Thankful on Thanksgiving

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Thanksgiving 2008 I rejoined my extended family and for that I am thankful. For complex medical reasons it had been three years since I joined my cousins, their families, my nieces and brother for a family get-together on a holiday.

My cousins, brothers and I are in our 50’s and 60’s. All our parents have died leaving us as the patriarchs of the family. We are no longer “the kids”. We refer to one another’s children as “the kids”. And some of those kids have kids of their own. A couple of my cousins are also grandparents. Wow – what a time warp from the days at Aunt Millie’s.

When we were the kids, Aunt Millie & Uncle Harry usually hosted Thanksgiving. The uncles played cards and watched football. Ping pong was the hot game and some of us were pretty good at it. Roger comes to mind. Sometimes one or two of the uncles would take on the kids. Uncle Dave and Uncle Bobby come to mind.

Our grandparents, Morris and Ida, had 5 children: Mildred, Sidney, Evelyn, Jerome and Sharon. All were raised in New York City. Their absence around the table is always sorely missed.

Mildred, Jerome, Sidney, Evelyn (front) - circa mid-1920's

Grandpa Morris - NYC's Amsterdam Avenue @ 124th Street - early 20th C.

I am grateful to have spent Thanksgiving with Randy, Paige, Jenna, Gene, Mark, Camilla, Beau, Dean, Barbro, Johannes, Oscar, Carol, Bob, Ricky, Danny, Ellen, Kim, and my partner Jorge. We missed Matt, Judi, Richard, Alene, Roger, Dustin, Lauri, Allan, AJ, Elyse, Artie, Chris, and Kathryn.

To my full extended family – I look forward to seeing all of you as my health improves.

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