Country Coach Rallies Memories! The Pepper Lady

The Pepper Lady

At a Country Coach rally in Eugene Oregon with over 250 coaches in attendance I once had a funny experience with “the pepper lady.” There were approximately 500 rallyers, plus vendors, sales personnel, management, seminar presenters, and other included employees, etc at dinner each night. So in a sea of 650 plus faces or so, I had a particular job at dinner each night. Find the pepper lady and deliver her plated meal to her personally.

This person and her husband were first timers. We were excited to have them meet fellow Country Coach owners. She was deathly allergic to pepper. She sent emails verifying that CC rallies did indeed accommodate her special needs? In writing and in conversations she noted her legal right to receive special accommodations for her disability/allergy. (Every rally form we published had a paragraph regarding the menus, and that people with special diets such as Atkins, no salt, no peanut oil, etc. should plan to accommodate those needs on their own in their coaches. With 500 people it would be difficult to be fair to all—I don’t eat fish, I don’t eat beef, we always had plenty of special requests.) That being said our caterers usually made a few alternate proteins for each dinner for those who cannot eat fish, beef, etc. I was amazed at how accommodating our caterers were over the years in fact.

These first timers seemed even a bit more adamant about their rights, having contacted the president of the owners club and me as the company representative before they ever arrived. So, I spoke with the Club board and with the caterer to get their feedback. They agreed to present her a Pepper-Free dinner every evening with her then being responsible for taking care of  her dietary needs at breakfasts, where she had options on the buffet that were pepper free.  She agreed this would be fine.

Dinners were a seated affair with linens and table décor….really beautiful table sets (no disposables here). Wait staff distributed plated meals hot and tasty to 80+ tables within 15 minutes. They’d hire a local dance team or charitable organization like the Kiwanis who would form a serving line all decked out in crisp white shirts and black slacks. Being a huge event room, it was quite a sight to watch. They were a well oiled machine delivering those plates to our waiting guests. I would visit the kitchen early each evening to check on her entrée ahead of time. When our guests were invited into the main event room to seat themselves for dinner, and the catering staff started distributing plates to all of those seated, I’d go and get my special plate to deliver. 

My pepper lady and I played a game: Find where she was seated tonight. I think she enjoyed the special attention and would change up where in the event room she sat every evening. I’d go ‘find’ her and present her plate. She was very pleased with the added concierge service and they both had a great time at the rally turning in a glowing rally survey. It ended well.  According to their survey, they’d never felt so welcome and were happy with all aspects of the rally experience.

It was one of my many unusual experiences at a rally. My main concern was ensure my pepper lady went home from a Country Coach rally happy (and to avoid any embarrassing claims being filed against my company for not accommodating her dietary needs, of course).

How I loved those rally planning days at Country Coach LLC and the many unique people I met over the years (Like Brian and Kay Case, pictured here at a rally, who were not by the way the Pepper Lady couple:). That aspect of my job is just one of the many reasons I can never say thank you often enough for the beautiful experience of 18+ years in the Country Coach marketing department.

Thanks for the Memories!

If you love making new friends, there are still many area chapters of Country Coach owners out there who rally on a smaller scale.  I particularly like the COUNTRY COACH FRIENDS CLUB; they are an international chapter of FMCA and members comprise several past presidents and officers I worked with while at the now defunct Country Coach LLC. 
If you miss the good old days of Country Coach rallies, I encourage you to visit this growing vibrant club; They put on wonderful rallies! www.countrycoachfriendsincorporated.com