THANKSGIVING

One Thanksgiving story comes to mind. When I was growing up, it was a big thing, Thanksgiving. We were farmers and always had plenty of food. My mom cooked this gigantic meal: Turkey, ham and mountains of other stuff. She and my Aunt Gertie (isn't it funny. My mom was named Bertie and my favorite Aunt, her sister, was Gertie); anyway, Thanksgiving was coming up. I was in my freshman year of college. These two foreign students lived just up the hall of my dorm. They didn't have anywhere to go for Thanksgiving. The school tried to find a place for them. My good friend, Margaret Chiles, who was the student activities director, was so stressed. There were no takers for these guys. I finally said, "what the hay, they can go with me."

(I think they were Irish). 

The day before T'giving, we loaded into my old raggedy 49 Ford and took off. On the way home, about five hours away, we saw this guy hitch hiking. We picked him up. He was a college student too, from of all places, Bob Jones U (BJU was this fanatical right wing, very  conservative school with all these rules. I briefly had a sweetheart from there. You couldn't hold hands even. Well, that is one romance that ended early). The Bob Jones student was going to a friend because his folks had split up. "Go with us." What will your mom say? "She won't even know you're there." 

Mom prepared so much food, you could have fed the whole town. We had a great time. And, I was right, nobody even noticed the three extras I brought in.