The Thanksgiving Turkey (and others) Take a Ride !
by Melissa
(Napa, CA)
The Thanksgiving Turkey (and others) take a Ride!
This happened many years ago when my husband was a young boy, maybe 6 years old. I need to mention before this story that my husband's mother contracted polio when she was 6 months pregnant with her second child, my husband. As a result of this, she was paralyzed in her legs and was in a wheel chair from the time that my husband an infant. It is a bit of a different childhood reality to be the child of someone with a disability.
It is also important to point out that there is no need to feel sorry for this amazing woman. She managed to raise 3 children on her own from this very same chair. And this was long before anything like the American Disabilities Act. Currently, she is with her fourth husband and the real love of her life (she remarried at 65!) living in the backwoods of California about to celebrate her 84th birthday.
Anyway, Thanksgiving Regent Street circa 1960.
It was a big party as Kurt tells it. Quite a lot of people and some family and of course all the Thanksgiving Day goodies of favorite foods of all kinds. And of course. . . The Turkey.
Along the line of boys being boys (and remember Kurt was only 6 at the time.)
The moment arrives, the theatrical entrance of mom with the turkey fresh from the kitchen as all the guests eagerly wait. As they wheel into the dining area Kurt is pushing mom in the chair, with the turkey handsomely displayed on a platter resting on a tray that is attached to the chair.
Kurt in his boyish exuberance jumps on the back of the chair as he loves to do to catch a little ride as they make their entrance. Surprise, surprise, Gravity takes over and whooosh everything goes ass over tea kettle as the turkey flies up in the air. The chair and Marjorie and Kurt fall over backward with Marjorie trapped in her chair by the fixed tray and Kurt trapped under the chair by the chair and the weight of his mother. To a shocked and disbelieving group the turkey makes its getaway landing on the floor and making a graceful and greasy exit back to the kitchen floor.
No harm, no foul (no pun intended). No one was hurt. Everyone had even more to be thankful for than moments before. No injuries, entertainment that could have never been planned. And yes of course, after a little cleaning, a wonderful Turkey dinner.
