,
but it's a start!
Deb Morrow
corzines@siu.edu
