by Michelle Swartz Monroe News
Lines literally were drawn at a dinner fundraiser in recognition of the Civil War.
But unlike the war, the opposition was over the food.
“We have two Yankees at our table,” joked Mike White of LaSalle about two people eating Northern-style food over Southern-style.
He was one of nearly 200 people who attended the Civil War memorial fundraiser dinner Saturday at the Monroe Post 1138, Veterans of Foreign Wars, hall. The fundraiser recognized the war’s 150th anniversary as well as raised money toward creating a Monroe County Civil War casualties monument to be built in Monroe.
Evening News photo by KIM BRENT Decked out in period garb, Rita White of LaSalle, Terry Koos of Woodhaven and Joan Croy of Newport (from left) joke with one another as they socialize at the start of the Civil War memorial dinner fundraiser Saturday night at the Monroe Post 1138, Veterans of Foreign Wars, hall.
The event, sponsored by the Monroe County [Michigan] Civil War Casualties Monument Committee and AMVETS Post 1942, offered Civil War period music by Angie Watt and Ken Guzman of Jubilee.
The fundraiser included a dinner with a choice of a Union menu or a Confederate menu.
“It’s the luck of the draw,” explained David Ingall of Temperance, one of the event’s organizers and a monument committee member. “We have an equal amount of tickets in a container and people pick out a ticket that’s either North or South.”
The Union menu, representing Northern-style food, included ham and bean soup, cauliflower salad, biscuits and honey, slow-cooked sliced beef, mashed potatoes, carrots, Michigan cider, Yankee coffee, rice pudding and spice cake.
The Confederate menu, representing Southern-style food, included chicken and rice soup, greens salad, Johnny cake and molasses, Southern-fried chicken, sweet potatoes, black-eyed peas, Charleston lemonade, Rebel coffee, minute pudding and pumpkin pie.
