Picture 1 The Guest List and Menu from Christmas 1978
I seem to have been very wise,
lo those many years ago, and made sure I wrote down who came and what we had to
eat. There are three people who were
invited but didn't come to this party.
Marjorie was another ex-girlfriend, but our thing was kinky so she
didn't like to mingle with others. Dick
Andrews my father had other things going on in Carmel. And Paul Whitehead had started living with Jeadra Bratko and was
avoiding me.
As the
guests arrived, there were platters of half a dozen different kinds of canapes
including wonderful mushrooms and Susan's own home-made Pate. We were serving the Pierrier-Jouet champagne
while people mingled and met each other.
Picture 2 Amy Farris and GeorgAnne Taylor (Cindy's sister) left of
Donna and Jay, Lois Grushka (Bill's girlfriend) on the right
 |
| Susan and Michelle |
My room mate at this time was
Susan Kutner, who was attending the San Francisco Culinary Arts Institute to
become a chef. She simply jumped at the
chance to do any and all cooking. I love
to tell the story of how she cooked up oysters twenty different ways for me and
my friends after I'd brought back five pounds of shucked oysters in dry ice
from a New Orleans business trip. We ate
oysters every way imaginable for two weeks.
Bill used to come over on Saturday mornings because she would be trying
croissants, 3 or 4 batches, each better than the last.
When everyone was seated at
the table, out came courses of oysters with caviar, escargots, and frog
legs. Enough so everyone could sample to
their hearts content. There were two
soups, a clam broth, and a lobster bisque.
This was about the time we brought out a lovely Montrachet. We finished up the Montrachet with small game
hens served with some tomato aspic.
Picture 3 Donna Roberts and Jay Notter.
When Donna went through her mid-life crisis (younger men) she dumped Jay
and he sued for palimony, and won. Donna
was a party girl. She once threw a party at her house and when she
first entered the room, she exclaimed, "I've slept with every man
here!" Then she exited in grand style.
This had been a year for
parties, my fortieth birthday being a biggie.
We decided to do it up right and have 16 people and as much food as she
could prepare. She came up with a
tentative menu and Bill and I scoured the wine stores for appropriate wine
selections to go with the food. I
redecorated the house with Christmas wreaths, paper, and rugs on the walls,
which you will see in the pictures.
You'll note that the guest list with Bill and I added in totals 19
people, but as I say, there were three who didn't make it so it was 16 eating
and two people serving.
Picture 4 Bonnie Jones (who I had adored for the past decade), Steve
Huggins and Jim Boileau from work at Standard Oil in San Francisco
This was on a Saturday night,
December 16th, 1978. We
planned it to be a three hour dinner and Susan had the whole meal on a time
schedule. People started arriving
promptly at 7:00 PM and we mingled over canapés. I had arranged for the rental of two serving
tables, put into an "L" shape, and also all the dishes, glasses and
cutlery. I put tremendous care into
selecting the guests for their ability to mix and match in this sort of
setting. I insisted that the men dress
up as much as possible and many went along with me and wore tuxedos. This was a turn out of beautiful people and
the women shone in pretty dresses and hair done up.
Picture 5 Rita and I had been divorced for at least five years but were
now again running a lingerie shop together.
Picture 6 Will and Amy Farris.
Will was Viet Nam
I had made up two sets of
place cards because Susan and I agreed that we would take a break between the
game hens and the beef. People need to
get up and stretch, smoke, pee, etc. I
also wanted a different seating arrangement for the Meal, Part II. People tend to withdraw into smaller groups
and we already were beyond the maximum group size of 7 at each table, so there
would be two conversations at each table.
I was trying to force the intermingling of my several sets of friends;
Steve, Will, Sally, Bill, Jim, and I all worked in computers downtown. Trita, Bonnie, and Donna were from the
Champagne Taste North Beach crowd. Jane,
Lois, GeorgeAnne, and Cindy were local Bernal Heights neighborhood people. Rita, Jane, Donna, and Cindy were all current
or ex, wives or girlfriends of mine.
Picture 7 Cindy Taylor and I were currently going together. She was
Donna's partner in a Real Estate firm, Brown Bear Realty. Rita and Will Farris
We started the second seating
with a scampi course and at this time, we brought out the first red, a '64
Bonnes Mares. We moved on to Beef
Wellington, a traditional English holiday dish.
The final red was served, a '61 Margaux, along with the Beef Wellington,
Susan also presented roasted pheasant stuffed with chestnuts, and broccoli.
Picture 8 Me with Jane Blair. She and I lived together at Treat Street
Susan and Michelle were
magical at whisking away all the plates and glasses and completely resetting
the tables during the 15-20 minute break.
Also we'd already eaten enough rich food to stuff a pig and we were only
half done, so we really needed that break.
I wish I had pictures of the people at the tables and the food. But once the guests were seated, Susan didn't
have a spare second for posing people into pictures.
Picture 9 Jane Blair, me, then Cindy
Picture 10 Bill Campbell and Bonnie Jones
There were several classical Christmas desserts, including a
flaming brandied plum pudding and then something called a Christmas bush, a
pyramid of sort of cream-puff balls, sprinkled with powered sugar when the
mountain has been constructed. We had
two, one French and one German.
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