Thanksgiving memories

As a young man, I embraced Thanksgiving as my favorite holiday. It wasn't a family holiday but a holiday of friendship. For a decade, roughly the mid-60s to mid-70s, a core of half a dozen couples in L.A. gathered together each Thanksgiving to feast, party and make music, many of us being folk musicians. Even when some of us left California (I headed up to Oregon for grad school), the tradition continued. Indeed, one of the more memorable Thanksgivings was hosted by my best buddy Dick and his wife in San Jose, "Sally" and I coming south from Oregon, a bunch of folks coming north from L.A. These out-of-state gatherings lasted several days. Much food was eaten, much drink consumed, from Ramos fizzes in the morning to beer through the day and wine with dinner, much food eaten, much music made. An incredible amount of laughter lit up the entire day. We were a loud laughing, boisterous bunch! Man, those are great memories. (The tradition on a lesser scale continues to this day in L.A. with several of the original participants still gathering.)


Here is a short story that begins on Thanksgiving, The Epistemological Uncle, which appeared in Whirlwind in 1994 (with embarrassing typo Palousse), one of the last stories I wrote. The title character is based on one of Dick's uncles. His "Do you really know?" antics inspired the story, which ends up being a rather traditional coming-of-age story.