Happy Thanksgiving WEbookers! In the spirit of coming together and sharing, we invite you to write a short Thanksgiving story (in the comments section below) Fiction or non-fiction (you can leave it ambiguous, if you’d like), happy or sad, funny or serious, it’s up to you, as long as it is somehow related to family, friends and giving thanks.
To kick things off, I’m going to share an almost entirely true story about my family at Thanksgiving. Names have been changed to protect my dear relatives.
November 25, 2004—The Thankful Leaf
My family is a serious group. Almost all of them are doctors, lawyers, or finance professionals. Because of their serious jobs, they tend to have very serious conversations. There’s lots of talk about mergers and interests rates, Medicare and malpractice insurance, torts and depositions…
I have absolutely no frame of reference with which to join into any of these conversations, so over the years I’ve mastered appearing interested while actually having private day-dreams.
My Uncle Frank, on the other hand, has been unable to adopt this strategy. He makes jokes constantly (nobody laughs), starts conversations about racy things (which he carries on alone), and generally doesn’t fit in with the accepted tone of our dinners.
Even though we are a professional family, each year my sentimental aunt cuts leaves out of multi-colored construction paper and asks us to write what we are thankful for. Almost all of our entries have something to do with the undying love and support of family, the success of respective children in their educational endeavors, and overall happiness and well-being.
Uncle Frank thought otherwise this year. During the leaf-writing time, he planted himself next to my youngest cousin, Sally, and assisted her with the leaf. The time came to read them aloud. One by one each of us stood up, and shared with the family.
“My son John’s early acceptance into law school,” Uncle George said proudly.
“The fact that everyone got here safely to share this lovely dinner,” said Aunt Susan.
And around we went. When it came time for Sally to read her leaf, she boldly shot up from her chair, cleared her throat, and enunciated herself with stellar clarity: “I am most thankful for the agreeable consistency of my morning bowel movements!”
There was a pause. Uncle Frank’s was trying not to burst out laughing. I wanted to maintain my face of concentration. Then, my grandfather let out a chuckle, and Sally’s father and mother, and before I knew it, the entire table was in an uproar, slapping each other’s backs and pounding the table. It was the most I’d ever heard my family laugh. Sally was beaming. Uncle Frank’s joke was a little inappropriate, but we all laughed together and I will always be thankful for that memory.
Ok, that’s it! Hope it stirred some ideas around. Feel free to share anything that comes to mind, and have a funny Thanksgiving!
-- Brian (the new WEbook intern)
Sign up for WEbook today and start reading, writing, and feedbacking.
I was about 13 or 14 years old when this happened. It was after the Thanksgiving meal and now the pies were being pulled out. Of course, there were pumpkin and apple pies. My mom had made the pumpkin and my aunt made the apple. My aunt is famous for her for her apple pies. They’re delicious and everyone looks forward to them.
Naturally, everyone got some dessert and gathered around the table once more. My cousin and my younger sister were sitting beside me, shoving the apple pies down their throat. I then noticed as they ate, their faces twisted into disgust.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“The pie doesn’t taste good,” my cousin said. “It tastes salty.”
“Yeah,” my sister agreed. “It does.”
Whoever was eating apple pie agreed with them. Word got to my aunt. She got a piece of her pie and took a bite. Her face turned white.
“I put salt on top of the pie instead of sugar! I got them mixed up!”
I was very thankful to be eating pumpkin pie at the moment. But if I remember correctly, everyone just peeled away the crust and ate the remaining pie. My aunt was very embarrassed, but we all told her that it was fine. However, to this day, everyone will often joke around about the year of salty apple pies.
Moral of the story: Do not get your salt and sugar mixed up!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Posted by: Katie J. | November 25, 2009 at 10:51 AM
Wow... this one is pretty embarrassing (luckily it wasn't me!). Anyway, about three or four years ago my whole family gathered into one of my aunts' teeny homes and had our traditional Thanksgiving meal. As everyone was about to dig into their food. The adults table in the dining room suddenly had an unexpected noise occur from underneath the table (if you know what I mean). My aunt had the worst habit of laughing really hard-and guess what, she did- and...cut-the-cheese pretty loudly. Now, my grandfather who is VERY strict, was sitting right next to her and just kept on eating his food like nothing happened-his face in total surprise. He hasn't come back for a Thanksgiving dinner since then. Yet, can't say the same for my aunt who still 'cuts cheese' every year....
Posted by: Talia L. | November 25, 2009 at 11:45 PM