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Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first. There. The last one.
Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes. This is Our American Stories and today we have a feature from one of our regular contributors. Stephen Rosiniak. This is a special Thanksgiving piece entitled An Awfully Awkward Thanksgiving. Here's Stephen sharing his story.
Don't be late. she said as we walked towards the kitchen door.
Okay, okay, we got it, mom, I answered for myself, my dad, and for my brother Jimmy, as we walked out the door. Of course. We had no intention of disappointing her. After all, As always. Mom was working hard to make our Thanksgiving Day dinner special.
for our family and for our guests. including this year, my new girlfriend Karen. We would absolutely be home on time for mom.
Well At least that was the plan. There was something warm and wonderful about my childhood Thanksgiving mornings. Things like the aroma of the bird that mom had prepped and placed into the oven long before I was even out of bed. already filling the house with the succulent scent of roasted turkey. and how she was busily attending to a myriad of other early morning preparations in advance of our family's feast.
Me and my brothers, Paul and Jimmy. and our sister Anne. We're extra careful to stay out of mom's way as we eagerly anticipated all of the food and goodies yet to come. especially the pies and the sugar coated peanut butter filled dates. While we were hunkered down watching the annually televised Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, How her dad would be tossing logs into the blaze that he'd lit earlier in the living room fireplace.
But one year, as Mom was busy doing all of the usual things that she did early every Thanksgiving morning. Dad, Jimmy, and I left to go cut down some trees. Dad and I had partnered with a friend in a part-time tree cutting business. Working solely for one developer, our job was to clear just one or two building lots per month. easy enough for weekend work.
That is. until we received a call the night before Thanksgiving informing us that one particular lot needed to be cleared by Saturday morning.
Now Dad suggested that we get a jump on the job by working a few hours on Thanksgiving morning and then finishing up the next day. While I wasn't overly enthusiastic about the idea, Dad's plan had merit. Reluctantly, We agreed to forego any previously planned television parade viewing. to go play in the woods. Uh That, as it turned out, was our first mistake.
The lot to be cleared was off a small, hard-packed path at the end of a narrow, paved road. The work itself was straightforward. Drop a tree. Chip the brush. Pile the logs.
Repeat. We worked fast, and you know what? Dad was right. Within a few hours, the trees were down. Keeping a watchful eye on the hour, and satisfied that we could easily make it home by one, we decided to load our big old rack bodied relic of a truck the Beast, as we called it, with as much of the wood that we had just cut down as time would allow.
My brother Jimmy maneuvered the beast along the path, stopping every so often for loading, and when the truck could hold no more, he continued up the path, around a bend, and out of sight, looking for a place to safely turn around. But as luck would have it, There wasn't one.
So he came back. all the way back. to the just cleared lot. In reverse. Um We decided that rather than backing the beast all the way out to the paved road, Jimmy would be better off to just jockey the truck back and forth a few times, a couple of small turns, just enough so he could turn the beast around and then we could all go home.
This, however, turned out to be mistake number two.
Okay. Our plan, while good in theory, failed miserably in execution because the moment the rear tires left the stability of the hard-packed path, They sank. Completely. We should have just left the truck right there. possibly returning after dinner.
or better yet, the next day. Because either would have been a better choice. Unfortunately, neither. was what we chose. we decided to free the beast.
Mistake No. 3. We emptied all of the just loaded logs, attached tow chains to our sunken beast and to the other two trucks, and then, ever so slowly, We pulled our faithful friend out of its muddy confines to freedom.
Okay. But there was little room for celebration. I happened to notice the hour. It was already after two, our final and most unforgivable mistake. We arrived home not long afterwards, and just as I feared.
Mom was utterly annoyed with her mud covered late arriving weekend wood cutters. We quickly cleaned up for dinner, and it was finally served sometime after three. More than an hour late, Aside from saying grace, and the occasional request to pass one of the food laden plates and platters around the table, It was an awfully awkward and quiet Thanksgiving dinner. In the end, I guess you could say that everything worked out because by the time the leftovers were brought back out for round two later that night, Mom had mostly forgiven us.
Some years later, and as she was recalling that memorable holiday fiasco with Jimmy's fiancé Pat, I was told that she did so with sort of a smile. By the way, that girl I invited to our infamous holiday family feast.
Well Apparently, the events of that day weren't enough to scare her off because these days, on Thanksgiving morning, Karen can be found attending to a myriad of early morning preparations in advance of our family's feast, while I'm tossing logs into the blaze that I'd lit earlier in our family room fireplace. And of course, I still eagerly anticipate all of the food and goodies yet to come. especially the pies and the sugar-coated peanut butter-filled dates, while hunkered down, still watching the annually televised Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. And when it's time for dinner, You can be sure of this. I am not going to be late.
Ever. I promise. An awfully awkward Thanksgiving. Here. On our American story.
This is Lee Habib, host of Our American Stories. Every day on this show, we tell stories of history, faith, business, love, loss, and your stories. Send us your stories, small or large, to our email, oas at ouramericanstories.com. That's oas at ouramericanstories.com. We'd love to hear them and put them on the air.
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Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first. Yeah. Um There.
The last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that... Are you freshes? Want Black Friday prices without the crowds? Lowe's gets it.
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