Food Fight
 

Meeting season used to last from about May to September each year with scientists arriving and departing just in time to make room for the next group. At the end of each week, it is customary to have a banquet for all the meetings participants to attend and relax a bit. Once in the 80s there was a food fight. Something went flying across the room and the fight began, a potato, a slice of cake, nothing and no one was sacred. At the end of the night the custodians had to sweep up and shampoo the rugs and get ready for the arrival of the next meetings participants in the morning. In an effort to reduce the midnight clean up for us custodians, I took precautionary measures. During the next meeting I hid-out amongst the tables, as the dishes were passed and the wine was poured and watched for the first sign of flying food. Once I spotted something, I dashed to the table from which it originated and removed everything immediately.

At the end of each meeting, the lab would organize a banquet for the scientists. After lots of serious meetings, this dinner was a time to finally relax. That being said, these banquets got pretty rowdy, I remember one-year potato guns were popular; people were sneaking around and pelting each other. Potato guns at the Banbury Conference Center were particularly messy as the starchy potato bits smeared every window in sight. Another year squirt guns were the weapon of choice! Things settled down in the late 80’s, but until then the banquets were sites to be seen.