BUCKING THE SYSTEM; ICE CREAM, CHILI, AND A PLATE FULL OF GOODWILL

I have a confession to make. I must tell you I truly believe there is nothing better than a good community meal.

I make it my business to enjoy every pancake or spaghetti day event I stumble upon during the course of a year.

For one, I happen to like pancakes and spaghetti, but my reasoning goes deeper than that.

My enjoyment really stems from the general spirit of goodwill that abounds. From the people selling tickets to the folks picking up the trash, everyone seems willing to go the extra mile, all in the name of whatever cause they are working for.

Good cooperation, funding for a worthy event, and sometimes, decent tasting food are the result.

I gained particular enjoyment from these events as a little girl. What with Charleston being such a school-oriented town, a lot of our activities revolved around schools, churches and youth organizations.

That being the case, we took our fund raisers seriously, and people could generally be counted on to attend every dinner, luncheon or other meal that involved ticket selling of some kind.

My favorite of all was the annual Heaven or Hell social sponsored by the Young Peoples Department at my church.

Yes, I'm going to tell you what it is.

For those who don't know, you have your choice of dining areas at a Heaven or Hell social. You could choose to dine in either or both places, but wherever you ate, a ticket had to be shown at the door.

In heaven, you could eat ice cream, cake and the like, while in hell, your tucker was most likely a bowl of steamin' hot chili with your choice of a slice of cheese or a creamy peanut butter sandwich.

Don't laugh, it was a whole lot of good eating going on at those events.

More importantly, there was a whole lot of goodwill shared at those socials.

Even though the YPD sponsored the event, all us kids ever really did was sell tickets and pick up trash -- the women of the church did everything else. Even so, it was our event, and all the proceeds were used to finance our youth events, activities or trips.

People would sit around our gaudily-decorated tables and laugh and carry on about who was actually previsiting their final resting place and who was just visiting.

Grown-ups would take youngsters to task about how someone was served or when a person wasn't properly greeted, and we gained some remarkable insight about the always-regrettable, constantly shifting tides of church politics.

Although I now view the events today from a different perspective, I still think there's a lot to be gained from events that involve sitting around a table with our neighbors.

Take today, for instance. While you all sit and read this article, I'm up at the Civic Center, hauling away nasty fish remains and handing out slices of homemade dessert to people attending our fish fry.

Although I'll be working, I know I'll find time to skin and grin with people who thoughtfully purchased a ticket from me or other sellers, and I'm sure my kids will do something cute that deserves notice before the end of the day.

But even if they don't, I know I will experience that same enjoyment that I always felt at the socials from my youth. I'll be around people who I love, respect or hope to know better, and we'll all be sharing a little bit of ourselves in an effort to make things a little better in our community.

And those people who bought tickets but didn't attend will still be a part of that goodwill, even in absentia. Those are the ones I'll see and smile, knowing one day they'll be approaching me with a Girl Scout cookie or Boy Scout popcorn order form, or with hamburger, chili, spaghetti, pancake or some other type of food tickets they're selling for their own fund raiser.

And I'll buy them, too. Not just because I actually wanted those items, but because I know they'll also be serving up a heaping plate of goodwill to go along with the decent food.