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Post by Crucis#1 on Sept 8, 2020 12:20:43 GMT -5
Since our discussion regarding sports at HC for the current time is limited, seems like food would be a topic that we could all discuss without getting into too much trouble. 🍔🌮🥪🍎🥑🥦🥕🥯🧀🍳 While many of us were at HC, we had stories and complaints about Ma Kimball. From Mystery Meat, to Speckled Death, the menu was always subject to criticism and nicknames to the various items that made up our dining experience. I found this article from HC Magazine discussing Mother Kimball. magazine.holycross.edu/issue_50_1/kimballKimball has evolved from my first dinner on a Saturday evening freshmen year. Long gone are the set meal times for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. The authors captured some of the highlights from that era, I would be interesting to hear those from our fellow Crossporters. I just hope the vintage alum refrain from the unseemly names that were given to some of the meals served. Sader1970, you know precisely the references. 🤣 The HC Dining experience has substantially improved since some of us enjoyed a meal or two each day. According to the article by College Consensus, Kimball now provides one of the top collegiate dining destinations in the nation. At the time of the survey, the ranking, for HC is #4, regarding College Dining Halls. www.collegeconsensus.com/rankings/best-college-dining-halls/ |
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Post by Crucis#1 on Sept 8, 2020 12:33:17 GMT -5
Many of us also have children who are currently in college or have completed their collegiate dining. I would also like to hear stories about dining at other institutions.
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Post by newfieguy74 on Sept 8, 2020 13:02:33 GMT -5
My four children, each of whom attended a college other than HC, all had the generic complaints about their dining hall food. I often joke that none of them ever ate breakfast during their college years. I, on the other hand, almost always went to breakfast in lower Kimball, enjoying breakfast with the few other students who came down for that meal. I've always been a three-meals-a-day guy, then and now. I told my parents they got a lot of bang for their buck since I ate every meal at HC. I'm curious how many other people regularly went to breakfast.
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Post by longsuffering on Sept 8, 2020 14:09:39 GMT -5
To this day, whenever I see "roast beef au jus" on the menu I get an involuntary gag reflex.  Actually, the food wasn't bad. The family style dining was conducive to getting to know people. After the Bob Cousy book presentation in the Kimball auditorium a couple of years ago, my brother and I went upstairs and paid ($12 I think) to eat as guests. It was cafeteria and buffet style which I am sure has been modified for Covid. The pizza selection and salad bars were nice features and it had kind of chef stations for the different entrees. My brother participates in W.I.S.E. (Worcester Institute for Senior Education) and attends classes at Assumption with access to their dining hall. He thought the Assumption food was a little better, but he's a BC grad so he doesn't have good taste. I wish I had attended breakfast more as a student, but generally skipped it, regrettably. |
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Post by hchoops on Sept 8, 2020 14:43:45 GMT -5
Occasionally I woke for a.weekend breakfast which was far superior to the weekday fare in the mid 60s.
My best experience with Ma K was on the freshman hoops team which ate with the varsity, at least on game days, when we dined with the football training table during their season only, steak or filet mignon.
The time after that was good enough, but no more fillet.
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Post by longsuffering on Sept 8, 2020 14:52:47 GMT -5
Occasionally I woke for a.weekend breakfast which was far superior to the weekday fare in the mid 60s. My best experience with Ma K was on the freshman hoops team which ate with the varsity, at least on game days, when we dined with the football training table during their season only, steak or filet mignon. The time after that was good enough, but no more fillet. Maybe Father Sullivan the College Business Manager figured football players needed muscle more than basketball players. |
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Post by CHC8485 on Sept 8, 2020 15:00:12 GMT -5
Went to breakfast most mornings at Kimball all 4 years - primarily because as a Chemistry major, I almost always had a class or lab that began before 9:00 AM. Always remember the one, I think, Polish woman who served eggs each morning asking, "You want fry or scram?" Generally I went with the scrambled because the fried looked like they may have been sunny side up AND down!
Never had major complaints about the food, though. It wasn't anything special but could almost always find something to eat - even if just a burger off the grill - though Sunday night dinners were always an adventure in blandness - nothing like spaghetti and tomato sauce. And I dont mean Ragu or Prego tomato sauce, I'm talking straight out of the can Hunt's.
I was in Kimball for the fairly spontaneous no more chicken protest in the the spring of '82(?) when one football player went all Howard Beale on the Kimball fare, was mad as hell and wasn't going to take it any more, stood up on one of the tables, ranted a bit and started a prolonged NO MORE CHICKEN chant that the rest of the dining room joined in on..
In the Fall of my Sophomore year, Dean Schroth implemented the Holy Cross Daily News - an 8.5" x 11" single page flyer printed on both sides with all the things happening on campus that day and a smattering of other things to know including that day's Kimball menu. The HCDN was placed in a number of drop boxes in Hogan and I think Kimball very early each morning by the student staff who put it together.
Of course many student mocked the HCDN and it's staff as the propaganda arm and sycophants of the Dean. The first year it was in existence, on April 1 some enterprising pranksters created their own version of the HCDN, printed it and replaced the real version at a couple of the distribution points.\
The Kimball menu that day ... chicken. It wasn't quite Bubba from Forest Gump and shrimp, but the options that day were
...chicken soup, chicken croquettes, fried chicken, chicken pot pie, chicken patties AND chicken chicken
Dean Schroth never impressed me as having much of a sense of humor and I always wondered what he thought of that piece of satire.
Somewhere in my archives I have a copy of that version of the HCDN. Will see if I can dig it out and post a picture of it here.
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Post by sader1970 on Sept 8, 2020 15:04:57 GMT -5
Crucis, I am sure that I am not the only one who can recall some "off-color" names for some of the meals.
A couple of observations about Mother Kimball.
First, probably in the HC Magazine in the following issue you cited, there were letters to the editor. My brother (ex-'68, '69) who usually has nothing to say about Holy Cross (he thinks I "brainwash" my grandchildren because I give them HC stuff) took it upon himself to write a letter to the editor to criticize our late mother for being such a lousy Irish cook that Kimball tasted great by comparison. [P.S. big brother doesn't post here, so I have no fear of successful contradiction.]
While there might be an element of truth to that, Kimball was objectively great institutional food. In those days, Kimball was staffed by HC people not farmed out to SODEXHO or other such 3rd parties. The staff seemed to take great pride in the quality (and quantity) of the food served. Not having two nickels to rub together, I think I ate at least 98% of the available meals - yes, including weekend breakfasts. My favorite was the steak and plead guilty for the hidden chair gambit to get an extra steak or split one with a buddy.
I've posted before that my Dad ('42) was acknowledged as the Holy Cross ice cream eating champ while on campus. So said he and so says his yearbook.
My favorite memory of Kimball, however, was not the food, it was the Christmas banquet with the Holy Cross Glee Club (all-male in those days for the youngsters) accompanied by a women's choral group from one of the Catholic all-girls' school. Believe it was a different school each year. The Christmas carols would honestly make me choke up and long to get home to the family but tempered with knowing I would be apart from my buddies. Those singers were the best but maybe because I was listening with my heart, not my ears.
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Post by CHC8485 on Sept 8, 2020 15:28:37 GMT -5
Agree. The Christmas banquet was special.
By the 1980s family style was gone an it was cafeteria service, EXCEPT for the Christmas banquet.
IIRC they has 2 seatings, one for Freshman & Sophomores, one for juniors and seniors with the meals served by non-student servers. Always held on the last day of first semester classes with roast beef or steak, not the standard Kimball fare either, for the meal. Everyone dressed semi-formal for the banquet and I believe a dance was held in the fieldhouse or ballroom later that night.
A great celebration every year.
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Post by KY Crusader 75 on Sept 8, 2020 15:40:35 GMT -5
I believe I have posted this before, but I'll risk repeating it because I think it's a good story.
The consensus in my freshman year was that the food at Kimball was horrible. We hated it so much that we decided to do something about it. I formed a group I called W.I.C.K. (Wheeler Improvement Committee for Kimball) and created a survey (using the mimeograph, a device younger board members may never have seen) which we delivered to every resident of Wheeler Dorm with instructions to please fill out the form that we would come back to pick up in a couple of days. We went back at the appointed time to collect the surveys. I recall knocking on the door of some massive, angry football player who hollered out a nasty "Who is it?" and when we said we were collecting the survey the guy threw open the door and could not have been nicer. That's an example of how happy people were to participate--very high percentage of participation.
I tabulated the responses and wrote a letter to the food director--I believe his name was John T Quirk -- and asked to meet with him. He agreed to meet with us. He was not very happy with the low ratings Wheeler residents gave his food. I recall him saying "We don't serve junk here". I recall distinctly him saying "We make everything here from scratch. The only thing we buy from the outside is the lasagna". He was not pleased when I responded that, according to the survey, the lasagna (maybe from Stouffer's?) was by far the highest scoring item to the "favorite meal" question. We had a productive meeting and discussed our suggestions for improving Mother Kimball. I'm happy to report that Mr. Quirk did implement a number of the changes we suggested--I recall, for example, that we suggested that we have peanut butter available so one could make a PB sandwich if the entree was inedible, and peanut butter soon became regularly available. I like to think we did some good work that benefitted the whole campus. The next year, of course, HC went co-ed and Mother Kimball made many more changes to accommodate women--more salads for example.
Visiting Kimball once when daughter #1 went to HC I was blown away by all the better choices available.
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Post by Crucis#1 on Sept 8, 2020 15:40:58 GMT -5
As 70 can attest, the HCDN, was a successor and probably a bad rip off of a HC daily newspaper started in the fall semester of 1968, called “Today”. Today also contained the daily menu, but was not a definitely not the propaganda arm of the Dean, who at the time was Fr. Brooks. Today was created on an 8.5x11 paper, sometimes two or three pages, that went to press at 3:00 PM using an old fashion mimeograph machine. I remember it well, as I was the subscription editor. Today sold for 5 cents in front of Kimball, just hot off the press at 5PM. We thought of it as being a combination of Rolling Stone and the Advocate 😎. Today provided news daily, while the Crusader was weekly. One of our writers and editors later worked for the Wall Street Journal, another worked for N.Y. 1 Cable in NYC. 8485, Not sure if you are aware that Fr. Schroth recently passed on July1, 2020. I saw this mention on the Fordham Board by Lefty54 who is quoted below: “I received word that Father Ray Schroth passed away yesterday evening. A graduate of Fordham College in 1955, Ray went on to become a Jesuit, teacher, journalist, and author. For many of us from the late 1960s and 1970s, Ray was a very influential figure at Rose Hill. I got to know him during my years in A House in Martyrs Court where he was the Jesuit in Residence. Ray swam daily at Fordham and ran several marathons. He was quite active until a late summer fall in the summer of 2017. He never fully recovered but I was grateful for the opportunityhttps://fuforum.createaforum.com/general-university-topics/ray-schroth-s-j-rip/ to visit Ray in his final days at Murray Weigel Hall, usually before taking in a basketball or football game. RIP Ray!” [/quote] If you are registered on the Fordham Board, you can view the thread: fuforum.createaforum.com/general-university-topics/ray-schroth-s-j-rip/I have not seen any mentions of his passing in correspondence from HC. |
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Post by WCHC Sports on Sept 8, 2020 16:04:46 GMT -5
In the mid 2000s, there were still set dining times at the Kimball main hall. They didn't switch to having all-day options until my Jr. or Sr. year. The best meals then? Chicken Parm (suitable for HC, but as a kid from Yonkers, it paled in comparison to real Italian), chicken footballs, Belgian waffle irons, and soft serve with cereal in it. The salad bar was nice. Lower Kimball had better "junk" food, and I was at one point probably the president of the Chicken Club Sub Fan Club (Thursdays).
The best part of Kimball was Sis, who always swiped our cards. Had two roommates who worked at Kimball so we got to know her a little closer than the average student, although she was a saint to all Crusaders. What a fantastic, nice lady.
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Post by Crucis#1 on Sept 8, 2020 16:08:30 GMT -5
75, the food director was John Quirk.
About 13 years ago, I was exchanging pleasantries with a colleague at work, who was 4 years older than me. Dennis went to Syracuse, played against HC and was member of the 1967 team. After graduation he was selected by the 49ers. Dennis had a few funny stories to tell about his college teammates including Larry Csonka.
When we got around to discussing my background, I mentioned HC. Dennis was originally from Worcester and asked me if I remembered Mr. Quirk. Turns out that Dennis was married to Mr. Quirk’s daughter. We had a laugh when I told him about the names we had for some of the items on the menu his father in law was responsible while I was at school.
Anyone remember or participate in a food fight similar to Animal House? Kimball rolls being tossed? Large Kimball trays being dropped and the entire dining hall erupting in applause?
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Post by KY Crusader 75 on Sept 8, 2020 16:31:50 GMT -5
I recall one big food fight with scallops which were rubbery and bounced around nicely after first impact.
The assist director was Mister Mooney who was an affable guy. I think he ran lower kimball. We used to holler for him to come out and then harangue him for having “Salad dressing” packets instead of real mayonnaise when we had BLT’s which were actually decent. He relented and we got the mayo instead of the vile Miracle Whip or knockoff
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Post by hchoops on Sept 8, 2020 16:31:52 GMT -5
There were a few notable food fights between ‘63 and ‘67.
The first our freshman class saw in the fall of ‘63 shocked most of us, as we were more the recipients. After that we held our own.
The HC version of hazing.
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Actually, the food wasn't bad. The family style dining was conducive to getting to know people. After the Bob Cousy book presentation in the Kimball auditorium a couple of years ago, my brother and I went upstairs and paid ($12 I think) to eat as guests. It was cafeteria and buffet style which I am sure has been modified for Covid. The pizza selection and salad bars were nice features and it had kind of chef stations for the different entrees. My brother participates in W.I.S.E. (Worcester Institute for Senior Education) and attends classes at Assumption with access to their dining hall. He thought the Assumption food was a little better, but he's a BC grad so he doesn't have good taste.
