Television Interview, Thanksgiving

Well, that was interesting. Two men came over to our apartment with two good-size cases. In one was a television camera, in the other was a big rectangular light. I wore a lavender blouse, my new purple shawl, and my new lavender straw hat – I know, I know, it’s after Labor Day and straw is over. But I just love that hat, so I wore it anyway.

They set up in our living room, in front of our floor-to-ceiling shelves of books, and for forty-five minutes I was thrown some very nice “softball” questions about my writing. Did I ever use real people in my books? Did I like my covers? Who is my favorite character? It was very pleasurable.

Then we did a segment on my hats. I tried on several hats and they took brief videos of them. I put some hats on the dining room table and they panned across them. That was fun.

Then came the bad news: All this is going to be severely cut into a five-minute presentation! I’m looking forward with some trepidation to the result.

But then came the good news: This is going to be put up on Face Book. Yay! I can’t wait.

We’re going to do something this Thanksgiving I’ve never done in my life: eat out. Oh, okay, while I was in the Navy I ate in the mess hall. But that is not the same thing. At all. We’re going to brunch at my sister-in-law’s house which will probably last until noon or close to it, then at five we’re going to a nice restaurant for a turkey dinner. It felt really strange when I went grocery shopping yesterday and walked past the bins of frozen turkeys and the canned-good shelves of sweet potatoes and kidney beans (I make a killer kidney bean salad just twice a year, at Easter and Thanksgiving) and didn’t even take a good look. But a friend at water aerobics said I was going to love dining out. She’s been doing it for years and wouldn’t have it any other way. So I wonder if this isn’t the start of a new tradition.

I remember many years ago I was working a stressful job and wasn’t looking forward to the annual gathering of my family for Thanksgiving – my five siblings had young, noisy children and were often rubbing up against one another in unhappy ways. So I did a very selfish thing: I didn’t go. I stayed in my small, quiet apartment. I cooked half a turkey breast, made a salad, and watched “Miracle on 34th Street” on commercial-free public television, just me and the cat. It was heaven, a gentle, refreshing break I needed badly.

What’s your Thanksgiving tradition? What’s your favorite Thanksgiving dish? What’s your favorite Thanksgiving memory?