Table Manners are War Casualty

An attempt at reinforcing some table manners and etiquette was tried by the armed forces during WWII, as this poster shows, but the finer touches of dining etiquette were evidently ignored to a great extent.

MANNERS JOIN LIST OF WAR CASUALTIES

Long Dining in Army Messes Found to Have Effect That Is Almost Subversive 

TIME A MAJOR FACTOR 

Requisitioned Hotel in Algiers Puts Out 1,000 Meals Daily at the Double-Quick

ALGIERS, Sept. 18 — Among the post-war problems perplexing sociologists all over the United States, let no one underestimate the effect of long dining in Army messes on the table manners of our very best young men.

As an excellent example, there is one officers' mess at a requisitioned hotel here that everyone calls “The Berries” because the hotel's name is Tabary. Those who dine in its madcap atmosphere two or three times daily will stand up as one man and shudder at the thought of the impact of their contemporary dining habits on the cool, orderly tables that their wives or mothers will have waiting for them someday not too far off.

“The Berries” is presided over by Mess Sgt. Leslie Booker of Brunswick, Ga., and Philadelphia. He can look any major in the eyes if he shows up one minute after mess has been officially closed and that you can bet that the major will retreat hungry. The sergeant is kind of a man, so when he expresses his philosophy on the non-leisurely dining at “The Berries” it is easy to understand one factor in the helter-skelter gulping of what is undoubtedly excellent food. “Any officer,” he says, “who sits down here and eats as fast as well aim to put it out— and it takes him more than twenty-five minutes — I want to find out why.”

In defense of such a theory, it ought to be pointed out that “The Berries” serves about 1,000 meals daily and time is of the essence. But the effect of the sergeant's ruling on the refined and quiet atmosphere of the tables—to say nothing of the digestion of the diners is something else again. The officers include many Yale, Harvard and Princeton men as well as many who were brought up by the most genteel parents, even if they never went through college, but all that is forgotten. When you want the apple-butter and it is on the other end of the table, you don't ask; you reach. 

When, at breakfast, someone wants the syrup always offered in a flat soup plate instead of a pitcher with a guarded top —some one else also reaches and, as a result, several someones get gloriously sticky. It is all good fun, though hardly good, clean fun. The efforts of the hungry men to make the French waitresses understand their orders contributes further to the air of serenity pervading the mess.

Thus a man who doesn't know the difference between “fourchette” and “couteau” or “cuiller” is very likely to wind up stirring his coffee with a fork or putting sugar into it with a knife. It is all very confusing— and there is always the menace of Sergeant Booker's twenty-five minute time ration hanging over you.

Lieut. Al Paris of Hartsdale, N. Y., summed up “The Berries” by saying: “The whole atmosphere just leaves me stunned. I have completely lost my taste for food and I eat only to keep body and soul together. I always feel lucky if I get off without getting an eye punched out.”

Lieut. Paris feels that he is living through “a huge cacophony of sound and odor” three times daily. Only his complete faith in his. mother's forgiving nature assures him that she will understand him when he gets back to Hartsdale.

Lieut. John A. Santoro of 769 Hicks Street, Brooklyn, feels the same way about his wife, Leonore. “To me,” he sighed, “it is slop-slop here and slop-slop there. About the only table manners I have consistently tried to live up to is washing my hands before I eat. I jump for a place and jump out or someone else gets in behind me.” — By Wireless to the New York Times, 1943

🍽️ Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia