Iowa State University Alumni Association| online edition | winter 2006

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GOOD FOOD, GREAT SERVICE

Some things never change: College students will do just about anything for free food.

It’s as true today as it was in the 1940s when alumni like Wilbur Nielsen (’49) and Jim Fenner (’48) worked for their meals wearing white waiter’s coats in the Richardson Court dining halls. It’s just everything else that’s changed since those days.

“I’m 80 years old now, and I go back to campus and see how everything is fast food,” Nielsen says. “It’s a different world now. I’m not saying I want everything like it was, but I did think [the old residence hall dining service] was a great opportunity for students to grow socially.”

In the 1940s when Nielsen was a student, as well as in the 1950s, the lunches and dinners in ISU’s women’s dormitories and sorority houses were served family style. Student waiters each served two tables of eight women. Diners took turns dishing up food for their housemates, sometimes sharing the table with their house mother. Table manners, proper etiquette, and courtesy were always stressed. Appropriate dress was crucial. Silver trays, table linens, and serving spoons were used. It was truly a dining experience.

What I learned from Miss Guthrie
The meals were an educational opportunity for the women who were served, but Nielsen also says it was a learning experience for him and his fellow waiters, who learned etiquette, service skills (“beverages are served from the right, food from the left,” recalls Fenner), and time management techniques under the watchful eye of manager Elsie M. Guthrie – or, as she was better known, “Miss Guthrie.”

The strict but lovable Miss Guthrie supervised waiters in the Richardson Court dining rooms for multiple decades, but the impression she left on her employees remained the same through the years.

“I remember how she counted the broken dishes,” says Jim Jacobs, a 1961 graduate who worked for Guthrie for three years. “She would bring me in and I would check off a list of cups and saucers; she kept a very strict inventory.”

“Miss Guthrie was truly respected,” says Al Jennings (’56). “In fact, when Miss Guthrie left one dining room it was almost like a telegraph system as the word passed quickly from building to building. The signal was, ‘Fire in the paint locker.’ That meant Elsie was on her way or in the hall.”

There was often good reason to issue warnings about Miss Guthrie’s arrival, her former employees admit. Jennings recalls an incident involving mistletoe. Jacobs remembers pranks pulled on fellow waiters and some hot coffee he once inflicted upon a defenseless sweater while trying to impress a young woman.

“I don’t know how she put up with us, looking back on it,” says Fenner of Miss Guthrie. “But she had her rules and she adhered to them. She was a little bit intimidating; she knew what she wanted and got it done.”

When he got his first position in management, Nielsen says, he went to visit Miss Guthrie and thank her for everything she had taught him. “I owed a lot to her,” he says.

Come for the meals, stay for the friendships
For many Iowa State alumni of the 1940s and ’50s, serving meals to Iowa State’s female population is a memory they will always cherish.

“The primary reason you do it at the time is to get your meals,” says Chuck Rehman (’54), who worked for Miss Guthrie in the dormitories and also worked in Alpha Gamma Delta and Chi Omega sororities. “But the lasting memory isn’t the dollar figure of what you’re saving. The lasting memory is the connections you make with the group.”

Many of the former waiters fondly recall joking around with the cooks and the fun times they had hanging out with fellow waiters and kitchen helpers.

“We put on little skits in the sorority house,” Rehman says. “With things like that you get to know people in a smaller group setting, and that made it appealing to me. It personalized my college education, and I think that’s why the memories are a little more meaningful.”

There was also that unique advantage the waiters had in the dating department.

“In the early 1950s there were only 8,000 students,” Rehman explains. “And 6,000 of them were men. Back in those days, the psychology was that if you didn’t find somebody in college there was something wrong with you, so it was always in the back of your mind [to try to meet someone.]”

“It was definitely one of the benefits of the job,” says Jacobs.

“Serving as a waiter in a girls’ freshman dormitory seemed to be the ultimate,” says Jennings. “It was just like dying and going to heaven. Wednesday night and Sunday dinners were open seating [in 1956]. It was always an experience to see what set of girls would gather and choose your tables.”

‘I think I gained 20 pounds my first quarter’
While the social experiences were memorable, the free meals the waiters received were definitely nothing to sneeze at.

“Usually the food was very good,” says Jacobs. “It was pork chops, roast beef, vegetables, mashed potatoes and gravy…food like your mother cooks. One thing we hated, though, was the mutton. The smell would go through the whole hall.”

Meals were typically something waiters had to cram into a tight schedule, so they had to learn to eat very fast. “After we got done serving we only had 10 minutes to eat. That was always a hassle. I still eat that way – my wife still has to tell me to slow down,” Jacobs says.

On the rare occasions he couldn’t work for his meal, Fenner says he would hunt down some food at a local greasy spoon. But it wasn’t often that he missed the opportunity to work for a meal in the women’s dormitory. He says Sunday afternoon meals were a highlight because the waiters were all anticipating the night off – Sunday dinners were not served in the dormitories.

“Usually when the dining room was cleared out we had a table where we could grab food and eat. Sometimes people would dawdle at the Sunday noon meal, so in the wintertime you could always just open the windows to clear everyone out.”

There were perks after the meals, too. “The cooks made sure we ate well,” says Nielsen. “They were so nice. One of the cooks, Mabel, would give us what she called ‘rusty old pork chops’ and leftover pie.”

“I think I gained 20 pounds my first quarter,” Jacobs says.

Together again
Jennings, who is now serving on the committee for the 2006 Alumni Days Class Reunion, says he is in the process of organizing a “mini reunion” of men and women who worked as waiters, kitchen helpers, and hostesses in Welch, Birch, Lyon, Freeman, Oak, and Elm Halls between 1950 and 1960.

“I would have never gone to college if I hadn’t had that board job,” Jacobs says. “It was a good job, and we took a lot of pride in being good waiters.”

Waiters’ reunion
A reunion will be held for waiters, kitchen helpers, and hostesses in Welch, Birch, Lyon, Freeman, Oak, and Elm Halls between 1950 and 1960 during Alumni Days 2006, May 11-12. Alumni who are interested in participating in the reunion, or sharing a message about their experiences, are encouraged to contact Julie Larson at the ISU Alumni Association at jlarson@alumni.iastate.edu or (877) ISU-ALUM.

About the Writer | Kate Bruns is the assistant director of communications for the Iowa State University Alumni Association.