I thought I’d title this “Gobble Gobble” since that’s how my friend Richard titled his email greeting this morning. Then the “gobbledy-gook” came to me, and because I don’t know why I even know such a phrase (going waaay back to childhood), I ran it through Merriam Webster. This is what came up: wordy and generally unintelligible jargon.

Big help, eh?

The smell of the roasting turkey has got the dogs excited. Well, me too. I use a big Nesco electric roaster - might have been my mom’s, but I’m not sure. This is the only thing I’ve ever used it for; it lives on a closet shelf the other 364 days of the year. I’m not sure when I started baking the turkey upside down, so it would baste itself, but it works well. The breast (my least favorite part) is much juicier, and since I don’t eat the white meat, I don’t care what it looks like. My favorite part of the turkey is the crispy skin. I pull it away, salt the underside, roll it up, and chomp away. As far as I’m concerned, that’s all I need, turkey-wise.

Today I’ve got 10 friends coming, and they’re bringing everything that isn’t turkey, gravy, or stuffing. I’m jazzed.

Once again, as I always do, I’m listening to the best public radio station in the country - WNCW in Spindale, NC. Every Thanksgiving Day, they play songs about food all day, including at noon, the long version of Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant Thanksgiving Day Massacree. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s him telling the story (playing guitar, which you can sing along with, if you don’t mind waiting until it comes around again - inside joke; sorry) about how he was arrested and taken to jail for putting an envelope with his name under a pile of garbage he took from his friend Alice’s restaurant to dump somewhere. Alice lived in an old church and never took out the garbage; just dumped it where the pews had been. Long story, but worth the time.

On the highway between Burnsville and Mars Hill, there is a church that has been abandoned for years. If I could remember to buy a lottery ticket and win half a million or so, I totally would buy the property, open a restaurant, and call it Alice’s. Everybody who came would eat free on Thanksgiving. Meanwhile, I offer my T-day guests Arlo’s song, as I’ve got the CD. But today, the feast is at 2:30, so I’m going to listen to it on the radio in a few minutes, then take a nap. Hope I wake up before people get here.

I’ve had as many as 22 people here before for Thanksgiving - putting tables together that ran through the front room arches. But yesterday, I rolled the Gregory family table with 4 leaves, which accommodated 13 of us when I was a kid, into the front room. This morning I learned we had someone drop out, but I don’t feel like moving it back into the kitchen.

I do feel, however, like taking a nap, which I will do as soon as I hear Arlo’s song/story in a few minutes.

Happy Thanksgiving, y’all! I think I’ll donate the baster to the Humane Society thrift store…

Lucy