As a very junior officer new to mess life I can remember those napkin pigeon holes in the dining room so well and they could be a minefield.
We each had our own napkin and silver ring, left in the pigeon hole. Having spied a napkin that appeared to have no owner but had a very slightly different ring you plunged in and thought no more about. Five minutes later the rightful owner of the napkin ring would appear and a mini WW2 could break out. The owner was usually, what seemed like a very crusty senior Captain, and what followed would be ‘how dare such a lowly being have the temerity to think they could use their napkin ring’ .
All minor stuff in the scheme of things but……... So often the junior soul (including me) in the situation had not been warned and as an observer you often could sit and watch the whole situation play out and wish you had intervened minutes earlier or someone had tipped you off.
Lt Col (Rtd) Penny Moody
Yes, Napkin rings could, indeed, be a minefield. Thanks for the memory.
ReplyDeleteLoved this, took me back to those dining days, being waited on. Now I'm the waitress I think! How often were those napkins washed? I think weekly?
ReplyDeleteLinda Eagle nee Westbury. I found this post very amusing. It is the little things that us civies are not aware of. I need to sit down with my sister and have along chat about her time in the army.
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