Muncie Evening Press from Muncie, Indiana • Page 3

PAGE 3 "Hll'WHHl' 2 ttUNCIEEVENING PRESS, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1978 p. ySZ S3" 'am'" i wi.iw wptuiM; wn'iwumi 'iBW ml mm lHtB UiiM liilhi I is i in iMMiri trtrr oM Vr "3 5 I I Resting and rocking Guests rest and rock on the front porch of West Baden Springs Hotel (at left) which, until it closed in 1932, was a favorite vacation spot for the rich, famous, and infamous. Al Capone used to like to come here. Though the chief attraction was the therapeutic mineral waters from the springs, the guests were tempted by other diversions. Nearby were casinos like Brown in French Lick; the Gorge, Elite Club, and the Chateau.

Photo courtesy of Northwood Institute. MINERALS AND MONEY Baden still bubbling Pleasure Dome U. The atrium of Northwood Institute, a school which awards certificates and degrees in culinary arts and hotel and restaurant management, was the scene of the recent 10th annual Food Service Executive's Association meeting. In earlier days the atrium seated as many as 2,100 for after-dinner entertainment when it was the focal point of the old West Baden Springs Hotel. Photo courtesy of Northwood Institute.

v. "tWWwB jj West By DIANE BAER Lifestyle feature writer Lunch is just over in the elegant old rotunda. A glance at the trays reveals what was served: turkey, ham and egg canapes, alongside miniature hot dogs in puff pastry. Farther down the long tables are Ramaki, Roast Baron of Beef, Chicken a la King in Pastry Shells, Chicken Livers Sauted in Poulette Sauce, Swedish Meatballs, Rice Pilaf, Garden Salad, fresh canteloupe and grapes. To top it off are sauces flambe peach, apple, strawberry and cherry.

It might well have have beeri a menu from the days when the West Baden Springs Hotel catered to the likes of Diamond Jim Brady, Eva Tanguay, General John J. Pershing and the Stude-baker family. The "Pleasure Dome" is no longer a hotel. The 708 rooms surrounding the dome, at 1010 feet in diameter one of the largest in the world, now house part of the 131 students and some of the faculty of Northwood Institute, a school teaching the culinary arts and hotel and restaurant management. "Neato," says Janice Turner, academic dean, as we ask if we may look around.

"My feet hurt," matter-of-factly notes the former journalist, who's been with this branch of Northwood Institute in midlands, since its inception in 1967. "We've served lunch to over 700 today," explains Janice. The occasion is a "Culinary Exposition" at which 23 exhibitors gathered to explain their operations to the students on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Food Service Executives Association. I ifi 2 8' arships are available from the food industry itself in the hope of adding capable newcomers to their staffs. The former West Baden Springs Hotel is just a short walk away from another famed structure which still operates as a hostelry, the French Lick-Sheraton Hotel and Country Club.

A railroad, still operating, connects the two. Sheraton employees often take courses at the Institute. Janice, a native of the area, has written a book, "A Stately Pleasure Dome," about the old hotel at West Baden. The hotel, already a mecca for the rich to "take the waters" and enjoy a dizzying array of diversions, was destroyed by fire in 1901. Its owner, Colonel Lee Sinclair, was persuaded by his daughter Lillian to rebuild.

Many architects were approached but refused the commission of building Sinclair's dream of a domed hotel with an enormous court beneath the dome. "It can't be done," they said. The flamboyant gentleman finally foiihd an equally flamboyant architect in Harrison Albright, who agreed to complete the older man's dream in just 200 days with a work force of 500. When it was completed, it was the largest dome in the world. Janice notes parenthetically that engineers commissioned to build Houston's Astrodome came to West Baden first to study its famous dome.

Rooms were arranged in six stories around the domed Pom-peian Court in two concentric circles with an ample hallway between. A massive Rookwood fireplace at one side of the atrium burned 14-foot logs. Janice refutes the popular notion that a platform was lowered from the immense dome to lift the orchestra above dancers below. She says long-time employees insist that the platform was used only for workers engaged in cleaning and repairs. West Baden was "the place" to go in the early years of the century.

Besides enjoying the salubrious mineral water which was the basis for the fame of the area, guests could enjoy, right on the premises, movies, bowling, swimming, opera, horseback riding, and bicycling. The paths through the woods were floored with sawdust for walkers. Janice points out that major league baseball teams came to West Baden for spring training. The Hagenback-Wallace Circus had winter quarters close to the hotel. During World War I the hotel became U.S.

Army Hospital 35. In 1922, gambling entrepreneur Ed Ballard bought the hotel and continued the colonel's showmanlike predilections by Importing wild animal acts In the atrium for his guests and enlarging the golf course, putting the first tee on the porch of the hotel. West Baden Springs could not survive the Great Depression and Dessert cook at work Representatives of Marriott, Hilton and Sheraton Hotels, Houli-hans, White Castle and Restaurant chains, among others, are just folding up their exhibits on tables lining the big atrium. Four hundred high school students have been guests for the morning and lunch. Northwood students do all the cooking every day.

They are working toward a one-year certificate in the culinary arts, a two-year associate degree in hotel and restaurant management, or a four-year bachelor's degree, the last two years of which are spent on the Michigan campus. Graduates have studied sales, accounting, marketing, menu planning, buying, designing of decor, catering, legal aspects and personnel management. "There are 181,000 new jobs each year in the food service industry," says Janice happily, pointing out that Northwood graduates have no trouble finding employment. "The industry is so starved for competent help they came to look beyond at future students," she adds, explaining the appearance of high school students at the exposition. They are actively exhorted into entering the food service industry by future employers.

Eldred Paulson, a former Army mess sergeant, oversees the actual food preparation. "There are over 22,000 in food service in the army," he points out. "The Army won first place in the National Restaurant Show this year," he adds proudly. "They won 90 percent of the awards, over master chefs." Eldred notes that there are four men to every woman student at BOMBECK Donna Oliver, dessert cook and "all around girl" at Wilma's Deli and Catering Service, decorates one of her specialties, a chocolate cheesecake. After studying for two years at the Area Career Center, Donna received a certificate in culinary arts from Northwood Institute in 1976, and says she, loves the creativity of cooking.

"Northwood was what I wanted," she says. "I didn't want a lot of courses I didn't need." She says there are jobs for all Northwood graduates who "really want one." Evening Press photo by Loren Fisher. Chief cook Eldred Paulson, a former Army mess sergeant, is director of the hotel management and culinary arts department at Northwood Institute in West Baden. He's just finished overseeing lunch for 700. Photo courtesy of Northwood Institute.

Northwood, 80 percent of the students from Indiana. Janice adds that although fees for tuition, board and room are high, totalling nearly $5,000 a year, many schol- Few columns over the past 14 years have gotten the reader response as the one called, "You don't love that old chestnut kids lay on you when you say "No." It struck a chord with millions of parents who take their jobs seriously parents who resist the luxury of laying back and saying "Yes," when they should have the guts to say "No." We've all been there. The slammed doors, eyes brimming with tears. The rejection. The threats.

The secret phone calls. The hysterics. The nights when sleep would not come. The mornings of dlspalr when you ached for Just one tar mjj 'A Stately Pleasure Dome' This artist's drawing of West Baden Springs now owned by the Northwood Institute, a Hotel, rebuilt after a fire in 1901, almost became school of culinary arts and hotel and restaurant a reality. Actually, only four towers were con- management.

Photo courtesy of Northwood structed. These were removed when the facility Institute, became a Jesuit seminary in 1934. The old hotel In an almost impossible effort to convert the old hotel to an ascetic appearance, the four Byzantine towers on top were removed. The springs were capped and the lobby was converted into a chapel. The building deteriorated, enrollment dropped, and the seminary decided to move to a new location near Chicago.

The hotel was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Macauley Whiting of Midland, and presented to North-wood Institute to join branches In Midland and Texas. Colonel Sinclair, a man of verve and dash himself, would most likely be pleased to see the magnificent food prepared in his grand old hotel today. my tongue when I knew the words 'I hate you' might have slipped out.

"But most of all I loved you enough to leave you in an effort to be on my own. That was the hardest part of all." Someday, I'd like to meet the mythical "everybody else's mother," that illusive liberal, devil-may-care woman who Is the first to sanction every madcap scheme, every party, every overnight prom but who can never be found. Until I meet her, I'll keep handing out my middle-class wisdom: "Rather to die young from a thousand no's. to live a lifetime with a parent who doesn't care." closed in 1932. In 1943, the hotel was transferred to the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and began its transformation into a college as a seminary for the training of its members.

Delta grads repeat vows; Delta High School graduates Peggy Pompa and Jeffery Fisher, both of Eaton, were wed Oct. 28. She is a receptionist at Imperial Cabinet Company, Inc. He is engaged in farming in the Eaton area. April date set To wed April 15 are Brenda Tarn-sett, Muncie, and Robert Keihn, Selma.

She is a Delta High School graduate and is employed by Skate-Away. He Is engaged in dairy farming in Selma. me for something I didn't do. "I loved you enough to go to church each Sunday because I would have disappointed you had I not. "I loved you enough to respect your opinion.

"I loved you enough to listen to your 'old-fashioned' Ideas in hopes of learning something from them. "I loved you enough to spend too much money, for too short a time, to come home and see you. "I loved you enough to understand that the things you did for me were In my best interest. "I loved you enough to hold ove you7 has sign of understanding. Why do you do It? I've asked myself the same question.

Came up with a few wonderful phrases like self-respect, integrity. But mostly, I guess, It's producing a human being who knows that love is caring. What prompted this? A letter from Joyce Winchell of Waukesha, who was cleaning out a drawer recently and came across a parody on "You don't love me," written by her daughter, Susan, a student In St. Cloud, to her mother. It's a parody we'd all be proud to find.

"1 loved you enough to forgive you when you punished Erma, the parent; At Wit's End By ERMA.