It’s fall supper season in Saskatchewan.
Back in 1986, they still referred to these as fowl suppers. When I mentioned to my BC city slicker friends that I looked forward to fowl suppers, they always quipped, “I’ve been to some pretty foul suppers, and…” Yeah, like I never heard that before.
Anyway, if you’ve been on the prairies in the autumn, you’ve probably stood in line, patiently waiting your turn before finding an empty seat among the long rows of tables. Depending on the community and their budget, you might get linen table cloths draped over the tables, dollar store plastic table cloth rolls stapled to the table top, or bare wooden tables. It doesn’t matter. You’re there for the food and the belonging, and the decor doesn’t matter.
Did you wonder what it was like behind the scenes, before the doors opened? I sure did. These wonderful ladies (it was always the ladies who ran the kitchen back then) let me follow them with my camera to record how these fowl suppers come together.
If you’ve never been on the prairies in the autumn, you don’t know what you’re missing.
(Ektachrome 400, pushed to EI 800, 2 November 1986)
