Chapter 280

Thursday was upon us, Thanksgiving Day - everyone brought a covered dish of some kind to the gym for all the employees and gym regulars to enjoy. Dad and Jason had cooked two turkeys to be sure there would be enough.

All the tables and chairs we had stacked in the garage were carried over to the gym in back of Dad's pickup truck, assisted by all the able bodied men to load and unload them.

All the employees at Morton Field were invited and came along to.

Lisa and Mom made all the specialty foods. There was the usual candied sweet potatoes gravy and dressing, along with apple, mince meat, chocolate and lemon pies. We had a feast.

We were going to do this all over again for just family and friends tomorrow at the house. Lisa and Mom had made plenty and separated it into two equal portions. All those refrigerators came in handy.

Friday morning Frank called to ask if he could bring a couple of friends and acquaintances with him and his wife.

"Sure, we have plenty of food," I replied. And we did; Lisa, Mom and we girls had cooked more of anything we thought we would be short on. The guests were going to carry home leftovers for sure.

Marcy had bought plenty of those cheap plastic food containers. Three meals of turkey and leftovers were enough. We were going to have to spend extra hours on the gym floor as it was.

We had a big guest list and by 11 they were arriving. Some came early to help set everything up. The extra help was nice; it was even better that they did not need continuous direction. There is only so much that you can do with table and chair arraignments. It doesn't really matter where you put the salt, pepper and napkins on the table as long as there are enough of them there.

We had several of those multi crock pot food heaters for the hot foods, much larger crock pots for larger volume foods and coolers with beverages of all kinds.

The judge, his wife, Jason, Lisa, Joey, the North six and their families, Jeanna and both her secretaries came. Marlene and Crash were playful as ever. Marlene was in her late 40's or early 50's and she was dressed to play like she was 30 and still wild. I wondered how she acquired the daddy complex in the first place.

Frank arrived with his family, Eric and his wife with Mable tagging along. His guest turned out to be no other than Amy Lockerman and her husband Allen. Allen looked like he was a sub in the dom/sub games. He was always looking down at the floor unless spoken to with his hands always behind him or to his sides. Either that or he was extremely shy.

Lisa said grace and everyone took a plate and the feast began. It was easy to tell when people had food; it got quiet, the only thing heard was occasionally someone asking for salt or pepper or to pass this or that. It stayed that way for an hour or so before chairs were being pushed away from the table with grunts and groans.

The tables were cleared - the china quality paper plates filled the trash cans. The real forks, spoons and knives joined the dirty glasses in the dishwashers.

The deserts were brought out and put on the tables - to more grunts and groans - with another stack of paper plates and plastic forks. Along with the desert came the fellowship of family and friends the things that made us strong and kept us together.