|
Post by Paws on Jul 15, 2007 3:20:37 GMT 12.75
The Camp Cook by Paws July 14, 2007 Cookie, Grubby, Old Mother Hen, sometimes Belly Robber, Hash Slinger, or worse he's named by his men. First to rise to stir up the fire he roasts, grinds, and brews coffee to nobody's ire. Unless it's the jokers who start at first light. The way they harangue him you'd think they wanted a fight. "Hey Cookie, did you wash your socks in that pot? " "I got a horse shoe here let's see if it will float!" But old Cookie's too wise to let them get his goat. Hot biscuits of sourdough, then fried steaks and baked beans, fried potatoes with chili spiced gravy to fill out their jeans. Forks scraping, muffed chewing and breaking dawn; only soft muffled sounds cause nobody's complaining while breakfast's passed round. Fresh warm pie he portions each man. Then adds to a poke beef jerky by hand. Fresh biscuits he breaks and fills with hot meat. Then wraps them and adds to the poke sacks his men will soon eat. Apples or pears an orange, maybe a carrot or two a measure of raisins, prunes or apricots for each man's dinner will do. "Eat your fruit, take your salt, drink your water." He shouts with a grin. "And don't waste your chow you might get hungry again." "If you want to take coffee bring your thermos here round, where you're headed this morning there's none to be found." In the mines, at spike camp, on the yards, at trail head or on horseback his men won't be hungry; with the noon meal he's packed. As the men mount up and ride out abandoning camp Old Cookie thinks to himself , "Six AM; been workin' since three, I'd sure like a nap." No time to relax there's way too much work, no time to dawdle, no time to shirk. He fills his own plate with breakfast now cold but ne'er you worry for he's survived worse. Had he needed it hot he'd have eaten his first. A nice roast beef dinner for supper he plans. But first there's the matter of dishes, cups, pots and pans. So up go his sleeves as hot water he pours into dish pans, three each, as he continues his chores. One pan for scrubbing one pan for a rinse one more just for safety for what he just might have missed. First glassware then silver, then dishes then pans. No need to change water when he follows this plan. The dish pans themselves are the last to be cleaned and contents poured in the grease trap their refuse to glean. Then all wiped to dry and stacked neatly away. It's almost 6:30 and there's still a full day. In stainless steel kitchens on stoves of cast iron over flame licking campfires, and glowing red coals he grills and he bakes, he fries, roasts and broils. For lumberjacks, miners, cowboys and hunters of game to him makes no matter for the work's still the same. Up before dawn breaks and workin' all day through dusk then twilight then dark till the last clean cup for the night's put away. The camp's now grown quiet the sky fills with stars as he strikes match to tobacco and tends the last fires. Neath this canopy of peace he remembers his youth and the first old cook he worked for who taught him this truth, he smiles recalling this wisdom he first heard as a teen, from the lips of old cookie; "Son you've got time to work, if you've got time to lean." Paws Jul 14 2007
|
|
|
Post by Paws on Jul 15, 2007 15:12:34 GMT 12.75
Doesn't anybody like my freakin' poem?
|
|
|
Post by Mars on Jul 15, 2007 20:29:57 GMT 12.75
I was leaving the critique to the writer of the group.
|
|
|
Post by Bro. Freddie on Jul 16, 2007 2:59:32 GMT 12.75
Doesn't anybody like my freakin' poem? I like it. I don't know what to do with it or about it, but I like it. ;D
|
|
|
Post by Paws on Jul 16, 2007 5:20:33 GMT 12.75
Thank you Pastor.
|
|
|
Post by Toby Benoit on Jul 16, 2007 9:24:36 GMT 12.75
Sorry Paws, I missed it.
You set a good scene albeit a bleak one. Sumbitch gonna work himself into an early grave. ;D
|
|
|
Post by geiyserq on Jul 17, 2007 1:46:49 GMT 12.75
Thats pretty good Paws. Is that something you've been working on or did it just come to you as you were typing it?
I like it.
|
|
|
Post by Two Tales on Jul 17, 2007 3:25:46 GMT 12.75
I like it...reminds me of some folks I used to know long ago...nost of them wold not have had it any other way..takes a special breed of folk to do that work and stick with it for very long... thanks
|
|
|
Post by Paws on Jul 17, 2007 6:25:36 GMT 12.75
Thanks guys, appreciate it. I would like to do like my Junior HS English teacher, MRS Luddy, would do and say; "Now, just exactly what did the author mean when he wrote this?" I can't do that to you though cause that's dirty pool and relies on opinion. Seemed like my opinion of "what the author meant" never had anything to do with the author meant; according to MRS Luddy. GQ I did spend a good deal of time workking on this because I'm trying to say some things that might not be too awpparant to the casual reader. I wanted to say that the work ethic is important no matter who you are and that it is an internally motivated thing. I wanted to say how important the smallest thing that needs to be done is and that importance transcends itself and fixes it's credit upon the person who chooses to do it and do it to the best of their ability. I wanted to say that self actualization or success is a matter of perception and that happiness can only be measured by one's self. I wanted to say that happiness is a personal choice and a matter of of atitude. I wanted to say that love, care, concern and wisdom can be shared through the most trivial things and simple single acts of mundane, routine, and unimportance. I wanted to say that the loudest shout is best achieved through a whisper. Most importantly I wanted to give these hard, worn and wise men a tribute for their every day selfless dedication to their craft and their charges. It still needs work I can see but I think I got the central themes in there OK. Anybody got a good idea for a title?
|
|
|
Post by geiyserq on Jul 17, 2007 6:36:53 GMT 12.75
Uhhhhh, Paws.............I hate to pull a Mrs. Luddy on you but..................WRONG AGAIN..........that isn't what the author's opinion was on this piece.
And, I would have bet money you were gonna get this one right! ;D ;D ;D
JK of course!
|
|
|
Post by Paws on Jul 17, 2007 6:42:02 GMT 12.75
|
|
|
Post by Toby Benoit on Jul 17, 2007 7:33:31 GMT 12.75
I was kinda scared it was a subliminal message to us that you're feeling over worked and under appreciated again.
Had me sppoked again! ;D
Yep, you have a strong central theme. The selfless devotion to duty and pride in a job well done comes across well. Why though is he a cook and not a cowboy?
Was it true, as so many old westerns elude to, that the "cookie" was too old to sit the saddle, or had a gimp leg or bad back or some other infirmity that kept them from cowboying, therefore the foreman put him in charge of the food?
Wasn't the cook many times also the doctor, the teacher, father figure, and spiritual advisor to the cowboys on the trail?
My favorite movie camp cook? Mr. Nightslinger from the movie, "The Cowboys" with John Wayne. The cook was a censored , but he was a proud one who kept a good kitchen.
Hey, there's a good topic!
|
|
|
Post by Paws on Jul 17, 2007 8:20:34 GMT 12.75
I was kinda scared it was a subliminal message to us that you're feeling over worked and under appreciated again. Had me sppoked again! ;D Yep, you have a strong central theme. The selfless devotion to duty and pride in a job well done comes across well. Why though is he a cook and not a cowboy? Was it true, as so many old westerns elude to, that the "cookie" was too old to sit the saddle, or had a gimp leg or bad back or some other infirmity that kept them from cowboying, therefore the foreman put him in charge of the food? Wasn't the cook many times also the doctor, the teacher, father figure, and spiritual advisor to the cowboys on the trail? My favorite movie camp cook? Mr. Nightslinger from the movie, "The Cowboys" with John Wayne. The cook was a *** , but he was a proud one who kept a good kitchen. Hey, there's a good topic! The cook as a broke down hand is just a movie rumor. In fact the camp cook was the second highest paid employee on the drive and sometimes the highest paid. He had more authority than anyone including the trail boss. Most folk don't know that he indeed was skilled at preparing the food and had proven himself to be such else he didn't get hired. He knew the off the shelf medicine of the day, husbandry, astronomy, herding, could read sine, could usually read and write, knew his arithmetic and was sometimes responsible for keeping the books. The function of "cowboy" was a very lowly profession just slightly above town drunk and somewhat lower than town whore. These men were not skilled, could not or would not hold regular work, were mostly hiding from something or of temporary affairs looking to improve themselves somewhere else at the end of the trail. They tended to be younger men strong enough to endure the hardships of the drive and survive. Naturally the cook, usually somewhat older than the cowboys became more or less the father figure and as such the informal group leader. Since he could read and write he often taught the skills to those willing to learn. His craft was learned at home from the women folk or at the side of other cooks he had served his time with as their helpers or "Mary" as the cook's helper was often called.
|
|
|
Post by Bro. Freddie on Jul 17, 2007 9:54:40 GMT 12.75
Kinda sounds like a preachers job too huh??
|
|
|
Post by Paws on Jul 17, 2007 10:51:08 GMT 12.75
You are exactly right. Something about serving without secular rewards I believe.
|
|
|
Post by Snake Eyes on Jul 31, 2007 23:52:30 GMT 12.75
Paws, I play that role at deer camp every year! I love doing it.Dutch ovens and slow cookers help a great deal, as they give me time to get my hunting in. I get up, prepare breakfast,clean up pots and pans,eat, and I'm ready to go hunting.Lunch is cold sandwiches and some kind of soup(usually prepared prior to camp) Chili and veggie/beef are favorites. At the lunch break is when I will start the slow cooker or dutch oven,sometimes both,with some kind of beef or pork pot roast.Later in the week usually venison,hopefully. One day of the week we cook out out on the grill for dinner. Dogs,burgers and roasted corn. The one good thing about being camp cook is nobody plays jokes on the cook.There are just too many ways for the cook to get even This is by no means a primitive camp, but a cabin in the hills of Vinton County. Electric kitchen,lights and hot water heater(which allows for showers). Usually 8 to 10 hunters but have had as many as 16 for at least part of the week. snake-eyes
|
|
|
Post by Paws on Aug 1, 2007 0:32:44 GMT 12.75
That sounds almost civilized!
|
|
|
Post by geiyserq on Aug 1, 2007 7:51:07 GMT 12.75
You are exactly right. Something about serving without secular rewards I believe. Secular rewards........maybe not, but SUCCULENT rewards............that's a definate!
|
|