Courtesy of the Library of Congress
This year most of us had our Thanksgiving meal without cousins, uncles, aunts, and grandmothers around the table. I recall in 2011 we invited a female undergrad from the college where my wife and I are Profs. She brought along a friend from high school. These were two African-Americans undergrads come from the Southeast. One attended Babson the other a historically black college and university (HBCU) also in the South East. The two decided to spend the holiday together at Babson which had been abandoned as most students went home for the Thanksgiving Day holiday. Most profs have a tremendous amount of grading to do around Thanksgiving. My wife and I are no different. Thus we decided to have our Thanksgiving Day dinner at a restaurant and let somebody else do the shopping, prepping, cooking, serving, and dishes. While we enjoyed the meal we went around the table and shared what we're thankful for. The words of two dinner guests moved and inspired me to write this story. They said they had never eaten in such a nice restaurant in their lives. They seemed uncomfortable with the prices when we first received our menus but we quickly assured them that we would be treating and glad to do so. They seemed excited about the gorgeous table arrangements, baskets of warm freshly baked French baguettes served with butter, creamy and delicious pumpkin soup, perfectly baked bass with garnishes, and pumpkin cheesecake with vanilla ice cream on top for dessert. The excellent service and the pampering they received from the wait staff they thoroughly enjoyed. The scene reminded of the stark contrast of my grandmother who struggled to put food on the table during the Great Depression. Now I contrast it with Thanksgiving during this 2020 pandemic.
Editor Dr. Frederick Douglass Opie. Follow Dr Opie and share a link to the series
