It seems a bit silly from the perspective of so many years and so many different experiences, but back when we were seniors in college and we were trying to select the right place to go to seminary, I was nervous about moving away from Montana. The mountains and big sky of Montana were all that I knew. My whole life up to that point had been one of living within a small area. I went to college only 80 miles from where I grew up. We had traveled. I had visited some pretty far-away places like Washington, DC, and San Francisco and Seattle, but I had always come home to Montana. However, there were no ATS-certified theological seminaries in Montana. The prospect of a minimum of three years of living far away was a bit daunting for me. In order to deal with my fears of being away from Montana, we agreed that when we went away to school, we would come back to Montana for the summer. And so, we applied for and were accepted as the managers of our beloved church camp. Around the time of our second wedding anniversary, we found ourselves in charge of providing for weekly camps for adults and youth. It helped that I had grown up going to camp every summer of my life including the year I was born. It also helped that Susan had been the assistant cook at camp before we were married.

We learned to get the estimate of how many people would be in camp, make the menu plans for a week, do the shopping - the nearest grocery store was 42 miles away. That was for perishable items such as fruit, vegetables, meat and dairy. Staples were purchased from stores in a bigger city 120 miles away. We learned how to make do when we were missing a desired ingredient. We learned that if you feed people really well for their first meal of the week, they probably wouldn’t complain about the food for the rest of the week.

For the rest of our married life, we haven’t been intimidated by feeding groups of people. Seventeen for dinner last night - no problem. Serving dinner at the farm - no problem. A crock pot, a cooler, and a basket of supplies and we had a taco bar set up. A big watermelon was served with a bit of ceremony to entertain the children. Susan got good at estimating how much food people eat while at camp. For tacos with all of the fixings, 1/4 pound of meat per person will feed a crowd. I learned about fancy watermelon cutting during our summers at camp.

Breakfasts are a snap. Make sure there is plenty of coffee and that it is available when the first person shows up. Choose one kind of juice and serve it to everyone. Pick a main course from this list: eggs, pancakes, french toast. Offer hot cereal or cold, but you don’t have to have both at the same breakfast. Choose bacon or sausage. Either of us can put out pancakes and sausage for 100 people without much help.

Our skills at feeding people have paid off over the course of our careers. We weren’t intimidated by meals with Vacation Bible School. We knew how to feed kids and send them home happy. The basic principles of kitchen cleanliness and food safety are easily applied to big and small kitchens.

For what it is worth, our summers working at camp also taught us to be unafraid of mountains of dishes and stacks of pots and pans. It also taught us to be creative with the use of leftovers.

We have plenty of relatives who are excellent cooks and a few who have experience cooking for groups of people, so we don’t have to be in charge of every meal when we are together with our families. This weekend, however, we’re playing host to the family gathering, so it makes sense for us to organize the rough menu plan and invite others to help with specific parts of the cooking. Serving food is a great way to connect with the people we love. Knowing where and how to buy a great big watermelon with seeds and how to score it and make it look like you broke it in half over your head is a bonus when creating memories for children.

The interesting part of our story is that when we went away to seminary, we came back to Montana and managed the church camp for the first two summers. After that, we didn’t return. I had learned a very important life lesson. As beautiful and as wonderful as Montana is - and it is really wonderful - there are other beautiful places in the world and there are other people in the world who are worth getting to know. I went from someone who was afraid of driving across the plains to someone who lived in rural North Dakota for seven years and loved every one of them. We made lifelong friends during our time in Chicago and in every place we have lived since.

I’m sure it has been true for some time, but after more than a year of semi-isolation during the pandemic, I am aware of the simple fact that we are the elders in any gathering. The generations of our grandparents and parents have passed and we’ve become the old folks. There are younger folks in the kitchen and they are getting good at feeding the crowd. There are others to chip in when the pots and pans need to be scrubbed.

Still, it is nice to have the experience of a lifetime of church dinners and church camps and family gatherings. We aren’t intimidated by the thought of feeding a crowd. We look forward to the times when groups of people gather and enjoy one another’s company.

Besides, I still love the reaction when I hoist a watermelon over my head and open up two halves cut fancy like flowers. Even if I have to put my shirt in the laundry because it is sticky with watermelon juice. It isn’t the only one. All of the kids needed new shirts, too. Mountains of laundry don’t phase us much, either.