[TheForge] ABANA is NOT dead...

[Jerry Frost]

From: "ries" <ries at riesniemi.com>


>
>
> The Ice Cream thing is kinda referring to Richmond- 
> at that Abana  conference, you got a credit card 
> thingy to swipe at the cafeteria  cash register, and 
> then you could eat anything you wanted.  They had  a 
> soft serve icecream machine, and the other 
> blacksmiths (not me, oh  no, not me) ate so much that 
> the darn thing went empty about 3 times  a day.
>
>
> Ries Niemi
> Industrial Artist
> http://www.riesniemi.com/
>



Oh MAN, that reminds me of camp life on the North 
Slope. There wasn't much to do except work, eat and 
sleep, maybe a game or two of ping pong, pool, etc. 
after dinner but only if you'd had a slow day.

Anyway, one christmas they sent the breakfast cook on 
about a month long vacation and brought in a sub. The 
breakfast cook was also the baker, worked all night and 
went off shift right after breakfast. Well, one shift 
we ended up working pretty late of a rush job and came 
back to camp about 10:00pm. It was well after dinner 
but there was always plenty to eat and a microwave 
available.

There were seven of us stumbled into the mess hall, not 
really hungry but with our stomachs almost hurting. We 
spread out getting or making sandwiches, salads, 
deserts, beverages, etc. I got to the hot line where 
there were always a couple steam trays with leftover 
roasts and what ever else was on the menue that 
evening. All of a sudden my nose was assailed by the 
scent of doghnuts and I could hear the deep frier 
making that peculiar and VERY special frying doughnut 
sound.

I leaned over the counter and seeing the cook was free 
for a bit watching the doughuts I asked him for one 
right out of the oil. He tried to give me one from the 
cooling rack, promising they were still hot. Nope, I 
wanted one right out of the oil.

I thanked him hastily as he dropped one on a plate and 
handed it to me. Hastily because the second it was in 
my hot little hands I was beating feet to the icecream 
machine.

Dude, that doughnut was so hot the icecream sizzled 
when it hit the hole! I can't describe how wonderful 
that tasted. I also didn't know how hungry I was till I 
forked in the first bite; I was famished and still 
savored every bite. Then I finished filling my plate 
with roast meat (I don't recall what critter but it was 
good.) potatoes, gravy, veggies and other stuff. In 
those days they fed you really well, the prime rib and 
lobster days were a couple years past but there was 
always lots of really good food. It was really hard not 
to pack on the lbs.

Anyway, from then on, there were always a dozen or so 
guys standing around at night talking to the baker, 
waiting for their fresh hot doughnut.

It's one of my favorite memories from the North Slope.

Frosty
-------------------------------
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it ain't real.
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Meadow Lakes, AK.

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