The Power of Pancakes

23 February 2011Indre S

Like on Christmas morning, the Mack House girls rose from bed with puffy eyes and wrinkled pajamas and anxiously made their way to their ‘gifts’. Once in the foyer, the girls were greeted by the house-parents, Mr. and Mrs. Flynn, who were stacking pancake upon pancake and sausage upon sausage. Cinnamon buns, bagels, juice, fruit, cereal: a multitudinous array of delectable dishes filled the room. It was almost unperceivable that Saturday classes loomed a mere two hours ahead.

Once in a while, Mackenzie House experiences the luxury an in-house breakfast like this, complete with chocolate chip pancakes and other mood-lifting recipes. This event takes us by surprise: Brentwood students have been brainwashed into believing certain things are immutable.

Most Saturday mornings students rise to the buzzing and beeping of alarm clocks, reminding them to get to breakfast as soon as possible in order to have plenty of time afterwards to prepare their rooms for the Number One inspection. Along with the nuisance of folding, vacuuming, and dusting early on the weekend, it is not a day of free time that awaits students, but rather three academic classes. Not the ideal timeline for a teenager’s Saturday morning, but it is what we signed up for.

Houseparents at Brentwood understand this; they know that the students in their house will commit to the routine, but we won’t always cherish it. So, once in a while, our home-away-from-home parents schedule an in-house breakfast. Routine is pleasantly shattered. In Mack House, this event includes not only the ability to avoid the walk to the cafeteria in order to feed ourselves, but also a sleep-in, a less vigorous room inspection, and of course, the renowned Mackenzie House fry up.

To some, an in-house breakfast is simply the pleasure of food being close to their warm bed. In Mack House, however, it is a delectable experience; waking up to the aroma of pancakes and bacon and being able to enjoy that food with the rest of the Mack House family is something that is not forgotten: it is always looked forward to. With the Flynns famous griddle, and with the idea that, in some sense, it is a way to take the morning off, there is no better way to start a Saturday morning at Brentwood than the way Mack House did this past weekend.

Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Flynn.

Where Students Choose To Be