#Middlebury #Seniors
Those in power at the senior center have now decreed that we will have the annual Christmas dinner indoors instead of out in the parking lot. This flash of brilliance came after they received a number of responses that were more along the lines of “Are you crazy?” rather than the expected RSVPs.
The original plan was to spread tables across the asphalt outside, with culinary arts students bringing food and drink out from the kitchen in the center, and to park a bunch of senior citizens outside in the cold in the middle of December in New England to eat that dinner.
Saner heads prevailed, I hear, when a retired nurse posed the question: “And just how many of our members do you suppose are going to end up in the hospital after two hours of exposure to outdoor December temperatures?” The student chef, I also hear, claimed that he’d been asked to provide a “hot dinner” and wasn’t thrilled about having to work for hours over hot stoves only to have his creations subjected to icy temperatures.
As of now, the dinner will be indoors with fewer tables. Santa will still arrive via limo, and the high school chorus will still sing (although they’ll be out in the hall as there is no place for all of them in the actual room). Watch this space, however, because I hear there is a movement afoot (as well as a petition from members) to ditch the sit-down dinner completely and instead have a standup event with finger foods arrayed on tables and a cash bar over in the corner.
“We want to see our friends and mingle” has been the cry (as well as what is written on the petition). “We want some good dance music” penciled in one signer. In a perfect world, the powers-that-be would have asked the members first.
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