I am sitting with Blanche Weathers. In her dining room
in Bowman, South Carolina. Blanche is the wife of our
commissioner of agriculture Hugh Weathers. And Blanche,
agriculture which includes forestry and all the things
everything related to forestry and agriculture
farming is the largest industry I believe in our
state. It is. It is. A lot of people think tourism is our
largest. I think that we cap 'em out just a little bit.
Yeah. And it is crucially important that people
understand the breadth of the field. It's not just getting
on a tractor. No. There's so many aspects to it. So many
things. And so many opportunities. One of the
things that I believe your husband has wanted to do is.
Expose young people especially those who didn't
grow up with that background, to those myriad
opportunities and he developed a way to do that.
He did a few years back, they started the
commissioner school of agriculture. Which is sort
of a summer program. It's a week long camp, held at
Clemson University and they partner with the school of
agriculture there, and so about forty young people
who are either rising juniors or rising seniors
can come. And it's just a terrific program that
teaches them about all the different aspects of
agriculture and the opportunities for them if
they decide to go into this area. And you play a role in
that because we feel like when they finish their
career and begin to go out for job interviews that
they need to be representatives of our
state. That's exactly right. And so I had the privilege
to help the school of agriculture by
teaching what we call an etiquette class. And we do
it at a dinner party. We set up a a very nice dinner
party and bring the young people in and I do a
little teaching about etiquette. And so it's great.
Because you explained to me that at the round
tables because y'all go out all the time you have to
represent you and your husband. Sometimes you're not
sure which is your glass or which is confusing. Yes it is.
And so many of the times that these events that we
go they're at the round table and it's so fun to
sit there and see people trying to figure out which
is my glass? Which is my bread and butter plate? And
so, when I teach the young people, this is not
something I came up with but we teach them to hold
their hands up just like this. And so when they
look at their hands, they have a B. and a D. and so
that means bread and butter and drink. So you know that
your drink is the drink of your right hand and your
bread and butter is to your left. Cool! Yeah. Isn't that
neat? So if you were going to a dinner, would the first
thing be to put your? Yes. The first thing would be to
put your napkin in your lap, with the fold against you.
And that would be the first thing you would do. And
then we also teach them, because a lot of times,
they're different courses at some of these dinners
and the silverware can be a little overwhelming when
you sit down at the table. So what we teach what is
taught is that you begin on the outside and you move in
as you go. So often the salad in a fancy dinner would be
right there, and would this be my salad plate? This is
your salad plate and this is your salad fork.
Sometimes the salad is brought in and, and put you
know served without the dinner plate. And then you
start at the beginning course with the outside fork.
And then when you come get to the point of desert,
your dessert utensil will be at the top of the plate.
And if it is, it is always fun for me to say it's a
fork or it's a spoon? It it's spoon, we always
say it's gotta be ice cream or maybe custard. But if
it's pie or cake. Then we would have a fork. Now if it my
salad it is there, do I wait until my hostess
begins to eat? Yes, you do. And I say particularly at
desert. You know everyone wants, everyone wants to
jump in on desert, but you really are supposed to wait
for your hostess. To lift her utensil. And then
everyone's good to go. From there. Now, the butter
comes around, sometimes they'll be a knife on the
butter plate and I use that to get a pat. And if I've
got a roll, am I supposed to do smear the whole thing
with butter? Or is there? - Well I think I think my
boys always just wanted to just smear the whole thing butter
and then woof it down. Of course. But the proper way
would be to break your bread, and then you butter the
small piece and eat small pieces of bread. I like it
to do it that way. Because I think you get more butter that
way. That's a good reason to pay attention to the rules. Now
if it's a biscuit. Can I butter my biscuit? If it's a
biscuit you can butter that biscuit yeah. And then at the
end of the meal when I finish. When we're eating I
think put my knife like that, if I'm right handed and use
it when I need to. But when I finish my mother told me
to put my knife at 4:20. 4:20
right. She said there's two things that would let the
person clearing know that I was through. But it also
means that they're not going to, it's no going to fall
off the plate. If I left it kind of caddywompus, it might
fall off and make a racket. It would. It would. So that makes
it easy and they would if you if you're at a dinner party
the waiter would come and remove, you know you
serve from the right. Take away from the left, if
you're helping your mom or yeah in your home. And so
when they remove it- yeah, you would not- and
if I finish before you do I keep my napkin in
my lap because nobody wants to see a soiled napkin and
then at the very end- When we all get up from the table, we
just fold it, drape it, and just put it right back
over here. Okay! Well Blanche I hope one day that I will once
again my husband take me out to a wonderful fun place or that I
will have enough time to cook a wonderful meal at home,
and remind my children of the wonderful things you shared with
me today. Well good. Thank you. Thank you for being such a
gracious ambassador for South Carolina. I appreciate that.