Photo by Hyttalo Souza on Unsplash
My Mother didn’t want to cook a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. She was more interested in sitting in her favorite chair, reading the convoluted history of the English monarchy while drinking a beer and eating popcorn. Actually, this sounds great to me so I totally get her attitude.
I regret to say that we were argumentative kids. Holiday dinner would start calmly but then one of us kids would say something nasty and another kid would smart off and just like that, the table was in an uproar.
My Mother would foghorn at my Father, “John, make them stop!” while my Dad sat there calmly eating his Butterball turkey and Ida-Ore instants. “Ok now,” he would warn as he scooped up more canned cranberries.
But my sister was upset and would gobble her food to get away from the table ASAP. This led to her choking and my brother volunteering to pound her on the back. You can imagine how that went.
Not to be outdone, I would begin to wail about my stomach hurting.
Pretty soon the entire dinner table consisted of my Mother shrieking, “Stop it! Stop it all of you!” while we kids continued bickering and wailing. Dad would look up from whatever planet his thoughts had sent him to and tune sharply into the chaos.
“We’re having a nice dinner and you all need to get along. Now everyone ENJOY THIS LOVELY DINNER YOUR MOTHER HAS PREPARED!” That shut us all up. He was not to be messed with.
If this wasn’t enough torture for the day, at the end of the meal my Dad, who was a physician, gave us all flu shots. What a fitting ending for a delightful holiday with the family!
(PS: Now that we kids have all grown older and developed our own holiday traditions, there’s more gratitude and thankfulness during the holidays. Maybe because we all stay at home and just phone each other with sincere love in our hearts.)
Thanksgiving dinner horror stories anyone? You know, the one where your dad was going to cook the turkey outside on the grill and the neighbor’s dog stole it but the neighbor brought it back with just a few teeth marks so your dad finished grilling it and everyone ate it anyway. Leave me a comment below.
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