Three-Hour Dinner For U.S. Airmen At Weedons

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28158, 22 December 1956, Page 10

Three-Hour Dinner For U.S. Airmen At Weedons

The 250 airmen who will sit down to Christmas dinner at the United State Air Force camp at Weedons will have no excuse for suffering from indigestion: they will have from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. to eat their meal. The cooks at XVeedons will prepare only two meals on Christmas Day so that they, too. will be able to enjoy some relaxation. The airmen will have a lighter and later breakfast than usual. The menu will include no hot cakes or pancakes. but it will contain tomato juice, fresh oranges, ready-to-eat dry cereal, fresh milk, eggs to order, fried bacon, toast, butter, jam. and coffee. The men will eat between 7.30 a.m. and 9 a.m.. instead of between 6.30 a.m. and 7.30 a.m.

Eight or nine cooks, who work in three shifts, will prepare a Christmas dinner. They will start on Monday evening, and will be back on the job again about 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. on Tuesday. They will have a civilian staff of five to help in cleaning

up the kitchen and the dining room and in washing dishes.

Staff Sergeant Anthony M. Athens, who is dining hall supervisor at Weedons, said yesterday that apart from there being no mixed nuts the menu would be very similar to that served on an Air Force station in the United States.

Roast turkey with gravy, a traditional item on an American menu for Christmas and Thanksgiving Day. is near the head of the Weedons menu. Between 20 and 25 birds will be needed. Other items on the menu are tomato juice cocktail, baked ham with raisin sauce, mashed potatoes, poultry dressing or stuffing, candied sweet potatoes, buttered peas, lettuce and tomato salad with dressing, relish, bread, butter, jam. pumpkin pie. French apple pie with sugar icing, fruit cake, assorted hard candy, assorted fresh fruits, coffee, and iced tea with lemon slices.

Most of the food has been bought in Christchurch. The only items brought from the United States are canned sweet potatoes, pumpkin, candy, and coffee. Officers and men will have the same food. Staff Sergeant Athens said that in the United States officers and enlisted men ate together on Christmas Day, but at Weedons there would not be enough room for all to dine together. A Christmas tree bright with coloured balls, tinsel, and cards is already in the lobby where the airmen line up to collect their meals. After their dinner many of the airmen will visit friends in Christchurch. Many more offers of hospitality over the Christmas period have been made by Christchurch people than the United States airmen can accept.