The Key West citizen., 1954-11-25
Hal
BoyI Ie
SSay IS


and his wife entered the restau-
rant, sat down at a table for two,
and ordered the Thanksgiving Day
special dinner, price 81 including
choice of dessert.
.'Not very many people here"
said his wife.
''Ummm," replied her husband.
knowing in advance the way the
conversation might turn. He looked
at her worriedly as she ate her
appetizer in silence.
''It feels strange eating =
Thanksgiving dinner in a restau-
rant" she said.
"Yes, we've never done that be-
fore"
"oh, yes we did-the first year
we were married. Don't you re-
member? / can remember every
thing about it. We ate at that lit
tie place around the corner from
our apartment. The dinner was
$1.25 each, the turkey was UNDER
done, and you spilled some gravy
on your new suit and got very
angry"
He marveled again, as he had
so many times during their mar
riage, at the terrible retentiveness
of her memory-the thousands Of
little details about their life to-
gether she held imprinted indelibly
in her mind, and would never let
60.
The waiter brought the plates Of
turkey then, and the husband
watched as his wife, lost In rev.
erie, toyed at 1t with her fork.
"Try the turkey, dear, it's really
pretty good" he said, and then as
he saw the look on her face, he
added hastily, that is, consider
ing it was cooked in restau-
rant"
But she only pecked at 1t absent
mindedly.
"I should think, after all these
years of cooking Thanksgiving dim
ners, you'd be glad of a chance to
escape all that bother" he. up-
braided her gently. Anyway, We
can't expect the children to come
home every year. They've got their
own family responsibilities"
ats just that / feel lost without
them," she said. "But Of course L
wouldn't have made sense for US
to travel such long distance just
to spend weekend with either
Jim or Sis" 7sr
Then both fell silent, unwilling
to admit even to each other the
injury they felt that neither Of
their children, Jim or Sis, had
written to ask them to come.
The waiter came TO. take the
plates away and asked, SIS there
anything wrong with the turkey"
"0h, no." she said. cts very
good. It's just that I'm not very
hungry"
| The husband called the waiter
aside and whispered an order TO
him.
"Do you know which Thanks
giving I cooked for the most peo-
ple?" said the wife. "Well, il was
in 1926. We had a 22-pound turkey
and there were Is people all told.
My, what a time that was. The
Browns brought their little boy
along, and three days later he
came down with the measles, and
/ was frightened to death that Sue
and Jim had caught them, too"
Warmed by the heartfire oi
reminiscing, she ate every bit oI
her dessert-pumpkin pie and Va.
nilla ice cream. Then she looked
up startled as the smiling waiter
arrived with a bottle of chilled
champagne and popped out the
cork.
"Surprise!" said her husband.
Eve never had champag gne be.
fore for Thanksgiving" she said,
Pleased, picking up the cork.
"Well, the only way to stay
young is to do new things" b.
said.
: They lifted their bubbling glass
es and tinkled them lightly to
gether.
ITO you, mother!"
"You, Dad!"
But as he looked at his wife,
. . grey eyes-eyes that now matches
her hair-he saw them flood sud
denly and overflow, and quicl
. tears run down her cheeks. TX
keep from crying himself, b,
tried to count her tears. But the,
ceased as suddenly as they ha,
started. She wiped her eyes, ant
. they finished the champagne il
silence.
"Now let's 60 home" she said
and she gave him a smile of time
less love and reached over an,
patted his hand.
II think I'll keep the champaign
: cork for a souvenir. No, won
4 either. I'll mail it to one of tn
y children so that they'll know, eve
though We missed not being wit
5 them, We had fine Thanksgiving.
5 That's right" said her hus
: band. They're probably worry