A Day at the Dingman House

One of the constants of the Des Moines Catholic Worker is Eddie Bloomer. Eddie has been a resident Worker for over 25 years. You name it, he does it. His base of operations is the “store,” a room stocked (on a good day) with canned food items, clothing, personal hygiene items, and assorted items which would put a Dollar General store to shame.

A guest, leaning through the Dutch door, might ask Eddie for soap, deodorant, a can of chili, or some aspirin. The “proprietor” will retrieve the item or respond with “Not today. We’re out.” His tone is sympathetic. I will often ask Eddie what his best seller has been. “Today, toothbrushes. Tomorrow, tee shirts.”

Eddie likes to talk about music…usually jazz. Count Basie. Roy Eldridge. Nothing later than Linda Ronstadt. Without asking, he will give you a tip on the fourth race at Arlington Park or Santa Anita. He enjoys talking about boxing. Muhammed Ali. Joe Frazier. Rocky Marciano. Jersey Joe Walcott. George Foreman.

A guest began angrily shouting at another guest. Eddie walked into the kitchen to bring some newly washed dishes back to the pantry where they are retrieved. The argument begins to get out of control. Eddie murmurs “There’s disorder at the border.” I ask what the problem is… who’s angry with who. Eddie: “Be careful. You’re next.”

Scrubbing pots and pans are, compared to dishes, cups, and flatware, a pain in the neck. Dishes and cups take precedence. Thus, the pots and pans, once empty of food, have to be placed elsewhere in the kitchen than just to the right side of the deep stainless steel sinks.

Once work can begin on pots and pans, the appropriate process begins with scouring powder (“Bar Keepers’ Friend” is the best) and a scraper, especially for cheese, rice, or potatoes.

According to a remembered instruction from Charlie Merters, a former regular in the Dingman House kitchen and jack-of-all-trades, these items bond with stainless steel and are the devil to remove. Once the work of a powder is successful, another cleaning with plain soap suds is necessary to remove the scouring powder residue. Only then might the item go back on the rack by the back door. Dingman House’s meal guests over the years have been an assortment of ages, races, ethnic groups, languages, personal styles, clothing, conversations.

Some walk in the back door, wait for a food serving from Annie, consume it there in the dayroom or in the back yard at a picnic table and depart without a word. Others are vocally appreciative of the meal. They express a “thank you” or another comment about how good the food is. Eddie or Mohammed or Araceli, without hesitation, respond “You’re welcome.”

There was a time before the pandemic, when small groups would sit in the dayroom between the 3:00 and the 6:00 meals on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and play cards, usually cribbage. That practice, unfortunately, has disappeared.

Since 2023, a regular fixture at the Des Moines Worker is Mohammed Salah. He is one of the chefs, preparing meals which are nutritious and, at times, experimental. He also spends a lot of time behind the wheel of a white van, transporting food from one of the Worker’s numerous sources.

Mohammed often doubles as the “shower head,” making sure that a guest writes their name in chalk on the small blackboard indicating who is next in line for a shower. While cutting vegetables for a soup or baking a pan of something scrumptious, he will often break into humming a tune. I refer to this as “Mohammed’s brass section.”

He may be the only Muslim that I know of who frequently breaks into an energetic humming of a Christmas carol. He loves Christmas carols, especially in the middle of summer. Christmas in July, anyone?

Another denizen of Dingman House, over the last two years, is Noche. He has but one name, one moniker. Like Cher. Unlike Cher, Noche has four legs and paws. He is a black cat of considerable size. His domain is the second floor. The storage room is a favorite hangout, although when I walk up Dingman’s narrow wooden steps for a break from the sinks’ soapsuds, I have to say Noche’s name to bring him to consciousness from a feline nap up another set of stairs where he has his lair. Noche keeps Dingman House rodent-free.

Bob Mulqueen is a member of the Des Moines Catholic Worker’s extended community and an Iowa Statehouse observer.

This article originally appeared in the July 2026 edition of the Des Moines Catholic Worker’s newspaper, Via Pacis. You can read the paper online here.