Late Night at the Spaghetti Supper

11/4/08-When you think the Election Day Spaghetti Supper at Our Lady of Pompei School, you think pasta and politics. For the last 59 years they have been serving up spaghetti with all the fixings to voters and community members of all ages. The supper runs from eleven in the morning to seven at night, but most of the action happens around noon. That's when the majority of the candidates are there as well as the major news stations in the area.

So who is there in the later hours? A lot of people. Chairperson Lucy Paris says mostly families and people who had to spend the day in work come at night. When I asked some people why they still came down, the most popular answer was the most obvious one: the great food. One diner described it as "Just like a home cooked meal". It is this excellence that has kept generations coming back every first Tuesday after the first Monday in November year after year, making tradition the second most popular reason for coming.

Paris says she thinks they served about 3,000 people this year which equates to 7,000 meatballs, 300 gallons of sauce, and 700 hundred pounds of pasta. With such a large crowd when is the best time to come if you want to eat your pasta in peace? Paris says things slow down between two and four, and you can always get a meal to go.

Extra 1: While filming at the supper I noticed that the minute you filmed adults eating they stopped and acted awkward, while kids loved to ham it up. I didn't want to let their performances go to waste. They may not have been old enough to vote, but you can enjoy spaghetti at any age.