ven though the incident in question happened many years ago, Cheryl Purshock was clearly not permitted around the potatoes that were to be served for the Turkey Bowl due to an unfortunate toilet incident some 30 years ago.
Purshock who at the time was in high school had peeled a meals worth of potatoes which was a substantial amount considering that at any one time there would be 12 to 20 mouths to feed at the Poquette home. Cheryl then proceeded to wash and rinse the peeled potatoes. Standard procedure dictated that the potato pot was filled with water then drained in the toilet because it had the biggest drain and could accommodate the large water flow from the vessel containing the potatoes and water slurry. Kitchen workers that performed this chore knew it was tricky business to keep holding the cover on the cooking vessel while dumping and draining. Cheryl apparently had not mastered this technique when she began the process of potato preparation and cooking. During the draining process she lost control of the cover and scads of potatoes began tumbling into the toilet and splashing into the pot.
Cheryl looked around and saw that no one had seen what had happed or bothered to check on her. Not wanting to perform the tedious task of peeling pounds and pounds of potatoes again or risking admonishment from her parental units for her obvious incompetence in potato preparation, she began to scoop up the uncooked root crop and made for the kitchen for more washing and rinsing. After all, she reasoned, potatoes grow in the ground and there's dirt in the ground......lots of dirt.....she convinced herself that these potatoes were no worse off then if they had just been dug up from a field freshly fertilized, and a little washing and they would be just fine.
Not wanting to risk getting into an argument with other family members who may have had a differing opinion had they known the facts, Cheryl failed to pass along the information about the unfortunate incident to anyone else. Apparently her theory held true and no one died, or to our knowledge even got sick from the extra dirty potatoes.
As word leaked out about the mishap cooks of the family made a pact that if Purshock was around she would not be allowed to cook potatoes for any family event. So even to this day Purshock is not allowed to have any thing to do with potatoes served at the Turkey Bowl. Women working in the kitchen will give her other jobs such as separating the silverware or stacking the paper plates but never anything that involves peeling, rinsing, and draining.
COLD WEATHER HITS ONEIDA
As I type this schools in the Oneida area are being canceled for the day with temperatures dipping into the 13 below zero range. Cold weather this winter has not been a problem with the El Nino year currently in play. Up to this point we have been enjoying moderate and some times record breaking high temperatures this winter but mother nature couldn't let us get through the winter without a reminder of what winter can actually bring. This current trend is supposed to continue through the week and begin to loosen it's grip next weekend. Current statistics are always available on our home page courtesy of Weather Underground. Constantly updating statistics are available by clicking: Keeto's Weather Station with information that updates every few seconds. That's all the news that is news, see ya.
