Wednesday, November 23, 2005
It's been three years since I had anything like a conventional
Thanksgiving, & certain situations having nothing to do with me
made that day a strange one. But as my parents broke up when I
was a young teenager, I've had a wide variety of Thanksgivings
over the past 40 years & certainly nothing that would constitute
a family "tradition." The past two years I filled in at
WFMU & in 2003 had a turkey dinner there, too.
When Christine & I lived together I didn't really enjoy
Thanksgivings with her family & finally began excusing myself
from them, stayed home & hoped for leftovers.
I was one of the "relatives" everyone put up with on holidays.
Because my behavior & comments were examined & assessed after
the occasions, not going to them at all reduced me to a simple
curmudgeonly "no show." Bob writes poems, loves weird music,
doesn't care for football, has very liberal political views,
goes outside to smoke (pot? Nope, it's the "kids" who do that
out by the garage) & exhibits symptoms of Attention Deficit Disorder
(which I don't have, proof being my collection of Mahler symphonies).
Yet, one of my most enjoyable Thanksgivings, about ten years ago
was with a large extended family plus several dogs & cats,
not a single green food item on a table nearly collapsing
under the weight of turkey, potatoes, stuffing, candied yams,
kielbasa, beer bottles, & elbows. Football on TV before, during
& after; noisy, informal, I had a great time, just one eccentric
among many. Another nice meal was with vegetarian friends who'd
finally given up going to family dinners where they had to carry in
all their own food anyway. The meatless main entree "loaf" wasn't
quite to my taste, but the wine, salads & pies were wonderful.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
Thanksgiving, & certain situations having nothing to do with me
made that day a strange one. But as my parents broke up when I
was a young teenager, I've had a wide variety of Thanksgivings
over the past 40 years & certainly nothing that would constitute
a family "tradition." The past two years I filled in at
WFMU & in 2003 had a turkey dinner there, too.
When Christine & I lived together I didn't really enjoy
Thanksgivings with her family & finally began excusing myself
from them, stayed home & hoped for leftovers.
I was one of the "relatives" everyone put up with on holidays.
Because my behavior & comments were examined & assessed after
the occasions, not going to them at all reduced me to a simple
curmudgeonly "no show." Bob writes poems, loves weird music,
doesn't care for football, has very liberal political views,
goes outside to smoke (pot? Nope, it's the "kids" who do that
out by the garage) & exhibits symptoms of Attention Deficit Disorder
(which I don't have, proof being my collection of Mahler symphonies).
Yet, one of my most enjoyable Thanksgivings, about ten years ago
was with a large extended family plus several dogs & cats,
not a single green food item on a table nearly collapsing
under the weight of turkey, potatoes, stuffing, candied yams,
kielbasa, beer bottles, & elbows. Football on TV before, during
& after; noisy, informal, I had a great time, just one eccentric
among many. Another nice meal was with vegetarian friends who'd
finally given up going to family dinners where they had to carry in
all their own food anyway. The meatless main entree "loaf" wasn't
quite to my taste, but the wine, salads & pies were wonderful.
