LEYDEN — The Mother’s Day breakfast put on by the Leyden Firefighters Association is always popular; but of the Association’s two spring fundraisers, the Father’s Day breakfast is usually the more successful one.
This year, it was the opposite. There were probably several reasons why, said Leyden Fire Department Officer-in-Charge Brian Pelletier — not the least of which would have been that, because of coronavirus concerns, both breakfasts were converted from their normal buffet format to a drive-through.
Rather than serve guests at dining tables in the Leyden Town Hall, Association volunteers this year ushered guests, in their cars, through a line that snaked around Town Hall. Orders were taken at the parking lot entrance. At the other end, kitchen workers brought each order out to the car, packaged in plastic to-go containers.
“If McDonald’s can do a drive-through, so can we,” Pelletier said.
For the Association’s Mother’s Day breakfast, the second weekend of May, the line had bumper-to-bumper traffic for hours at a time, volunteers at that breakfast reported. In the kitchen, cooks rushed to keep up with orders.
Father’s Day, this Sunday, was comparatively breezy. Open from 7 a.m. to 11, volunteers said that traffic had been slow but steady.
Maybe people were scared away by the enormous amount of traffic on Mother’s Day, Pelletier guessed.
Or maybe people were not aware that the Father’s Day breakfast was still happening. Not everyone reads the newspaper or the town’s newsletter, he noted. Town events are also promoted on an electronic billboard on Greenfield Road, but people who work in Brattleboro or at home may not see it, he added.
The biggest reason, Pelletier guessed, probably had to do with timing. Mother’s Day, at the beginning of May, happened when Massachusetts was a month and a half into its lock-down rules and with no end in sight. Locals were probably itching for something to do, he said.
Now, near the end of June, many restaurants and businesses have reopened, albeit with adjusted operating models. The desire for something to do on Father’s Day was probably less desperate than it was on Mother’s Day, Pelletier said.
“Now, for Father’s Day, everyone is a little more out in the open,” Pelletier said. “I think it was just the virus.”
Next year, assuming things are more normal by then, Pelletier said he expects both breakfasts to return to their normal buffet format.
The breakfasts’ regular guests will be glad: many told him they missed the sit-down meals, he said.
Yet some actually liked the drive-through, he said. For those people, he added, the breakfasts have always provided to-go boxes.
Reach Max Marcus at mmarcus@recorder.com or 413-930-4231.