| Sweet, sweet Welcome Week |
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by Ashley Martin the Carillon Cotton candy vendors: man’s best friend? Quite possibly Cotton candy and sno-kones were a big part of this year’s Welcome Week, but they didn’t come easily. Billy Paterson, a third-year history major who “was unofficially signed up as a junk food officer by Shawn Fraser, as part of the V-Team,” was happy to provide both to sugar-crazed students, but admitted it was a learning experience. “I now have a new respect for carnies. I’m also doing career training for when I get my BA, in carnival training,” Paterson said. His newly acquired cotton candy knowledge includes distinguishing from different cotton candy flavours (the two offered at Welcome Week were “cloud” and “Santa’s beard”), whereas most people “would say they’re the same.” He later admitted that both taste like sugar. He also learned that the wind is an obstacle in making cotton candy outdoors. “It’s really windy out, so a lot of the cotton candy gets blown downwind to the rest of the tables and the hotdog and hamburger stand,” Paterson said. The wasps were another obstacle, but Paterson overcame them. “I have a truce with the wasps right now,” he said. “A blood pact... do wasps have blood?” Aside from wind and wasps, the cotton candy-making process is quite simple, in theory. “We take our secret ingredient—I can’t tell you what it is, it’s white though, I’ll tell you that. Pour it in [to the hole in the centre of the machine], and that’s pretty much it.” The technique involved in making cotton candy is something difficult to master. Paterson often found himself with candy-coated hands after the candy making was complete. “Some people are grossed out by [the cotton candy on my hands],” he said, “so I try to hide it.” Paterson was also on part-time sno-kone duty, and learned a lot in that respect as well. “The secret to making sno-cones is we have to make our own snow; we can’t wait till winter. We get ice, and we grind it up and sure enough, [we get] snow out of ice. It’s hard to believe. We are defying the laws of nature right now, in making sno-kones.” Paterson received a lot of positive feedback about the candy from students. “I’ve heard that it’s better than going to class.” |