70th annual Chicken Broil “an awesome success”

Alumni Memorial Field ready to welcome Chicken Broil goers on Saturday afternoon.

by Marsha Chartrand

The unqualified heroes of the 70th Annual Manchester Chicken Broil have got to be the Weather Committee.

Since the earliest years of the Chicken Broil, a team consisting prominently of local clergy has been assigned as the Weather Committee. This primarily honorary position was, of course, intended to pray for clear blue skies, warm (but not too hot) temperatures, and just enough of a pleasant breeze to keep the smoke away from the dining tables at Alumni Memorial Field. Assuming that those in the ministry had the closest connection to the powers-that-be controlling the weather … well, of course those worthy men (and women) were summoned to service.

When we all woke up to storms on Saturday morning, and radar reports with varying degrees of accuracy facing us on our phones, it was definitely time to call the Weather Committee into action. And you know what? It worked.

“Things might have looked pretty normal on the surface if you drove by the field on Saturday morning or early afternoon,” admits Jeff Mann, co-chair of the Broil. “There was still plenty of activity going on. But in reality, we were all checking in with each other: ‘What does your radar say?’ ‘Do you think it is going to clear?’ There was a little bit of understated panic down there.”

It may have been an hour and a half or so late getting the fires started, but once the pit foremen saw that break, they took advantage of it and never looked back. And the news spread like wildfire — Mann said that once they had a Facebook post of the pits being lit, there were 12,000 hits to the page within the hour and by 3pm there was already a drive-through line forming on Duncan Street, reaching at least to Division.

“In the grand scheme of things, it was an awesome success,” said Mann. “We may have been down about 500 dinners from last year, but I’m sure we lost people to the uncertainty of the weather. Overall, it was simply awesome and I’m proud of the crew.”

Ready for next year? Oh, yeah …

Checking chicken on the grids at 3pm. Looking good! And serving started at 4pm as usual.

Nate Smith (left) and John Hinkley (right) working on the final touches of the famous coleslaw.

Up on Ann Arbor Hill, the Schmidt family’s skeletons were all ready for the Chicken Broil games despite the rain Saturday morning!

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by Marsha Chartrand

Marsha Johnson Chartrand, a founder, writer, and copy editor with the Manchester Mirror, is a 50-year resident of Manchester. She has a long history of volunteer and community involvement.