What's your most memorable Thanksgiving - good or bad?

[skygazer]

Mine was in 1978 or 79 - I had hitchhiked out to Oklahoma from Vermont on a whim. My sister was working as a trucker and I rode with her and her partner for about a week until we got busted with an unauthorized rider (me) in the truck. They sent me back to Okie City to their apartment while they continued.

It was boring and lonely. The apartment complex wasn't near anything interesting. One day I went to the little corner store and got a Swanson Turkey TV dinner for my evening meal. I turned on the TV and the newscaster was just saying "Happy Thanksgiving!" - I hadn't even realized what day it was. I looked down at that miserable little tray of quasi-turkey and stuffing and didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

It sucked pretty bad. I hitched home shortly after that.

How about you?

[DarkTirade]

1. Most memorable for me would probably be the one where everyone got the plague.

Seriously, one sick relative and suddenly EVERYBODY was sick. My brother and I were the only ones who made it through unscathed for some reason. Everybody else was throwing up every five minutes. My stepbrother was one of the last to catch it, and right when he was in mid-sentance, talking about how he wasn't sick at all, suddenly he threw up.

It was also memorable because our family had gotten so big by then that there was no place to hold us all... and we all managed to make it that year. So my aunt found an old abandonded christian summer campground that had just been fixed up enough to start renting a couple of the buildings again. We only rented the couple of buildings that had been fixed up, one barracks-type room for the kids to sleep in, and then the building with the kitchen in the downstairs and the bedrooms upstairs for the grownups. But we got curious and climbed through a few windows to check out the rest of the place. The soap in the dispensers in the chapel bathroom had been in there for at least 20 years, untouched. It had dried out to a weird thick consistancy. :P We also found some old religious pamphlets and stuff in there.

[littlebit]

2. So last year

my beagle woke me up howling and whining really loud. She had tried to jump off the couch and broke both of her front legs. While we were at the emergency vet we got a call from my girlfriends dad. His crackhead son had left his children with him and taken off the night before with her dad's car. He had been gone for about 16 hours at that point. When we got done at the vet we took the beagle home and went looking for the crackhead. We found him after about five hours of looking. He was at one of his usual crack hangouts. We got the keys to the car and left him and his sorry wife there. A few hours later he showed up over at his dads house. We were still over there and I wasn't in the mood for any of his crap. He started running his mouth accusing me of stealing his doritos. So I tackled him and went to beating the crap out of him. By the time girlfriends dad pulled me off of him I had tore him up pretty good. His wife called the cops on me. When they got there they arrested me and he went to the hospital. I got to spend the night in jail but I felt like it was worth it.

[RandomThoughts]

3. What about the beagle?

was he OK?

[littlebit]

4. She is fine.

She had little casts on her front legs for about a month. She still walks with a limp sometimes. But for the most part she is ok.

[RandomThoughts]

5. Great!

:) That would be rough on a dog, having the cast and all, glad she is ok :)

[Aristus]

6. Thanksgiving, 1990. I was in Bremerhaven, Germany as part of Operation Desert Shield.

Working 12 hours on, 12 hours off in the rail and shipyards, loading tanks, trucks, APCs, Humvees, and artillery pieces from U.S. bases onto the cargo ships bound for Saudi Arabia.

Crazy-busy time. I got off shift at about six a.m. on Thanksgiving Day. The chow hall at the Army post there (I think it was Karl Schurtz Kasern, but I'm not 100% sure) served an incredible breakfast for us. We ate good hot food in a cheery setting. I called home to wish everybody a good holiday, then went back to the post gym, set up as a makeshift barracks. I crashed for a good nine hours or so. Then went back to the chow hall for a magnificent Thanksgiving feast.

Then, that night, back to work...

A very memorable Thanksgiving. Not the best or the worst. Just memorable.

Two months later, I was ordered to the Gulf...

[Fleshdancer]

7. I think I just experienced my best Tday today

Celebrating a very American holiday with people from other countries is fun. We had guests from the UK, Hong Kong, and Kazakhstan over tonight...we all ate too much turkey and we're all in love with the Obama family. :D The evening was filled with great food and wine, and wonderful company and conversation.

The only way to top this Tday is to build a self cleaning kitchen or win the lottery.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

8. My best friend from childhood

We'd been out of touch for years, and then we found each other again at a high school reunion. We'd both been through hard times, and when Thanksgiving rolled around, he invited me to come with him to his parents' house. They were getting older, and he said it was an opportunity we couldn't miss.

It was small and perfect. His mother and father did all the cooking - they'd been in the restaurant business - and, just for the day, it was like we were those same little kids again. We talked about the old times, growing up times for us, and they told us stories we'd never heard. It transported me and Jimmy. It was magical, and his parents were as wonderful as they'd been when we were little kids playing in their backyard or mine.

They're both gone now, but I have the photographs I took that day, I have the memories. It was the chance of a lifetime, to go back one last time, to take one last look, to remember, to be thankful.

[Oeditpus Rex]

9. 1975, I think it was

I was kneeling in the driveway, polishing my '66 Chevy's wheels, when all of a sudden the car started coming toward me.



Earthquake near Coalinga — 5.4, if I recall correctly.

[Tripper11]

10. Nov 27th 2002...my stem cell transplant

to kill my leukemia once and for all. My parents brought T-Day to the hospital and we did it up alright! My wife and kids and my brother who donated his cells for me....
But by far, the most memorable!

[Breeze54]

11. Probably the year I spent T-Day with total strangers....

They were co-workers and I was new in state and totally away from any of my family.

I was invited to dinner at their house and it was a good day! :D

Later on, they let me use the phone at their house to 'check in' with my family.

It was a weird day for me but pleasant and a very new experience. Nov. 1984