Theme Dinner
In Blacker Hovse, we have the tradition of waited dinner - we are one of seven houses who do have this tradition. Each night, we have student waiters who serve food platters (we eat family style) and get drinks, carry messages, and do other miscellaneous errands. Although houses will let any member wait, they must be trained before they are allowed to, and are paid by Caltech Dining Services for their work.
On certain days of the week, we have certain events that the waiters put on. The one I’m going to talk about is Blacker Theme Dinners, which happen on Wednesdays. Blacker is not the only hovse that does theme dinners - for example, Dabney has the same thing on the same day. Themes are up to the waiters. It allows a lot of creative liberty, but it really depends on the group of people who are waiting.
In previous years waiters have not been as enthusiastic about creating themes. I have also been guilty of this. However, we now have newer waiters who really enjoy thinking of elaborate themes. This year alone we have had “waiters are Cooper pairs”, “drinks are blue-shifted” and “waiters are from Lloyd”. This Wednesday, we had a very cozy theme: “slumber party”. Before dinner, waiters took all the couches from the lounge and arranged them around tables. Blankets were draped on the backs of chairs, and there was mood lighting in the form of electric tea lights. It made for a very relaxing, picturesque view and a relatively easy theme to guess. I also got to wait dinner in pajamas, so I was very happy about that.
