Mealtime Memories

Ready to eat? The Duncan Waiters donning all white uniforms emerge from the kitchen with trays of family-style food in bowls to disperse to the three or four tables under their responsibility. For Thanksgiving and Christmas meals, each waiter purchased one or more boxes of Swisher Sweets Cigars for their tables. In turn, cadets contributed tips (sometimes amounting to as much as $20 per table) since waiters were normally paid a mere 63 cents per meal to serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. “There was one other notable perk,” French said. “As a waiter, you were the first to eat. With breakfast at 0700, I got in at 0600 and could eat all I wanted!”
 

Though cadets aren’t served by Duncan Waiters (the name changed to Duncan Volunteers in 1987) anymore, a typical Duncan chow sees cadets pick up an individual hot plate from Duncan staff on the way to their tables. Today’s chow style provides cadets a “more efficient option with more choices,” Squadron 17 Commander Josh Glenney ’24 said. On average, cadets have access to more than five entrée options during each meal.

Seniority is the name of the game. After marching into Duncan from evening formation, fish would rush to their table. “The two fish at the end got the food from the waiters and had to serve the table,” French said. Seniors headed the table and sat at one end, followed by juniors, sophomores and fish on the other end. “The fish got to eat whatever was leftover—maybe—but they at least always had plenty of bread,” French said.

Seniority continues to reign in many aspects of Duncan chow, including the expectation of fish to greet upperclassmen and get permission to eat. Now a senior, Glenney still vividly remembers his fish experiences. “After marching to Duncan, I would hustle to grab my hot plate and get to my table,” he said. “On arriving, I would wait to greet the head of the table, usually a senior. After greeting the entire table, I would sit down, request permission to ‘bib up and chow’ and then start my meal.”

If you thought a meal in Duncan would be uneventful, think again. Beginning with an unassuming junior or senior being pelted with food— staining their uniform and ruining their meal—they would stand up in search of the culprit, and chaos ensued. “Someone would yell, ‘Food fight! Food fight!’, and all of a sudden, food was flying through the air. It would just take over,” French recalled. It was advised to arm yourself in this calorie-filled combat zone. “The weapon of choice was bread.”

Today, Duncan has evolved from its “Spartan” roots, and food fights are nonexistent. But the formative experience of Duncan chow—required following evening formation on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays as well as breakfast five days a week—gives cadets the same chances to share laughs around the table while building camaraderie and lasting memories.

You better study your vocab if you want to eat. More than 50 foods and condiments had alternative names: “blood” for ketchup, “bull neck” for meat, “cow” for milk, “rabbit” for salad and “spuds” for potatoes, to name a few. Can’t recall the correct word when asking for the food? Forget eating it. “I lost 20 pounds my freshman year!” French recalled.

Following the meal, dessert (or “cush”) was next. However, fish had to correctly answer a question posed by an upperclassman to get a taste of the sweet stuff. “One memorable question was, ‘How many stars appear on the state flag of Texas?’ If you answered ‘one star,’ that was wrong because there is a star on both sides of the flag. If you answered ‘two stars,’ that was wrong because Texas is the Lone Star State. I didn’t eat ‘cush’ until I became a waiter!” French laughed.

While calling salt “sand,” pepper “dirt” and napkins “bibs” is still a must, most foods go by their proper name these days to the relief of hungry cadets. But a thorough knowledge of campusology is still expected today. In order to perpetuate their role as Texas A&M’s “Keepers of the Spirit,” cadets must be prepared to answer questions at any time about important university history, yells, songs and facts.