This is being written a week before Thanksgiving, but you likely won’t see it till after. Hopefully all of us remember all the things we have to be thankful for and rejoice.
Our day will be begin about 8 a.m. with Luan and I toasting each other with Bloody Marys then cutting dressing ingredients — bread, onions, celery, seasoning — and tossing it together in a big pan.
I’ll hold the turkey open at both ends while m’daughter seasons and stuffs, before I take over the closing. I imitate a doctor stepping in after the nurse does all the real work, or the coach getting credit for the victory when the eleven on the field earn it.
However, when the other dozen troops arrive I’ll give all the credit to Luan, until I hear some compliments on the taste, then it’s back to ME again.
The first move at the table is always interesting. The last few years the twins, now 7, have been asked to say the blessings. To date they have, unlike me, not sought that spotlight.
Maybe their 11-year-old sister will volunteer, or maybe one of the college cousins will, being overanxious to start passing, reel off some quick words and start the dressing around the oval.
That’s the beginning. The ending is filled with compliments, unbuttoning of collars, sighs and falling eyelids.
And the thanks of having a fine family is hereby noted.
– – – 0 – – –
There’s a contest on the tube involving genealogy, and it has prompted our two daughters to start asking about the Sherman background. Like, what was my father’s brothers? names?
Dad’s name was Dair (Don’t ask how that came about — I don’t know.), the brothers were Leigh and Clifton. In searching for other answers I went to a desk cubby hole and pulled out Dad’s envelope.
At age 25 he started keeping a daily diary, months before he was drafted into the Army, and kept it up through his honorable discharge.
Also in the package was his 12-page ‘Soldier’s Individual Pay Record Book.? When called October 3, 1917 he was paid $36 a month. However, he had to take out a $10,000 life insurance policy, $6.70, and something called ‘Ordinary Class E Allotment,? $20. His actually monthly pay was $9.30 . . . which, according to his diary, he frequently lost in dice games.
The book also states, ‘This book will be carried by the soldier in his personal possessions.? Which, obviously, he did.
– – – 0 – – –
Many an opportunity is lost because a man is out looking for a four-leaf clover.
The secret of success is making hay with the grass that grows under other people’s feet.
We need equal opportunities for more people, and more people who are equal to them.
– – – 0 – – –
A man moved to Oklahoma City, too late for the refuse pick-up that week. Boxes began piling up. One morning he decided it was time for action, and sent the following telegram (It’s an old story) to the City Manager:
Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Garbage pick-up
Ten days over due.
When he returned home from work that afternoon he found the city could rise to the occasion. A telegram signed by the City Manager read:
Garbage smells,
Your rhyme does too.
But I’ve sent for your hog feed,
P.D.Q.
The poet went to his back door and looked out. The refuse was gone.
– – – 0 – – –
Someone named Senca is quoted in one of my books as saying: ‘I’d rather be sick than idle.?
Wonder what he/she thought when he matured?