Thanksgiving in Pattaya
There was no Thanksgiving in Pattaya. No parade. No turkey. No football. I drank with my English friends at Soi 6 and came home at a decent hour to eat toasted multi-grain bread with brie. I gave thanks for my daughter’s health, my not dying in September’s motorcycle crash, and my wife not having a temper tantrum. Being up country helps her anger management.
Yesterday was quite different in America, where the country traditionally commemorates Pilgrims’ gratitude to the local Indians lessons in food-gathering, especially those of Squanto who helped the religious refugees survive that first year in Plymouth. In response to this unexpected aid the settlers held a 3-day feast for thier neighbors. The holiday was made official in 1789 by George Washington, although Squanto’s tribe had long vanished from Massechusetts.
Dead Indians don’t celebrate Thanksgiving.
Still every 4th Thursday of November Americans travel by train, plane, and car to feast with friends and family on turkey and all the fixings. Once their bellies expand to a girth of near-explosion, the men watch a meaningless football game; usually the Detroit Lions versus The New York Jets in a stupor mimicking a boa who has swallowed a goat. Women repair to the kitchen.
Being male I have no idea what they do other than clean dishes and pots. Younger children are happy to gorge themselves on pies, while their older siblings sullen vow to not end up like their parents.
Like all holiday the situation is prime for a good argument.
Last year my father cautioned my plump 20 year-old niece that she wouldn’t lose weight if she ate any more pie. Sensitive about her size she broke into tears. My older brother demanded an apology. My father adamantly said he was only telling the truth. My brother told him to leave the house. My father obliged him and also drove across the lawn rather than wait for anyone to get their car out of the driveway.
I would have really like to have seen his tires plowing furrows in the grass, except I was in Thailand. No turkey last year either.
The only fight I got into yesterday was with Mint, who told me that she had a new boyfriend and he was taking her to Bangkok for a week. I wished her luck. She didn’t like the idea that I wasn’t jealous or huang. She called me several names.
None of them were turkey.
Google Goggle Hey Goggle Hey to paraphrase the Ramones.
Max’s Kansas City had turkey dinner for the punk orphans during the late-70s.
Free too.
Beer half-price.
For a related article click on this URL
http://www.mangozeen.com/a-bark-better-than-a-bite-short-story.htm
