Loved this, Marge. Growing up in the fifties and sixties in Chicago, all of my Fitzgerald Family, with O'Connor roots in Kerry, loved going downtown to go to the top of the Prudential and then eat at Stouffers. Don't remember the girls being Irish, but we sure did love the food and the view from the top. Thanks for the memory. Maybe it was the spiritual connection to Kerry that drew us there. Anyway, great memories of downtown and especially St. Patricks Day, the green river and green stripe down State Street, and Daley leading the parade. Catholic schools were all closed on the holiday so we went every year. Good times! Shirley in MN > Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2011 20:15:16 -0700 > From: [email protected] > To: [email protected] > Subject: [IRL-KERRY] Stouffer's dinner an appropriate Irish meal > > A Stouffer's dinner actually could be considered an appropriate St. Patrick's > Day meal for someone with a Kerry connection. > > During four summer vacations (1959-1962) I worked in the four Stouffer's > restaurants in Chicago's Prudential Building, three summers as a waitress and > the fourth as a hostess. Except for a few college students hired each year so > the year-round waitresses (no waiters there) could take their vacations, the > entire waitstaff (with only one possible exception I can think of) consisted of > Irish immigrants who seemed to be almost entirely, if not entirely, from Co. > Kerry. In fact, there seemed to be a rather direct pipeline from Kerry to > Stouffer's, with a word-of-mouth network apparently in effect to facilitate the > immigrating and hiring of relatives and friends from home. > > Mostly quite young women when they immigrated, they seemed to be from the rural > (or perhaps even remote) parts of Kerry. I still remember the 18-year-old in my > waitress training class my first summer (held for some weeks while the dining > rooms were closed between lunch and dinner) who was very fresh off the plane. We > were required to know the nature of all items on the menu (and their ingredients > and type of preparation). So one day when a new dessert was to be offered, the > hostess conducting the class went out to the kitchen to get several servings so > we could all sample it. Shortly thereafter, when the rest of the day's dessert > offerings were being reviewed, the 18-year-old shyly said (to the astonishment > of us American students) that she had heard about ice cream (which was always on > the menu) but had never eaten any. The hostess promptly said something like, > "Well, then you must have some," and we all trooped out to the kitchen, where > she sampled several varieties (though only after some fearfulness about how cold > it would be). The expressions on her face throughout were priceless. > > I wish I had realized/known back then that one set of my > great-great-grandparents (Mary Shea & Jeremiah Doyle, who emigrated in 1847) was > not only Irish but also from Kerry. I might have been able to learn a lot from > them about life in Kerry, and maybe be "in like Flynn" with them given my Irish > connection, perhaps even to the extent of being invited to go to one of the > Friday-night Irish dances (which certainly would have been interesting). In > actuality, I ended up only hearing about what had gone on at a particular > night's dance (from especially loquacious attendees) or suffered the > repercussions when sometimes multiple waitresses called in "sick" on Saturday, > leaving the rest of us to pick up their tables (and giving guests generally bad > service because we had too many to handle properly). > > As it was, during our time off duty, whether in the employee dining room or in > the waitresses' lounge, the Irish "girls" socialized mostly amongst themselves, > though they were polite and friendly to the rest of us. Sometimes, seemingly > when they didn't want anyone nearby to pick up what they were conversing about > in the dining room (such as work and other employees), they spoke in Irish. This > may have been wise, since Stouffer's had a variety of cultural groups among its > employees, not all of whom consistently got along well with everyone in other > groups. African Americans worked behind the steam tables and at last-minute > food-prep stations, as well as in the dishroom. Eastern European immigrants > (speaking various languages but little English) worked as cooks, and (male-only) > American graduates of the Cornell Univ. or Univ. of Michigan hotel and > restaurant management programs supervised them and managed the kitchens overall, > while second-generation (or more) Americans managed the dining rooms. > > Starting in Cleveland, the Stouffer family expanded its restaurant chain not > only to Chicago (with several other locations besides the Prudential Bldg.) > during its heyday but also to Detroit, New York, Philadelphia, and maybe > Pittsburgh and other locations as well. I don't know when the restaurants went > out of business (1970s? early 1980s?), but the frozen-food business was a > relatively early spinoff from the restaurant business and endured (though under > other ownership, I guess). It evidently started after WWII because of the demand > from restaurant customers for menu favorites that they could eat at home. For > instance, turkey tetrazzini, chicken a la king, chipped beef, and spinach > souffle come quickly to mind as popular restaurant offerings (the first three at > lunch only, as I recall) that were early among the company's frozen foods and > are still around today, actually tasting pretty much the same as in the > restaurants. > > I think that one reason the restaurants thrived for so long was that they tried > to do things well, to a high standard and in standardized ways, with employees > who were treated and trained well. But I'm wondering whether in a sense the > Irish waitstaff was "standard" too. Does anyone know whether such was the case > in cities other than Chicago? > > Marge > > > > ________________________________ > From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Sent: Thu, March 17, 2011 3:41:36 PM > Subject: Re: [IRL-KERRY] IRL-KERRY Digest, Vol 6, Issue 63 > > I will be having A Stoufers frozen dinner. Dan Dwyer > > ---------- Original Message ---------- > From: [email protected] > To: [email protected] > Subject: IRL-KERRY Digest, Vol 6, Issue 63 > Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2011 01:00:02 -0600 > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 5 > Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2011 20:32:01 -0500 > From: "Kerry" <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [IRL-KERRY] Happy St Patrick's Day > To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> > Message-ID: <[email protected]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > Very interesting posting from Ray about what the Irish in Ireland actually eat > on St Patrick's Day. So, I was wondering, since we do have some of you in our > group -- what will you be eating for the meal of the day? > > Blessings to all! > Kerry > _______________ > --------------- > > Policies of the IRL-Kerry List: > http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~irlker/mailing.html > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message. > > To subscribe to the Digest version of the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'subscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message. > > To visit the County Kerry Research and Resources Page go to: > http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~irlker/ > > Share your stuff! If you transcribed research data, share it with the Irish genealogy community. Contribute it to the Kerry website to reach a wide audience. Contact Ann Hammer, data maintenance. 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