solenita72
SWO Wife
Well for the long awaited post on my first Dining Out experience. To put it simply, quite an awesome experience! There will be pictures as soon as I get a chance to post them to the photo gallery. (Hartman: your family has already seen yours and Patmack's pic!
) I had read the etiquette manual, so I had an idea of what was suppose to happen. As soon as we arrived around 6:30, with drink in hand, we waited in the line to have our professional pictures done, which was quite nice, and reasonably priced. The cash bar was also reasonable at $3 per drink. After picture duty was over, we started mingling with the other OC's and thier significant others. Definately bring cameras with you, this is a great time to snap pictures of your shipmates and dates. The cash bar was open all during this time. All the guys looked awesome in thier choker whites! I met several of our fellow posters, (Hi to you guys, it was great to meet you and put a face to you finally!) Shortly thereafter, dinner was called and we gathered to go to our assigned seats. (It is a good idea to check out where you will be sitting before this time, we didn't but thankfully we knew who we would be sitting across from and they were smart enough to do that! There were many people there!) With good food and wine aplenty, the entertainment began. One of the first rules of the night was that if you had to address the Vice President you must do it in a Brittish accent. Anyone requesting a head call (bathroom break) had to say it in the accent of the night. Each Officer Candidate was responsible for thier guests, so they would have to stand to request permission to leave. One OC requested permission to have his girlfriend loosen her corset. Poor girl, she turned bright red! The Vice maintained an aray of funny hats and wig, and one VERY groovey pair of sunglasses. Each class throughout the dinner had prepared skits to entertain the diners with. The absolute best skit was class 07-03 (sorry guys). They made fun of various things that you are subjected to in your wonderful vacation-like stay at OCS during RLP's. (lol) They also chose Officer Candidates at random during dinner to explain the historical aspect of the Dining Out as each thing occurred. As the night drew on, the explainations grew quite hilarious. The history was also provided in the programs that we got as we arrived. There was the Parade of the Beef, which had everyone rolling in laughter, due to the comic nature of the Officer Candidate choosen to be the cook of the night. He came out dancing away, in his chef's hat and waiter's tray. From the back of the room until the head table, follwing the bag pipe player, he continued to shake every body part given to him, until stopping in front of the President. As tradition holds, the President refuses to taste the beef, and sends him to the Vice. He then realizes that instead of Beef, the cook has brought him a can of Beets! At that point the Vice proceeds to kill the cook with several gunshots. We were also entertained with song, by the Officer Candidates, the quartette, and two API students singing renditions of songs full of common memories of the candidates. Thier songs were hilarious, I was in tears from some of the funny lyrics. We had an intermission before dessert and we able to go back out to the bar to purchase mixed drinks or bottled beer. During dessert we began the toasts. There are several that they always do, such as one to significant others, one to the sister service, one that commemorates the memories of fallen or missing service members and a few others. Then the toasts are open to all candidates wanting to propose them. The night ends at the conclusion of the toasts, but the bar remains open for a few hours. Now....there is the little thing called the Grog. This consisted of a toilet bowl, filled with whatever imaginable liquer I think they could grab, along with chocolate and caramel syrup drizzled on the sides of the bowl. There were tootsie rolls, whoppers and gummy worms in the mixture as well. Along side of that toilet, was an "unleaded" version or the punch in a potty seat. The purpose of this was for any Candidate with infractions during the night be awarded with a drink from the grog. These infractions could include having an uncharged glass, arriving late or improper etiquette. Some of the visits to the grog were just because the person annoyed the Vice, but class 09 apparently found a foundness for the grog, they requested to drain it several times. Did I mention there was a salt shaker in the grog mix, too? Apparently they are partial to torture, being that over half of the class are priors! All in all it was quite an interesting night, one that I would gladly attend again. The experience of seeing all the candidates bond and unlock after all of the hard work that they have given the DI's these long weeks will not be forgotten by this Officer Candidate's wife! It was a well deserved night for all, the ones that are becoming officers and also the family members that support them in thier lives.
To the guys there, I want to say these are the moments that you live for. This is the time to be proud of what you have and will achieve in the upcoming weeks. Those of us at home are eternally proud of what you are doing for those of us holding the home fort down, and I am exspecially proud of my husband for the reason that he did this in the first place, and all that we have overcome in the past few very hard weeks. To jjfallon99: I was proud to stand by your side this weekend. You have done so awesome in your weeks there!
Way to go guys, keep your heads up and get through this!!
I know that I have probably left somethings out, so please share your expierences of the night!!
To the guys there, I want to say these are the moments that you live for. This is the time to be proud of what you have and will achieve in the upcoming weeks. Those of us at home are eternally proud of what you are doing for those of us holding the home fort down, and I am exspecially proud of my husband for the reason that he did this in the first place, and all that we have overcome in the past few very hard weeks. To jjfallon99: I was proud to stand by your side this weekend. You have done so awesome in your weeks there!
Way to go guys, keep your heads up and get through this!!
I know that I have probably left somethings out, so please share your expierences of the night!!
