Good Day DU (November 25, 2021)

[EarlG]

Today in History: November 25

------------------------------------

Question of the Day: What's your best/worst Thanksgiving story?

------------------------------------

Today's milestones: Congratulations to the following active DU members!

Anniversaries
Snellius (20 years), Withywindle (17 years), paparush (17 years), lildDemz (12 years), Yorkist (6 years), Funtatlaguy (6 years), CalArkLiberal (1 year), Abolish_EC_YN (1 year), HUAJIAO (1 year)

Posting milestones
None today

New members who posted for the first time
Monohull

[Ocelot II]

1. The time my SIL accidentally set the heinous sweet potato/marshmallow casserole on fire.

You have to put that vile concoction under the broiler to melt the marshmallows, and somehow they caught fire and the marshmallows turned all black, rendering the mess even more inedible than usual. I LMAO, which seriously annoyed my SIL (who doesn't like me anyhow). But I wasn't a bit sorry.

[Nittersing]

2. "Great stuffing, Mom!"

When I was about 10yo, Mom forgot the stuffing and thus began the decades long tradition of hollering, "Great stuffing Mom!" at any and all occasions that deemed it appropriate (or not).

Happy Thanksgiving to Earl and all of DU.

🦃🦃🦃🦃🦃

[Wicked Blue]

3. Oatmeal, dish washing and angry poodles

Way back when I was a high school senior in 1968, my parents and younger brother decided to go to a diner for Thanksgiving dinner. Foolishly, I thought diners weren't classy enough, and refused to go. Besides which I was planning to make a little money washing dinner dishes for a neighbor.

First I walked a couple of miles to watch my high school's football game against their main rivals. Then I walked home in the freezing cold, changed clothes and went to the neighbors. Little had I realized that they had enjoyed a huge Italian feast with many courses and many plates. It took much longer than I expected, all for a lousy $2. I hoped they would offer me a bite of their leftovers, but no such luck.

Instead, I was treated to their large, horrible, untrained standard poodle slobbering around my legs, wanting to lick the plates and trying to trip me while I carefully handled the expensive china.

My whole family hated that dog. It woke us up early on weekend mornings with loud barking, and ran loose in the neighborhood. My brother and I used to hurl buckets of water at the dog or aim the hose on it when it barked at 6 am on a Saturday.

After doing all those dishes and collecting my minuscule pay, I went home to a cold, empty house. There was nothing to eat and I was exhausted, so I fixed a packet of instant oatmeal for Thanksgiving dinner, and ate it with tears rolling down my eyes.

[Fla Dem]

4. Happy Thanksgiving to you Earl G, and all DU'ers

[Aristus]

5. Thanksgiving, 1990.

I was stationed with the Army in Kitzingen, Germany. My unit was deployed to Bremerhaven, a port on the North Sea, to begin shipping tanks and other military vehicles from Europe to the Gulf, where Operation Desert Shield was underway. Although my unit worked from the port, we were still considered part of Desert Shield. It was my regiment's first operational mission since the Vietnam War.

We were combined with other units working 12 hours on, 12 hours off, six days on, one day off. We received the trains that brought the vehicles from U.S. Army posts and supply depots from across Germany. We got them off the rail cars and either drove them directly onto the cargo ships, or parked them in huge motor pools to await the arrival of available ships.

I worked night shift. Thanksgiving Day arrived with little fanfare. But as I got off duty that morning, I went over to the chow hall, which was serving traditional Thanksgiving dishes around the clock that day. So my Thanksgiving dinner was actually breakfast. I ate in the warm, dry, pleasant chow hall, listened to holiday music on the radio, watched the sun come up out the window, and enjoyed both being off work, and the feeling of taking part in an historic event.

For most of the rest of that day and for a few days after, the wives of locally-stationed NCO's and officers came by the gymnasium where our quarters had been set up, bringing with them cakes, cookies, and other sweet treats to give to the guys.

It was an amazing time.

When our work finally ended, and we were bussed home, I thought my part in the war of my generation was over.

A month later, I got orders to deploy to Saudi Arabia.