Thanksgiving in Time

I asked my father and Aunt Mame to tell me about one of the Thanksgivings that they remember.

They told me about a time when they living in Dayton Texas in the 1920s. It seems that their house burned down. The family watched as every item vanished in the flames. Aunt Mame who was about 3 had a favorite pair of house shoes. She commented as all burned up :"There go my house shoes and Ma-Ma's too just a snappin and poppin in the fire. " The two parents and family of 4 stayed at a neighbor's house. (Back then it was before T.V. and a "me" generation, and they had something called neighbors. Today we are not too sure what this is-but can only guess.) At any rate, the next morning some men went to the garage or storage area behind the house. They cut a door into it and a window for light. The family moved into it, and lived with a dirt floor and the family of 6 lived in this small area until the house was rebuilt.

My father and Aunt Mame recall the Thanksgiving in this small house as being one of their greatest and best Thanksgivings. They were thankful that their family was together and that no one had been killed or injured in the fire. Looking back they both considered it a wonderful and amazing time.

The story also reminded me of a time when I was a young college student at home, when a Hurricane hit the house where we were living in New Orleans. A tornado that accompanied the hurricane ripped through our neighborhood and hit our house, ripping the roof off. I remember as the watersoaked sheet rock dropped on my head from the second story and just cracked around me due to being waterlogged. The house was ruined. Our family walked away having lost everything--but having lost nothing of real importance. We were all still alive, all still had our faculties, no emotional trauma---we had just lost things. No real loss at all.

It is when we loose people that we love, when we are traumatized, when we loose our hope--these are the real losses in life. It is when we loose our faith in one another, then we really loose something.

So -- along with the Turkey and the leftovers comes a story about Thanksgiving. Sometimes those left overs are mighty good!

HarleyDad riding back into History with a prior generation.