Cooking for a Company

SEELEY LAKE – Preparing dinner for a large family gathering such as Thanksgiving or Christmas can be stressful for the cook used to feeding only two to four people. Seeley Lake resident Anita Boddington takes it right in stride. She was a cook in the United States Army and regularly fed 100-200 soldiers.

Boddington grew up in Nashville, Tenn. and lived what she called a very sheltered life. Among other things, her parents wouldn't allow her to learn to drive a car. She said by age 20 she felt her life was going nowhere and she had no marketable skills, so she decided to join the army. Her father told her she'd never pass the entrance exam.

"Not only did I pass the entrance exam," Boddington said, "they made me take it twice because they thought I'd cheated. So they put me in a room all by myself, nobody else around, shut the door and made me take it again. I did better the second time around than I did the first."

Boddington was given her choice among the limited jobs available to women in the military in the mid-1970s. Since she loved to cook, she chose to become an army cook.

After basic training, Boddington took six weeks of instruction in food preparation. She was taught the proper way to chop vegetables, to prepare meats, to make pastries. Boddington said it was the same kind of training given to someone who is apprenticing to become a chef or a sous chef [person ranking next after the chef] at a restaurant.

During her three years in the army, Boddington was stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas, on the Mexican border. There she cooked for the 978th Military Police Company. She primarily drew breakfast duty and said she used real eggs, not powdered.

"We didn't cook them all the same," Boddington said. "We cooked them however the soldiers wanted them. They'd come through the line and I'd say, 'how would you like your eggs,' and they'd tell me and I'd cook them."

When the troops were in the field, their cooks went with them. Boddington said she spent a lot of time camping and really loved it.

"The guys were great," Boddington said. "They took care of us when we went out into the field. We didn't have to do anything except cook for them. They dug the latrines. They dug the garbage holes. They carted the garbage off when we were done and buried it in the hole. We didn't even have to do that. They totally took care of us."

She said she also enjoyed off-duty time. She and some friends would go into Juarez or across the border into Mexico. "It was just a fun time," she said. "A fun group of folks just learning and living."

Although Boddington originally intended to stay in the military and make it her career, things changed after she got married and later became pregnant. Concerned that some of the things she was required to do as a cook, such as lift heavy pots, weren't safe for a pregnant woman, she asked to be reassigned to a desk job. When her request was denied, she decided to get out of the service.

Summing up her years in the military, Boddington said, "I was a kid when I went in and I was a grown-up when I came out. I didn't take no guff from anybody. I guess that came from being in the military and being around other people who had lived different lives. They taught me to stand up for myself."

Though Boddington never took another job that involved cooking, she said she always enjoyed making meals for her family. Diabetic retinopathy has affected her eyesight in both eyes so she can now only see large shapes and is considered legally blind. Nonetheless she has not let her condition rob her of the things she enjoys doing.

With the help of the Blind and Low Vision Coordinator at the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Boddington has learned to maximize the vision still available to her. The VA has also provided her with equipment designed to help low-vision veterans function better.

One such object is a high contrast cutting board, black on one side and white on the other. Using the black side makes it easier for Boddington to chop onions or other light colored vegetables; dark food items are easier to see using the white side. With the help of devices such as these, Boddington is still able to cook.

She said, "It is a lot more difficult to cook now. It takes me a whole lot longer. But I do okay."

Boddington belongs to the Seeley Lake Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints. She helps with preparing food for church functions and alternates with other members in making food for families in times of illness or after hospitalization.

Boddington has even taught herself to blind crochet, enabling her to resume a hobby she loved but thought she would never be able to do again. At present she is making mittens for kids at the school whose parents can't afford to buy any. She also crochets hats for the neonatal units and for cancer patients at the hospitals in Missoula and Spokane.

Boddington's final remarks: "I told you, and I wasn't kidding, I am not interesting, not exciting. I'm just somebody that's trying to do good and make my little corner of the world better and take care of myself. I don't like being a burden. And I sure don't like having my picture taken."